How do companies make money?

byung hak song

Now a days, you get almost every information over the net at free of cost. Be it online radio, sports, news, code, solutions etc., How are these companies do make money who offer such informations at free of cost? Siva

nihadar

Two words: Banner Ads. And if you're like me and find web ads offensive, I have two more words: Ad Blocker. :)

Sameer Bhat

Siva, Well apparently most of these companies are in-fact not making money. During last year's hysteria, everyone was simply thinking about "eyeballs," expanding their viewership as widely as possible. After the big meltdown earlier this year, most of the companies are slowly (or not so slowly) eating through the funds they raised from IPOs or venture capitalists trying to figure out what the heck they do now. I read a report somewhere that 80% of the $Billions in ad revenues go to the top 10% of web sites (the Yahoo's and Altavista's of the world), so clearly selling banners isn't going to do it. Sites in the technical field, like this one, and others like ASP101 and CodeGuru do better because they get sponsorships from companies like mine (which cost more than on generic sites), and they usually run things like job placement boards for a fee. CodeGuru's owner EarthWeb makes most of their money from Dice.com, and they've started a new on-line technical book subscription service too. If you're looking for some interesting reading check out www.fuckedcompany.com for a listing of the companies that either have gone broke or will go broke soon. It's a parody on the popular venture capital magazine FastCompany

byung hak song

I understand that Banner Ads is a way of generating income. But my favourite search engine is Google but it doesn't have any advertisement. So how do such companines make money for their survival? Siva

Sameer Bhat

Siva, Here's the link to Google's advertising M.O. They sell integrated links into their search results, that display at the top of the search list. You're right though, no banners.

Lost User

Google licenses its technology to people like Yahoo, who have big bucks to spend on stuff like this

alxtraxxx

I doubt very much that someone every makes any profit with Banner Ads. According to Jakob Nielsen (here and here)only a very small percentage of really big websites (like e.g. Yahoo!) do earn real money from banner ads

Lost User

Actually, I think it works if the ad is very targeted. Chris is not paying me to say this, but I advertised on CodeProject and actually got decent response. Of course it is only part of a broader ad campaign. I choose not to advertise on CodeGuru because they were just too expensive.

jithu

Advertising is a funny thing. I'm sure most people get a ton of junk mail in their letter boxes, and many would wish their (snail) mail boxes weren't full of this crap day in, day out. However, what about the times when you get a catalogue from someone you are actually REALLY interested in (eg Gadgets R Us or something) - then it's great. Or what if there is a huge sale on stuff you actually want, and you don't get a catalogue and so miss out? Or again, what if there is a free offer on something you hadn't ever thought of using/buying? Then the ad is kinda useful. I think online ads are exactly the same - but with the added bonus that they never clog up your mail box. Maybe I'm strange but I actually like well targeted banner ads. From what I've been reading on some of the news feeds it actually looks like online advertising is increasing, not decreasing. It's certainly cheaper, and a lot easier to have it be seen by those who you feel would be interested. cheers, Chris Maunde