Fremiums, the Funemployed and Zombie Banks

In my last post I spoke about the Word of the Year winners for 2009.  Part of the Word of the Year process also involves highlighting new words that have come into common usage during the year. There are a number of categories and I thought that it would be interesting to see the newcomers in the business category. They were:

Freemium – a business model in which some basic services are provided for free, with the aim of enticing users to pay for additional, premium features or content

Funemployed – taking advantage of one’s newly unemployed status to have fun or pursue other interests

Zombie bank – a financial institution whose liabilities are greater than its assets, but which continues to operate because of government support

A couple of thoughts occur.

Regarding the Freemium business model, I think it is a problematic model to pursue because as people get used to getting something for nothing from a particular source they are, it seems to me, reluctant to pay for anything.  I would guess that the number of business that succeed with this strategy are in a very small minority indeed.

Regarding the second word – Funemployed – I doubt that very many people find fun in unemploment.  Some clever person invented the word, but I doubt that it reflects reality for very many people. It seems to me that it is a myth – a bit like the Celtic Tiger, but a myth that will not take so long to be seen as such.

As for the Zombie banks, one might ask: is there any other kind?

If those involved were to look exclusively at Ireland I expect that NAMA would be top of the list. It exists, but the question is: will it work?