> Yeah, but what's the difference between the 1 millionth and the 1
> millionth and first? Zero.
Unless the system can only handle a million users, then it costs to
upgrade the system. Obviously they can't charge that one customer
though. Or is the point that they still can't charge because a
competitor whose system isn't saturated could take on one more person
at no cost, and to compete with them everyone must always charge
nothing?
(For simplicity, I'd like to ignore the possibility of accepting a
gradual degradation of service, though reality would slap me if I
tried to do that with a real company.)
> As for the thing with support, it is often okay to charge for
> support, since support (in most cases) does cost extra per marginal
> usage.
How so? The per-minute charges of their 800 number?
> How the fuck do companies make money if they should be giving away
> their product?
Yeah, that's a good one. Large companies can afford a few loss
leaders though, just to sink competition that depends on that market.