Can The Flexure Scrap Piracy?

I direct keep just finished Nicholas Lovell’s first-class book, The Curve.  He looks at describe organisation inwards the postal service digital Blue Planet in addition to suggests that the digital Blue Planet has reduced the value of many products to roughly zero.  This agency companies are forced to observe ways of offering additional benefits or services at vastly varying cost points inwards club to succeed.

Welcome to “The Curve”.

Put simply, the Curve plots users (x axis) against the total they are willing to pass (y axis).  There are many people who volition non pay anything (Lovell calls them ’freeloaders’) in addition to a few who volition pay a lot for a item sense (‘superfans’).  In the Curve, the bulk of profits are made yesteryear the few superfans in addition to moving people from freeloaders to superfans is the cardinal to success.

The the cardinal to the Curve is creating broad awareness of your production in addition to generating a stable fan base of operations yesteryear giving away adept character digital products for free.  This base of operations of ‘freeloaders’ tin thus endure used to accomplish the 10% of ‘superfans’ who volition pay, inwards some cases substantially more, for a premium version of the production or an associated service.

Welcome to the Curve

In Lovell’s view, “the existent threat is non piracy; it is competition… The challenge of the twenty-first century is this: sharing is slow but finding an audience is hard.”  In his view, “the long battle to struggle costless content volition bear witness to endure pointless… non because the pirates volition win but because the contest volition start to uncovering how to role costless to a greater extent than effectively.”

In the Curve world, piracy is only a marketing opportunity.   He proposes 3 linked strategies for edifice a describe organisation inwards the digital age:

1. use the spider web to observe customers; 
2. use information analytics to observe the best customers; and 
3. offer those customers a broad make of value add together ons at dissimilar cost points. 

It may non surprise readers to larn that Lovell’s background is inwards games.  He runs the successful in addition to respected GAMESbrief blog in addition to is good known every bit a consultant to the gaming community.  The freemium model has been hugely successful for the games industry, specially mobile apps.  The gaming Blue Planet has made a fairly successful transition to costless but piracy is notwithstanding a occupation fifty-fifty inwards app province for exactly the argue Lovell identifies…

3D impress your ain lemon squeezer?

Clone games split upwardly an audience in addition to dilute the number of fans.  Even if your game is free, at that topographic point is a direct chances of losing out to some other costless game which has copied you.  Lovell would likely country that this is a contest rather than a privacy direct chances but inwards this instance the 2 are interlinked.  One competition is making a huge fountain over the other yesteryear non having to invest the fourth dimension in addition to assay inwards creating an master app.   This is a item number where the yell is thus similar that users are clearly confused into downloading the wrong game.

Although the Curve is to a greater extent than relevant to digital products, Lovell does dedicate a chapter to “Make it Yourself”.  As he points out, inwards the future, what is “digital” volition endure less for sure every bit 3D printing becomes a to a greater extent than developed technology.  This is nt just a inquiry of Alessi lemon squeezers in addition to Tiffany jewellery (the 2 examples cited inwards the book).  For example, printing metallic logos, clasps in addition to other distinctive pattern features in addition to adding them to leather bags, purses etc may operate thus slow that it is something users tin practise inwards the privacy of their ain home.

Customising merchandise marks inwards a way that looks professional person may operate commonplace sowing confusion across the marketplace.
There are to a greater extent than barriers protecting the physical Blue Planet but counting on these barriers ever beingness at that topographic point may endure a error in addition to a Curve plus anti counterfeiting policy should offering the best opportunities for success.  Getting ahead of the occupation alongside a strategy to encompass 3D printing is i solution which has been successfully adopted yesteryear the likes of Nike.

Lovell convinced me of the value of a flexure strategy in addition to that piracy, inwards some circumstances, tin attention to practise novel customers.  However, I stay unconvinced that piracy is non a problem. (Perhaps this is unsurprising given my vocation!)

Bagikan Artikel ini