Revenue-Models-2nd-edition-df5jsj
Revenue-Models-2nd-edition-df5jsj
MODELS
2nd Edition
updated and expanded
BY DANIEL PEREIRA
Daniel Pereira
The Business Model
Analyst Ottawa, ON,
Canada
businessmodelanalyst.com
● Users are the people who use the platform but don’t
have to pay for using it. On the contrary, they become
assets of the business, as they will be the audience of
So, understanding who are the users and who are the
customers will be the main criteria when separating these two
kinds of business models.
ASYMMETRICAL: USERS ≠
CUSTOMERS
The asymmetry here is the fact that customers and users are
two different groups of people. It’s the case of Facebook,
Google or Snapchat, which sell ads to businesses and let
people enjoy their core products for free.
While the users know virtually nothing about the platform and
how it makes money, the platform keeps lots of data about its
users.
How it works
This revenue model is about selling advertising spaces and
charging advertisers – per size of the ad, impressions or
clicks, for instance. The advertisers value the popularity of the
medium and pay to feature their product or service to its
audience. It is mostly used in B2B settings, since normally
businesses pay businesses to place their ads.
Revenue Streams
Advantages
Disadvantages
● YouTube
● Media companies
How it works
Licensing is about renting some goods or services to other
businesses. The owner keeps full copyrights on the property
used by the buyer. It is very common for media productions,
software companies, and for legally protected intellectual
property, such as patents and trademarks.
Revenue Streams
In the licensing revenue model, the property’s owner grants a
license of use at a predetermined recurring cost, that usually
runs perpetually, until one of the parties terminates the deal.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Examples
● Adobe
● Microsoft
● Walt Disney
● Ferrari
● Marvel Entertainment
● Nickelodeon
● NBA
How it works
An affiliate is someone who advertises the product or service
of another person or company and earns a commission on
sales or leads made. The affiliate can promote a product by
including referral links in their website/blog/social media or
by offering their customer some specialized
recommendations.
Revenue Streams
Sales percentage is the core revenue stream for this type of
revenue model. The affiliate, whether an individual or a
business, will collect a percentage of everything they sell
through their promotions, as a commission for the service.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Examples
● Amazon
● Etsy
● Wayfair
● Fiverr
● Bluehost
● Hostinger
WHITE-LABELING
The white-labeling revenue model is used to provide a
specialized service without having to invest in all the
infrastructure and the technology for production.
How it works
Basically, the producer develops and/or manufactures the
product or service that will be marketed by another company,
which will rebrand it to make it look like if it had actually
Revenue Stream
The white-label deals are made on revenue share
transactions. In this revenue stream, the parties involved split
both the profits and losses resulting from the operations of
the business, according to each one’s share in the
partnership arranged.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Examples
● TV sets
● Mobile apps
How it works
In the freemium revenue model, a basic plan, product or
service with few resources is offered completely free, for
users to get to know about it. At the same time, another more
complete plan or more advanced service with additional
features is offered in exchange for a fee – that is the premium
option.
Revenue Streams
The strategy here is to attract consumers, create a customer
base to further convince part of that base that you have a
more interesting value proposition than the free one, and that
the advanced features are worth the investment. So, the free
plan is the “bait” and the premium prices are the actual
revenue streams.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Examples
● Waze
● Spotify
● Slack
● Skype
● Evernote
SUBSCRIPTION-BASED REVENUE
MODEL
This revenue model became some popular in tech and online
companies, that people usually forget it has been there for a
lot longer: it’s the revenue model applied by newspapers,
How it works
A subscription-based revenue model is when a business
offers a service or product in exchange for a recurring fee,
usually monthly or annually. That is, as long as the customer
wants to have access to that product or service, they need to
pay.
Revenue Stream
The company's revenue depends on the maintenance of
buyers. Thus, it needs to deliver a high-quality product and
service in order to keep earning recurring fees. It is deeply
based on the relationship with the customer. The longer the
relationship, the more value a customer has for the business.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Examples
● Netflix
● Trello
● Amazon Prime
● DollarShaveClub
● Hims
● Spotify
● Insurance
● Courses
● Clubs
CONSUMPTION-BASED REVENUE
MODEL
This is a revenue model as old as the moving truck or the
payphone: you use, you pay. Nowadays, it is most common in
telecom and cloud-based services industries. Unlike the
majority of service-based models, where a fee is charged for
a regular service, the consumption-based one charges only
when it is actually used.
Revenue Streams
Disadvantages
Examples
● Uber
● Zipcar
● Rappi
● PayPal
● Zendesk
● Office365
How it works
An intermediator establishes the connection between two
parties, for example, the producer and the end consumer.
Whenever a transaction is fulfilled through this middleman’s
job, it earns a commission – usually a percentage on the sale.
Revenue Stream
Brokerage is algo called commission-based revenue model
precisely because the revenue stream is the commission
collected on each transaction handled. This commission is
usually a percentage of the deal. But it can also be a fixed
price for each sale, for instance.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Examples
● eBay
● Airbnb
● Amazon
● TaskRabbit
● Fiverr
● Uber
● Stripe
● Travel agencies
● Stockbrokers
How it works
The concept is simple: finding sales opportunities outside of
end consumers. It’s the basis for broadcast TV
advertisements, simply speaking. So, the users are kept out
of the equation, they don’t pay for the service or product,
they just consume it for free.
On the other side, they do give valuable data for a third party
of the equation: the actual customers, who will pay for
reaching the users.
Revenue Stream
The main revenue stream here is the targeted advertisement.
As the business collects accurate data about its users, the
advertisers can reach their target audience, by investing
money in the “right” audience. They are basically the same as
the Ad-supported revenue model.
Advantages
● It’s scalable.
Examples
● YouTube
How it works
Also known as razorblade and bait-and-hook, this revenue
model is characterized by selling a product at a very low
price, often to the point of not being able to cover its own
cost, to profit from the sale of other related items.
Revenue Streams
The consumable products are precisely the revenue streams.
Once someone has bought the original product, they will
keep on acquiring the corresponding refilling goods, in order
to not waste its first purchase.
So, the razors, the printers, the gaming systems, they are all
practically free. That’s because their consumables – the
blades, the cartridges and the games – are the actual source
of income.
Advantages
Examples
● Gillette (P&G)
● HP
● Sony PlayStation
● Microsoft Xbox
● Nespresso
Revenue Streams
These businesses are based on donations. Usually, the users
are invited to collaborate, by paying some fee, often a small
one, in order to keep the business running. To incentivize
their users to contribute, the companies sometimes offer
exclusive content in exchange for payment.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Examples
● Wikipedia
● Kickstarter
How it works
In simple words, one buys some good or service in one
market and, at the same time, sells it in another market, at a
higher price. The arbitrage revenue model takes advantage
of the temporary price difference in the two markets to make
profit. It’s most common in security, currency and commodity
businesses.
Revenue Stream
The arbitrage takes advantage of technological mechanisms
that monitor fluctuations in similar instruments. This way, any
inefficient pricing will be recognized almost immediately – as
the opportunity will be lost within some seconds.
Advantages
● It is low-risky.
● It’s unpredictable.
Examples
● Affiliate marketers
● Securities
● Commodities
How it works
This revenue model can be associated with other ones, such
as Ad-supported. On the other hand, in some cases, there is
In data sales, the service provider can act like a data broker.
They collect, sort, filter and analyze the data, focusing on
creating customer profiles, and, then, sell this organized data
to their customer, usually on a C2C transaction.
Revenue Streams
Disadvantages
Examples
● Bloomberg
● Reuters
● Nielsen
● ZoomInfo
● Crunchbase
● Gartner
● Experian
How it works
This revenue model is probably the most direct way of
generating revenue: a company produces a product or
provides a service, and the customers will pay for it.
Whenever you enter a store and purchase anything, you are
participating in a transaction.
Revenue Stream
It is a basic exchange: the business offers a product or a
service and the customer pays for that. It can take place in a
brick-and-mortar store, an e-commerce, an industry or with a
self-employed professional.
Advantages
● It’s scalable.
Disadvantages
Examples
● Industries
● Stores
● E-commerce
● Self-employment
How it works
This revenue model is about an agreement when one party
pays for the temporary use of a service or property of another
party. Assets that may be rented or leased include real estate
(such as lands and buildings), vehicles, equipment, furniture,
among others. In general, both parties sign a contract, that
establishes time, price and other details of the deal.
Revenue Stream
Advantages
● Income is recurring.
● Revenue is predictable.
Disadvantages
Examples
● Housing
● Facility rentals
● Equipment rentals
● Automobile rentals
BORROW / LENDING
This is probably the most rentable revenue model for banks
and financial institutions, and it is based on the interests
charged over loans, to both individuals and businesses.
How it works
The customer seeks for a financial institution that is able to
lend them an amount of money. The proposal and the
financial situations of this customer will be analyzed, and over
that, the institution offers a loan, specifying duration and fees
involved.
Revenue Stream
Interest is the revenue stream here. It is the income one gets
when lending money for a certain period. The interest is
compensation for the time they will spend without using the
lent amount. The interest rates are set by the creditor, often
based on factors such as current inflation or the risk of the
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loan.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Examples
● Banks
● Financial institutions
● Online lenders
Revenue Streams
The free product is quite limited and poor, regarding features.
The revenue streams are the fees charged for other
personalized or advanced services, such as domain, storage,
customization, monetization, support etc. All of these services
have their own price.
Advantages
Disadvantages
● Breakeven is risky.
● WordPress
● Redhat
● Cloudera
How it works
In the direct revenue model, the supply chain reduces
intermediaries (regional distribution center, wholesaler,
stores) by selling more directly to consumer, in a non-retailing
environment.
Revenue Streams
Advantages
Disadvantages
Examples
● Avon
● Mary Kay
How it works
In indirect revenue model, the supply chain starts in the
producers and goes to one or more intermediaries (regional
distribution center, wholesaler, stores) before being delivered
to consumer, usually in a retailing system.
Revenue Streams
Advantages
Disadvantages
Examples
● Retailers
● Distributors
● Representatives
● Agents
● Brokers
How it works
In general, hybrid business models are an evolution over
time: a business starts with one product/service that the
customers enjoy and evolve by including other matching and
additional features, that end up becoming new sources of
revenue. This way, the business ends up keeping both the
revenue streams. Sometimes, temporarily.
Revenue Streams
The revenue streams of any hybrid will actually be the
revenue streams of each one of the revenue models
combined in business. For example, a streaming service can
combine freemium + subscription + advertisement.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Examples
● Shopify
● Spotify
● Qihoo
● Veeva
● Stripe
MARKUP MODEL
This is the oldest and most common revenue model in the
world. It is about buying some goods for a lower price, and
adding profits and charges over it for, then, selling it to others.
It is applied by retailers, wholesalers and anyone who plays
the middleman, by purchasing for one price and selling for
another.
How it works
It is as simple as can be: one purchases a product for a
specific price, marks it up some percentage and gets the
profit on this margin, the difference between both buying and
selling prices.
Advantages
Disadvantages
● Many costs are fixed: the higher they get, the lower
the margin or the higher the final price, making the
sale harder.
Examples
● Stores
● Marketplaces
● E-commerce
They start to sell their own goods through their own channels.
This way, these companies cancel some middlemen in the
supply chain, getting directly to the end customer. It is a
manner of cutting expenses and commissions, and getting
the loyalty of the customers.
It has been the case of Dollar Shave Club, that started selling
razors online and ended up offering subscriptions plans.
Marketplace + % of GMV
The combination of marketplace and earnings over gross
merchandise volume can be very profitable on the internet.
Subscription + Services
This is a very common hybrid revenue model, especially for
the transition from selling services to implement a
subscription revenue model.
Subscription + % of GMV
This is the case of some software or online platforms, that
combine a recurring revenue from subscriptions to an extra
● Web sales
● Retail sales
● Freemium model
● Reinsurance
● Underwriting activities
● Investment income
● Support
● Hosting
● Restrictive licensing
● Open-core
● Hybrid licensing
● Sponsorship
● Collecting donations
● Contextual advertising
● Native advertising
● Partnership model
● Affiliate/Referral model
● Exchange offers
● Series of products
● Subscription model
● Recurring revenue
● Marketplaces/peer-to-peer platforms
● Cost-plus retailers
● Premium retailer
Cost of revenue
The cost of revenue is the total cost incurred to manufacture
and deliver goods and services to consumers. Cost of
revenue is a more comprehensive metric than the cost of
goods sale because it includes specific selling and marketing
activities associated with a sale. It covers the cost of
goods/services sold, plus additional costs incurred to
generate a sale. But it does not include indirect selling and
marketing costs, such as the cost of a trade show, marketing
brochure, or advertising campaign because these costs are
not associated with a specific unit of product/service sold.
Equipment costs
Equipment Costs refer to the total cost of the Equipment,
including associated costs such as installation, freight, and
taxes. Equipment costs are considerably important in the
hardware industry. For the service-oriented and SaaS
industry, it is still factored into the bottom line even though
they do not have any production line to run. Subscription
services, app development tools, firmware, and server rental
are generally equipment costs for the service-oriented and
SaaS industry.
Labor costs
Labor cost refers to the total sum of all the wages, benefits,
insurance, and taxes paid to employees by an employer.
Taking good care of labor costs is important for the success
of any enterprise.
Now that you understand a lot more about all the types of
revenue models, it is time to get to know how to choose the
best option for your venture. So, here are 7 tips to help you
out:
Now that you know the value of your product, how do your
customers perceive it? How does it compare to the
competitors? Remember you must sell your product the most
profitable way, but, at the same time, the price and payment
must be attractive to the audience.
Accounting Standards
Codification (ASC) 606
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and
International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) jointly
issued Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 606 on May
28, 2014. It was an update to provide a uniform framework
and standardize the then-existing industry-specific guidelines,
which were fragmented.
● Collectibility is probable.
➔ https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/revenue-model-typ
es/
➔ https://fi.co/insight/the-10-most-popular-startup-rev
enuemodels
➔ https://www.profitwell.com/recur/all/11-popular-type
s-ofrevenue-models-used-today
➔ https://www.feedough.com/revenue-model/
➔ https://medium.com/business-model-validation-101/
10-examples-of-revenue-models-50af0078c58c
➔ https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-str
ategy/online-business-revenue-models/online-reve
nue-modeloptions-internet-business/
➔ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_model