<story><title>List of Web Business Models</title><url>https://gist.github.com/ndarville/4295324</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jabelk</author><text>I was hoping for more fleshed-out examples of why the business models were good, but the list was interesting nonetheless.&lt;p&gt;My two personal-favorite business models are (in no particular order): Tesla and Miley Cyrus.&lt;p&gt;Tesla: evident if you&amp;#x27;re familiar with it (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-plan-just-between-you-and-me&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.teslamotors.com&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;secret-tesla-motors-master-p...&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;p&gt;My interest in the Miley Cyrus model might need a little more explanation. Back a few months ago, when she was releasing over-the-top videos (wrecking ball?), &lt;i&gt;everyone&lt;/i&gt; was saying some variant of &amp;quot;wow why is Miley famous she obviously has no talent and this is just lewd.&amp;quot; But this is the crux of her brilliance.[0] She has tricked a very large number of people into advertising for her, regardless of whether she does anything requiring talent. But then there&amp;#x27;s the obvious tradeoff: she has to deliver all of these ridiculous things, likely to the detriment of her ability to contribute anything actually meaningful to the industry. Maybe other people have made that deal but none seem to have been as successful, at least based on the data from my facebook feed. And this is a rare case in which facebook feed data &lt;i&gt;is&lt;/i&gt; a useful measure of the success of the business, because it fuels the clicks and the conversations and the weird interest.&lt;p&gt;Anyway. Every time I see something about her, even overwhelmingly negative, I shake my head and think &amp;quot;another person tricked into feeding her success&amp;quot;. Her willingness to decouple her success from anything &amp;quot;worthwhile&amp;quot;[1] about her (talent&amp;#x2F;skill&amp;#x2F;beauty&amp;#x2F;benefit to fans), at the cost of irrecoverably changing her career in what most would view as a very negative way, is sort of fascinating.&lt;p&gt;[0] I say &amp;quot;her brilliance&amp;quot; but in reality I am sure she is just the face for a manager type orchestrating the money-and-fame-for-girl&amp;#x27;s-reputation-and-soul deal.&lt;p&gt;[1] &amp;quot;Worthwhile&amp;quot; in quotes because is anything in the pop music industry really worthwhile?</text></comment>
<story><title>List of Web Business Models</title><url>https://gist.github.com/ndarville/4295324</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>babarock</author><text>One thing worth mentioning for games is what Valve is doing with Dota 2.&lt;p&gt;The game is truly free to play, and giving them all the money in the world will not give the player any in-game advantage. On the surface, the game sells various hero skins and other cosmetic items that are little more than vanity items. Looking closer, it seems that Valve is making (or at least trying to make) money by developing a scene of professional gamers around this game. Just last weekend they held an international competition (conveniently named [The International](&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dota2.com/international/overview/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.dota2.com&amp;#x2F;international&amp;#x2F;overview&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;) ) where the prize pool exceeded 10 million USD. This pool was partly funded by the community of viewers paying to watch the pros play their games. I paid my ticket 7.5€ (10$) a third of which went directly to the prize pool.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know if this model is viable or profitable. Maybe someone has more info. But it&amp;#x27;s worth looking at. I&amp;#x27;ve always been interested by products that are free to use by the public and make money from the pros using it.</text></comment>