Sampling of information goods

As one of the most commonly utilized marketing tools, free sampling also has its online presence, especially for information goods. In this article, we provide an analytical model to study the economic rationale behind free online samples. We argue that with the development of technologies, a “free sample” is less and less under control of the seller. We find that this trend does not always hurt the seller. Under certain circumstances, the monopolist can be better off with the presence of the free samples provided by third parties. Further, we argue that the decreasing search costs for free samples threaten the effectiveness of advertising.