Think Twice Before You Give Away Mobile Services

by. Matt Wilcox

Funny thing about interactive media. They’re not free. That, however, is not the funny thing. The funny thing is that, somehow, users think they’re free.

You can hardly blame them. Site after site serves up information and applications galore at no charge. The idea that someone paid millions of dollars to provide those “free” services is lost on them.

This is partly due to the fact that we’re not prescient. Had we been, we might have figured out that providing some free services would create an expectation for more free services, which would, in turn, make “free” the industry standard. And we might have foreseen that once users got it into their heads that there was no need to pay for interactive services, getting them to pay later on—and like it—would be next to impossible.

Mired in the days when there were fewer bank services on the table and loan revenue allegedly covered them all, many people haven’t adjusted to fees for checking and savings, much less more costly-to-provide financial services. Banks and credit unions that continue giving away their services enable clients to remain blissfully oblivious to the fact that providing services costs money, that someone has to pay for it, and that loan revenue alone doesn’t pick up the tab.

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