I think author fails to recognize paid services that eventually fail because of the barrier is never able to become a sustainable business. Wouldn't it be worse by paying for something then losing it ? There are plenty of free offerings that are able to become sustainable businesses through various business models. I think the distinction is rather the choices of the founder + acceleration of growth vs paid / free model.

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Every business that deals with some sort of digital goods today has to compete with free.. music, movies, games, etc. So maybe we should all just sit around and say how unfair it is rather than to figure out how to compete. Its a completely ridiculous argument