价格歧视:向某些人收更多钱Price Discrimination: Charge Some People More
Nivi: 除了复制的零边际成本和规模经济之外,还有哪些重要的微观经济学概念值得理解?
Naval: 价格歧视很重要。它的意思是,你可以根据人们的支付意愿来定价。
不过,你不能仅仅因为不喜欢某个人就向他们收取不同的价格。你得提供一些额外的东西,而且这些东西必须是富人在意的。
商务舱座位的价格通常是经济舱的五到十倍。但航空公司提供更宽的座椅、更大的腿部空间和免费饮料这些福利,成本却低得多——可能只是标准座位的两三倍。
富人和大企业愿意付更多钱
价格歧视之所以有效,是因为富人愿意付更多钱。你只需要给他们那些用来彰显自己富有的小小附加品,或者他们想要的那一点点舒适感。
很多企业软件公司都在用价格歧视,尤其是免费增值产品。免费或低价版本几乎能满足你想要的所有功能。但如果你想要更安全、托管在你自己的站点上、或者带多用户管理以便 IT 人员监控一切的版本,你就会发现自己要付十倍甚至一百倍的价格。
Nivi: Are there any other microeconomic concepts, outside of zero marginal cost of replication and scale economies, that are important to understand?
Naval: Price discrimination is important. It means you can charge people based on their propensity to pay.
Now, you can’t charge people different amounts just because you don’t like them. You have to offer them something extra. But it has to be something rich people care about.
Business-class seats routinely cost five or 10 times more than economy seats. But it costs the airline much less—maybe two or three times more than a standard seat—to provide perks like wider seats, more legroom and free drinks.
Rich people and large enterprises are willing to pay more
Price discrimination works because rich people are willing to pay more. You just have to give them the extra little things they need to signal they’re rich or that little bit of comfort they want.
A lot of enterprise software companies use price discrimination, especially with freemium products. The free or low-price version will do almost everything you want. But if you want the version that’s extra secure or hosted on your site or has multiple-user administration so the IT person can monitor everything, you’ll find yourself paying 10 or 100 times more.