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In recent weeks, several companies have tweaked the free tiers of their products, from Slack and Otter.ai to Google Meet and Heroku. This comes back to an important question for freemium businesses: When should you start charging? And is that different during a recession? Let’s explore together. – Anna
No time for free gifts?
Oh, how things have changed.
You’re used to reading this on The Exchange, whether we’re talking about the public markets, venture capital, or macroeconomic indicators. But now there’s another sign of the times: Free tiers are becoming less generous.
An email I received from Google makes it clear that we are in a very different mindset than when the pandemic began. “To help keep us all connected, “email with text,” two years ago, we made the premium version of Google Meet available to everyone and announced that we’re temporarily not enforcing the limit. 1 hour time for group meetings. Starting this month, team meetings with three or more participants will revert to the 1-hour limit. “
If you want to hold longer group meetings on Google Meet, you’ll have to sign up for a paid plan. In other words, Google is cutting down on its massive scale.
