I actually agree that some things, maybe even more things, should be free. But not as a marketing ploy. And this system seems to go against our capitalist ideals of competition.
The most common of the economies built around free is the three-party system. Here a third party pays to participate in a market created by a free exchange between the first two parties.
There are dozens of ways that media companies make money around free content, from selling information about consumers to brand licensing, "value-added" subscriptions, and direct ecommerce
subscription model of media and is one of the most common Web business models.
Isn't it just the free sample model found everywhere from perfume counters to street corners?
the manufacturer gives away only a tiny quantity
A typical online site follows the 1 Percent Rule — 1 percent of users support all the rest.
Yahoo's pay-per-pageview banners, Google's pay-per-click text ads, Amazon's pay-per-transaction "affiliate ads," and site sponsorships were just the start.