Atlassian recently announced a donation of $1 million to Room to Read, a global non-profit aimed at improving literacy and gender equality education in developing countries. They did this through their “Causium” campaign, a twist — and portmanteau — of “freemium” and “cause marketing.” The name fits: Rather than just give away its products for free, Atlassian charged a minimal amount of money and donated all proceeds to the non-profit.
Freemium runs on the premise that if you give away a curtailed version of your product, your fans will enjoy it enough to then upgrade to a paid subscription. Causium, for all intents and purposes, is freemium in the sense tha t Atlassian doesn’t receive any money from the heavily discounted sales. It does, however, give the product a nominal value and help brand Atlassian as a charity-minded company.
Started in 2009, the Causium model raised $100,000 in one week through sales of $5 starter licenses for Atlassian products. When the influx of customers didn’t slam Atlassian’s customer support, the company began selling 10 user licenses for $10. Right now, it sells approximately 14,000 of these licenses per week, generating close to $80,000 per month for Room to Read, according to Jon Silvers, director of Audience and Community.
Even if you haven’t heard of Atlassian, you definitely know its clients. Atlassian’s software helps power major brands like Nike, Cisco, Ikea, Adobe and HP. Given its success, Atlassian initially struggled with whether to go freemium. “There are a lot of pros and cons to freemium, and whether it is the right approach,” Si lvers said. “We...
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