关键词: 免费增值, Hotelling模型, 网络效应, 功能限制型免费试用

Abstract: The experiential characteristic and network effect of software make firms often provide consumers free basic products to build large installed base, and make profits from premium products or services. Existing freemium related research is more confined to the monopoly situation, and seldom analyzes the competitive interaction between firms. Considering the network effect of software and consumers’ heterogeneous preferences for products, we build a Hotelling model to examine the equilibrium freemium strategies of duopoly firms, and possible influencing factors. The results show that: if the network effect of the software is relatively strong, both firms adopt freemium strategy; if weak, neither firms adopts; otherwise, there exist two possible equilibria, “neither adopts” or “both adopt”, but in fact both firms can gain more profit in the former equilibrium. Furthermore, as consumers become more sensitive to the horizontal differentiation between firms, or consumers’ requirement of the quality of the free version increases, firms have less incentive to adopt freemium strategy, and the region of “neither adopts” expands, while the region of “both adopt” shrinks.#

Key words: freemium, hotelling model, network effect, feature-limited free trial