Conducting B2B SaaS Business with a Freemium Model : A Case Study

Abstract

This article studies what are the characteristics of a B2B SaaS freemium firm. Freemium in a B2B setting is an under-explored phenomenon whereas B2C SaaS freemium has been studied extensively. On the consumer side freemium has played a big role but freemium has only recently started to enter the B2B environment. Traditional, sales-led B2B SaaS companies have increasingly begun to turn to freemium and hence, it is important to understand how do they go about it. The empirical qualitative research was conducted as a case study and the data was gathered by interviewing European B2B SaaS freemium businesses. The data was analysed using qualitative thematic analysis and the coding approach used for identifying the concepts was open coding and axial coding. From the data three main success factor themes emerged that were evident in the B2B environment: customer success, internal enablers and external enablers.