Reverse Business

A lot of time energy and money is spent on figuring out the right business model for a venture. But sometimes the most obvious sources of revenue may be glossed over.

Idea of the day:

Pay me for my information

Almost everyone has an online presence in the form of your Facebook account, your Twitter updates or your simple Gmail activities. The largest source of revenue for web-based businesses comes from advertising. This advertising is targeted to your "needs" and "interests". Every time you check your mail, you get advertisements on your page related to the content of your mail. Facebook proposes to use your social online network to enhance the quality of information reaching you, and in the process, make profits for themselves. These business models essentially make profits by processing your information.

Is it then possible to have a model in which you charge for your data? If companies can charge advertisers for using their online presence as a platform to make profits, it should also be possible for you to charge companies for using your online presence to make their profits. This may seem like a shift from traditional models, because typically individuals do not charge for access to their information. There may come a paradigm shift where individuals realize that they are not mere customers, but are themselves service providers. Something thats worth exploring surely!