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Comment by arpit | Hacker News Reader

Free service and free apps? Whats the business model?

I'm wondering the same thing. Their original business model of splitting revenue with the authors was interesting, but I'm guessing they didn't get many subsribers.

I was interested in supporting them, but because I already support Marco @ Instapaper with a monthly donation, the Readability subscription (was it $5 or $7 per month) wasn't worth it for myself.

It's still their business model, they've had a free version and a premium version (w/ the revenue split) for quite a while now, and it doesn't seem like this announcement changes that. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the big change is that the apps are now free too, or maybe that some premium features have become available to everyone.

Correct, that is still the business model.

You couldn't have an account at all without paying before. Now, you can sign up for an account for free. With that includes a 30-article Reading List, (optionally) public profile, and access to the apps (device syncing, &c).

Premium users also get Archives, an Unlimited Reading List (mine has 1000+ articles in it), daily Kindle digests, and —of course— the warn fuzzy feeling of supporting the writers that create the content you enjoy.

The list is likely to grow in the future.

Freemium. See the home page, where they talk about "Premium" subscribers.

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