«FREEMIUM» BUSINESS MODEL AS AN INNOVATIVE TOOL FOR PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The article is dedicated to exploring the peculiarities of using "freemium" business models in the modern market economy. The "freemium" business model entails providing a product or service for free with the possibility of accessing additional features for a fee. The main purpose of offering the core product or service for free is to attract a wide audience. The free version is limited in functionality, which motivates users to upgrade to the paid version of the product. When implementing the "freemium" business model, it is important to actively track user behavior and optimize the offering and monetization. The "freemium" business model allows for experimenting with different monetization approaches and adjusting the strategy based on the results. Successful "freemium" business models can attract advertisers due to a large audience of free users. The article argues for the practicality of actively using "freemium" business models to promote innovative projects. The "freemium" business model can become an effective tool in project management for customer acquisition, product monetization, and ensuring continuous development and improvement of the project's product. The research examines the differences between the "freemium" business model and a free product. It explores various types of freemium business models, as well as strategies that can be used to promote them. Strategies such as uniqueness and value, personalized and relevant offerings, promotions and discounts, satisfaction enhancement, user experience improvement, and education provide opportunities to study data and user feedback to optimize the process of converting free users into paying customers. The advantages and disadvantages encountered by businesses when using freemium business models are analyzed, as well as limitations on the use of these models. From the research results, it can be concluded that the freemium business model is a modern trend and one of the promising directions for the development of economic systems, allowing companies to increase profitability rates.