>[!abstract] >A gross leader strategy is my own concept of expanding the [[loss leader strategy]] to include a combination of predatory practices: > >1. Penetration pricing, up to the point of [[dumping]], to quickly gain market share and drive away the competition; then, raising the prices (including up to extractive levels) on the now-captive market to restore profitability. >2. Feature creep to initially attract a wider range of users and their use cases, only to then retire features once market scale has been gained and the competition eliminated. >3. Free plans for e.g. individual and non-profit users to quickly drive adoption and active user count through word-of-mouth, only to then impose untenable terms on that segment of unprofitable users to force them to leave (see example below). >[!quote] >For nearly 11 years, Hack Club - a nonprofit that provides coding education and community to teenagers worldwide - has used Slack as the tool for communication. We weren’t freeloaders. A few years ago, when Slack transitioned us from their free nonprofit plan to a $5,000/year arrangement, we happily paid. It was reasonable, and we valued the service they provided to our community. > >However, two days ago, Slack reached out to us and said that if we don’t agree to pay an extra $50k this week and $200k a year, they’ll deactivate our Slack workspace and delete all of our message history ([[Kalam, 2025]]). >[!related] >- **North** (upstream): — >- **West** (similar): — >- **East** (different): — >- **South** (downstream): [[Loss leader strategy]]