The real villain here is Google.
Google found one of the very best business models of all time, skimming all the surplus profit off of the entire free open internet.
This is the natural end state of that process.
if you're a freemium business and you don't have one/few-click upgrades to team accounts when people hit feature walls, what could you possibly be doing in engineering that takes higher priority
it's the highest possible intent, pls let me buy
I came of age in the Napster days, when only fools spent money on anything digital. Early on, we decided that we’d rather pay for the internet with attention instead of money. This seemed like a good idea at the time, and at first, it was!
It was like having a big party sponsored by Mazda, and all that meant was having the Mazda logo on the Solo... See more
The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue