Research Outline

Digital Paid/Free Offerings Comparison

Goals

Drive understanding of the overall landscape of paid vs. free offerings globally by analyzing what users are willing to pay for, what digital offerings are successful in those markets, and what is expected to be free (vs. paid). This report should be global in focus and support understanding in countries including but not limited to Brazil, China, India, and Russia.

In order to do this, the report should provide top companies in various markets and a comparison of their paid and free digital offerings. Ideally the report should also include what offerings are common in those markets based on the summary (i.e., in China, it's common to pay for access to tv shows or X feature).

The report should be constrained to only the last ~2 years of offerings and the largest companies (likely tech or digital companies). Most information should be public on their websites, although prior press releases of offers that a company had but has since stopped offering should also be considered.


Early Findings

  • Revenue models include paid and free, but also "freemium". The paid revenue model dominates Southeast Asia, since a lot of young and upwardly mobile professionals are willing to pay for convenience and quality of life. The startups in Southeast Asia also have access to less VC funding and therefore need more support. However, this is risky since it takes a lot of money at the onset in order to expand, although lifetime customer value is high.
  • Freemium is usually used for B2B, or else for B2C companies that are seeking to monetize quickly. Consumers get basic functionality for free then can upgrade using a subscription fee for better features. It is usually more successful than limited-time trials. Tokopedia (Indonesia), HOOQ (Singapore) and Swingvy (Singapore) all use this.
  • Free generates revenue through advertising, and has been used by huge companies like WeChat (China) and Jio (India).
  • The top e-commerce markets (in terms of value) in the world, in descending order, are China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, South Korea, Canada, Russia and Brazil.
  • The top apps by revenue globally are Netflix, Tinder, Tencent Video, Iqiyi, Pandora Music, Kwai, YouTube, Youku, Line, and HBO Now.
  • In China, the biggest ecommerce companies are owned by Alibaba (ie Taobao, Alibaba.com, Tmall, etc.) In the US, it is dominated by Amazon and eBay. In the UK, their biggest ecommerce sites are Amazon U.K., Argos and Play.com. Japan's biggest ecommerce platform is Rakuten. Germany has Amazon, eBay and Otto, France has Odigeo and Cdiscount (Amazon is also present but is not as big as those local players), South Korea has Gmarket and Coupang, Canada has Amazon and Costco, Russa's biggest online retailers are Ulmart, Citilink and Ozon, and finally, Brazil's local players MercadoLibre and B2W are the biggest in that market.


More on Brazil

  • According to The Global State of Digital in 2019 by Hootsuite, the top apps in Brazil (based on number of active users) are Whatsapp Messenger, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Uber, Netflix, Spotify, Waze, Mercadolibre, and Banco Do Brasil .
  • The top apps in Brazil (based on revenue) are Netflix, Tinder, Playkids, Globo Play, Deezer, Google Drive, Happn, Whitebook, Linkedin, and Sing! By Smule .

More on China

  • According to The Global State of Digital in 2019 by Hootsuite, the top apps in China (based on number of active users) are WeChat, QQ, Alipay, Taobao, WiFi Master Key, Baidu, Tencent Video, Iqiyi, Amap, QQ Browser.
  • The top apps in Brazil (based on revenue) are Tencent Video, Iqiyi, Kwai, Youku, QQ, QQ Music, Momo, Xi Malaya FM, Wesing, and Tantan.