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Why Is It Wrong To Run a Business Like a Business?
Techcrunch writer Jason Kincaid posted yesterday about webmail providers removing account access and deleting a user’s mail and documents who becomes inactive for a long period of time. He notes that mail services like Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail all delete accounts after a period as short as 60 days or as long as nine months. Most of these services are ad-supported (i.e. free) and it makes sense to delete non-active accounts. Why let a user store gigs of documents they never return to access?
He goes on to explain why Yahoo is evil for asking users who have violated their terms of service if they want to pay for an option where their account won’t be deactivated for non-use. I like this move by Yahoo for two reasons: first it’s a smart business move; and second, it makes sense to tell users who are outside of the terms of use how they can avoid the situation in the future.
What’s so wrong with a business acting like a business? Guess what… this year we will see many more companies (and startups) acting like real businesses. "Free" doesn’t mean there are no rules or regulations.
When you signup for an email (or any other Web) service, you are accepting the terms as presented. If you don’t like the terms, don’t sign up.
Jason closes with, "For these cloud-based services to thrive users will have to believe they’re good for life, not just until the company involved holds their data ransom for a revenue boost". Nope, users need to believe that they are good for as long as they say they are.
I will cut Kincaid some slack since his LinkedIn profile shows he’s new to the business world. But understand, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with running a business like a business should be run.
I read his article last night and wasn’t sure why he posted it because in the comments he said it was a post for my parents?
Common sense be damned, Allen. This is web 2.0!
oh yea i forgot :)
Zing! Well said, Allen. I agree with you a thousand and twelve percent on this one. To disagree is foolhardy and ignorant, imho. TC tends to promote a sensationally extreme agenda when it comes to the way business should treat their consumers. The music industry should be giving away it’s products and be overjoyed with illegal downloads, the web apps should be ignoring the load on their servers and SANs and giving infinite features for free for life, etc. Jason’s post last night is just another in a long line of examples of how the TechCrunch staff is willing to throw logic out the window in the interest of arousing their militant army of freetards (aka: people who think they should not have to pay for anything and that there should be no consequence for their violation of terms of use).
Tell me all you want about “accepting the terms” but I would argue that is purely for legal protection, not for brand protection. I would expect any veteran of the business world to understand the concept of properly setting customer expectations. Without the users, the service is useless and pissing the users off, even due to their own negligence, is no way to run a business. I use POP access myself.