Digital Media Buzz > Barry Diller: The Internet’s free phase is coming to an end

Barry Diller: The Internet’s free phase is coming to an end

By: econsultancy.com

Information may want to be free, but InterActiveCorp’s chairman thinks we’re all going to be paying for it soon. Speaking at the second annual Advertising 2.0 conference in New York Wednesday, Barry Diller was emphatic that the free period of the Internet is coming to a close: “People will pay for content. They always have.”

The digital media chief disparages the idea that consumers expect free content online, calling it “an accident of a historical moment that will be corrected.” According to Diller, we’re currently at the very earliest period of monetizing the Internet: “Right now, everyone’s at cross purposes, but that’s natural. At the beginning.” The solution, according to Diller, lies in combining the creative strengths of old media with the new formats of the online space…….[read entire article]