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In recent weeks, several companies have tweaked the free tiers of their products, from Slack and Otter.ai to Google Meet and Heroku. This ties into a crucial question for freemium companies: when should you start charging? And does that look different in a recession? Let’s investigate. — Anna
No time for freebies?
Oh, how things have changed.
You are already used to this on The Exchange, whether we are talking about public markets, venture capital or macroeconomic indicators. But now there’s another sign of the times: Free levels are getting less generous.
An email I received from Google made it clear that we are in a very different mindset than when the pandemic started. “To help us all stay connected,” the email read, “two years ago we offered the premium version of Google Meet to everyone and announced that we would temporarily not enforce the 1-hour time limit for group meetings. Starting this month, group meetings with three or more participants will be limited to 1 hour.”
To host longer group meetings on Google Meet, you’ll need to sign up for a paid subscription. In other words, Google is cutting back on its generosity.
