"Tax" monetization

    I call tax monetization a scheme where, like the state, a service provides users with infrastructure, an environment for earning, and they earn themselves, and the service takes interest from their income. In this case, the main question is not how the service can earn money from users, but how users can make money from the service. Whoever comes up with the best schemes will be guaranteed to receive a rapidly growing set of (grateful and loyal) users. Sharing advertising revenue with users, for example, in Flexum and recently in LiveJournal, can be interpreted as a variation of this model. From examples where the tax model is the main one - auctions, various exchanges, “people's banks” (such as Zopa ), consultation services, distance learning, startup services (such asb-generator ), payment systems, access to content created by users for each other (such as web-3.ru ).

    If you look at traditional societies, the tax model is systemically important in their structure. Although these examples on the Internet seem to be not so few, still the share of this model in comparison with others, it seems to me, is insignificant. The question is - where does this difference with "real" come from? Below are a few considerations in the piggy bank of this topic.

    In real life, we pay each other because of dependence on each other in terms of professional specialization: the hairdresser goes to the doctor and pays him, and the doctor goes to the hairdresser and also pays, etc. This interaction rarely has such a direct c2c character, usually we We deal with intermediaries - business organizers and sellers. A huge number of people take part in the creation and sale of high-tech things, respectively, intermediary structures can be huge and complex. At the same time, the state takes part of the money that some people pay to others, both from intermediaries and from people. In the virtual world, this would correspond to some kind of super-service, which allowed you to create specialized services for yourself within you and existed at the expense of taxes from “individuals” and “legal” entities. But the conditions for the existence of such a super service on the Internet differ markedly. A significant part of the services in real life is dedicated to servicing people’s bodies - food, clothing (appearance in general), health, housing, moving (taxis, etc.), leisure / tourism, security, etc. The “second circle” of service does not concern people, but the equipment and infrastructure that they use for bodily needs. Let us add here the sphere of control of all this (those same intermediaries) and we will get a huge share of those who are involved in one way or another with the material, physical component of human being. The information component in a traditional society also plays a large role - science, education, communications / media, media, advertising, entertainment, etc. But still this is only part, a subset of all services. And since Internet users are people not only from this subset,

    Total: the lack of a material component in the Internet greatly narrows the scope of services, and hence the basis for the tax model. But what, in principle, can be its weight, what else does it depend on?

    1. One point has already been made - we need “services of services”, ie An environment that can be used to build businesses within it. The same SaaS concept drives development in this direction. There are, for example, services for creating their online stores. Although in comparison with real life this is a rather highly specialized thing - in real life you can rent a room, and entrepreneurs decide for themselves whether it will be a dentistry, a beauty salon, an office or a store. I don’t see such flexibility on the Internet yet. This is probably a matter of time. Autonomous author's site is different from that offer blogging services used tomore opportunities, i.e. more developed functionality. It seems that from a technical point of view, and now it’s not a problem to make a mass service with a very developed functionality. This is approximately what Ashmanov offers in Flexum - users can have a variety of media, a blog, a forum and a search engine in a certain portal of their own and make money on advertising. You can include an online store in this kit. And then something else. On this path, we get a library of formats from which you can design the right one. It seems to me that in search of flexibility one more line of development should be explored - to look at the functionality and understand how it can be simplified and unified to the primary elements, some “atomic information functions”, and how great is the difference between the store site and the news site from this point of view site. Those. Is it possible to construct a site not mentioned "large-panel blocks" such as a blog, forum, store, but from more basic "bricks"? For me, an interesting task is also to study the environment "objects + communications ”in the context of all this subject. Ultimately, I think it’s best to equip users with all possible ways to monetize their activity - advertising, content sale, sale of services, tax model (if some users somehow manage to offer other users additional opportunities for independent earnings), “street musician” model »- service / content is provided for free, but those who like it can pay.

    2. The Internet and real cannot be considered as two independent entities. The same online stores are an example of this - the Internet is used as an intermediary for operating tangible goods. There is also a known scheme when a business in real life sells customers brought over the Internet. This intermediary hypostasis of the Internet is expanding the base for the tax model.

    3. The breadth of use of the tax model depends on the development of payment systems. In RuNet, they are not developed, which is a strong inhibitory factor.

    4. The inhibitory factor is also the greed and stupidity of the creators and owners of services. The same SOUP that allows LiveJournal users to earn money on advertising now, a year and a half ago, resolutely rejected such an opportunity . The softening of the positions is not surprising, because This is a natural and obvious trend.

    5. Although the professional activity of people dominates the total volume of their activity, but not so much as not to take into account other aspects of human life. And here the Internet is able to attract and attracts truly massive participation, which can expand the base for the tax model. It only requires formats suitable for it. I will present a possible version of this format in a separate note so as not to exaggerate the size of this article and not to mix the abstract with the concrete.

    Also popular now: