You probably know that Google offers a pretty good free web analytics tool called Google Analytics. And if you can use web analytics, you’ve probably signed up for an account. Hopefully you’re off the waiting list.
If not – read on. Before I got my code (which took considerably longer than spreadsheets or calendar), I searched around for invite pools and other sources where excess inventory might be distributed. The one place with a lot of action?
eBay.
It struck me that the scarcity of this free product had driven some people to pay for an invite – the highest recent price for a successful auction was $46 on June 5th. With the clear imbalance of supply and demand, and an available secondary marketplace, watching the equilibrium price of a Google Analytics invite has been a great microeconomics experiment. It looks like codes are going for about $1.00 now.
Given the drop in average selling price for successfully completed listings, it looks like Google has increased the available supply and/or people are finding substitutes, e.g. Performancing or Sitemeter.
The creation of a market here makes me wonder – how long until Google turns on a business model for premium consumer services?
Oh – and if you need an analytics invite – try one of these: M2AA-DZBJ3-HMDS or KWSN-EBKGJ-KIAS. If you claim one successfully, please post and I’ll strikethrough.
Tags:
google analytics ::
Add to del.icio.us