we very much believe in the ‘freemium’ approach – but not sure that the key is to offer as little as possible for ‘free’ and put as much behind a paywal as possible. I think that limits your ultimate scope and leaves room for people to come in with inferior product and under-cut you.

Rather, generally speaking, I think you have to model the cost of providing each given services when deciding what should/should not be premium. When we offer things for free, we do so because the marginal cost of serving them how we think they will be used is low. When we charge for things, it is generally because the marginal cost of providing them is high.

anyway… that is our general approach.

I believe what you launched today could have been offered as a premium – while I am not sure if there is a market demand for the offering, putting out there for free will make it very difficult to monetize in the future.

Also, the actual cost isn’t as important as the perceived value. Something might cost you nothing to build but could be perceived as something that the user will pay for. I’ve seen this countless times over my years.