The importance of 0

Techdirt’s Mike has been writing about the concept Chris Anderson now calls the ‘Economics of Abundance’ for a while. He explains why this concept is really very simple, but still difficult to understand for some. Who knows what might happen when they start to get it….;-)

“However, the point is that if you understand the zero, there’s nothing to worry about and the model works perfectly. It just requires a recognition that the scarcity doesn’t exist. Instead, you have abundance. You can have as much content as you need — and in that world, it makes perfect sense that there’s no costs, because without scarcity there need not be a cost. Supply is infinite, and price is zero. That does not mean, however, that there’s no business. Instead, it just means you need to flip the equation and use the zero to your advantage. Instead of thinking of it as forcing a “price” of zero, you think of it as being a “cost” of zero. Suddenly, you’ve lowered the cost of making something to nothing — and you should then try to use as much of it as you can. One simple example of this is to use that item that “costs” zero as a promotional good for something that does not have a zero marginal cost. When you realize how zero factors in, you realize that there’s nothing new or radical here at all. It’s just coming to terms with the idea that free market economics still works in the face of zero (in fact, it thrives) and there’s no reason to put in place government-sanctioned barriers to shape the market.”