What is The Curve?

For a snappy 15 minute intro to the Curve, view my Flashpoint video.

The Curve is a simple concept.

The web has made it possible for people to share information, content and ideas at an unprecedented scale. When it is trivially cheap to share content, whether legally or illegally, people will do so.

To companies whose entire business was built on controlling, managing and profiting from the challenges of sharing information, content or ideas, this is a terrifying prospect. Many of those companies are investing heavily in technological, legal and political mechanisms to limit the free sharing of ideas.

In their obsession with free or cheap, they are missing the other, marvellous reality of the Internet: it enables trivially cheap one-to-one communications with your biggest fans, supporters or customers.

So at one end of the curve, you have the opportunity to share your product, your ideas, your story or your marketing message to a vast audience at almost no cost. At the other end of the curve, you can cost-effectively seek out the people who love what you do and give them high-value products or services that are priced at 10x, 100x or even 1,000x your normal offerings.

Smart companies will embrace the freeloaders, move people along the demand curve by engaging with them, and make money from selling high value offerings that their customers really value.

This is the reality of business in the twenty-first century.