Free as a business model

Matt Baehr has posted a fascinating question in a recent post "More on free as a business model" on his blog "Blogging About Associations from a GenXer". He says:

I love this quote from the book. What if someone takes aim at your association as the incumbent and your membership dues as the product? What would you do?

Today, we know that the most disruptive way to enter a market is to vaporize the economics of existing business models. Charge nothing for a product that the incumbents depend on for their profits. The world will beat a path to your door and you can sell them something else.