The last few years the freemium business model has been talked about and used extensively, but lately companies such as Ning, 37signals, Get Satisfaction and others have started to play down (or remove) their free offering. At the same time, as far as I can see, there have been little mention of this business model in academic articles.<p>Sachin Rechi (http://www.sachinrekhi.com/blog/2010/02/16/freemium-design-pattern-scale-pricing-with-customer-success) wrote: "I believe we are still early in our understanding of [freemium] models and to date most of the available analysis has been limited to anecdotal evidence, one-off case studies, tips & tricks, and a few early overviews of what’s been tried."<p>Here are some of the blog posts that inspired me to want to write about freemium: http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/04/is-the-freemium-model-still-viable-for-startups.php, http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2284-eyeballs-still-dont-pay-the-bills, http://www.markevanstech.com/2008/10/17/freemium-is-not-a-business-model<p>I haven't specifically pinpointed my hypothesis or, generally, what I want to answer in the thesis, so I hope any of you have some interesting ideas as to a possible direction. I just know that I have a keen interest in business models, and want to better understand the how's and why's of the freemium model.<p>So, dear HN, do you have any ideas, thoughts, examples or articles?