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  • September 2016 (Revised February 2017)
  • Case
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Angie's List: Ratings Pioneer Turns 20

By: Robert J. Dolan and Ayelet Israeli
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:20
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Abstract

In 1995, before people “googled” or “yelped,” Angela Hicks (HBS, 2000) was establishing her Angie’s List as a pioneer in the accumulation and dissemination of consumer rating information. Hicks focused on the home repair and maintenance market and, as she put it, “particularly on high cost of failure situations where good information on potential service providers is correspondingly of high value.” Angie's List had a paid subscription model as it charged “members” for access to the information they collectively provided on service providers. More recently, companies such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google have started offering free access to their reviews while relying totally on site advertising and service provider fees for their revenues. In 2015, Angie's List collected close to $68 million in membership fees. In January 2016, with recent declines in the growth rate of member numbers, Angie’s List has to decide if it was time to drop the “paid subscription for all” model and introduce a free version of its service to its product line.

Keywords

Pricing; Pricing Strategy; Services; Product Line Management; Growth; Conjoint Analysis; Market Research; Freemium; Growth Strategy; Two Sided Markets; Ecommerce; Platform; Platform Business; Platform Businesses; Platform Strategy; Platforms; Platforms And Ecosystems; Business Model; Internet and the Web; Business Growth and Maturation; Growth and Development Strategy; Price; Strategy; Digital Platforms; E-commerce; Service Industry; United States

Citation

Dolan, Robert J., and Ayelet Israeli. "Angie's List: Ratings Pioneer Turns 20." Harvard Business School Case 517-016, September 2016. (Revised February 2017.)
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About The Authors

Robert J. Dolan

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Ayelet Israeli

Marketing
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Related Work

    • May 2017 (Revised January 2019)
    • Faculty Research

    Angie's List: Ratings Pioneer Turns 20

    By: Ayelet Israeli and Robert J. Dolan
    • September 2016 (Revised February 2017)
    • Faculty Research

    Angie's List: Ratings Pioneer Turns 20

    By: Robert J. Dolan and Ayelet Israeli
Related Work
  • Angie's List: Ratings Pioneer Turns 20 By: Ayelet Israeli and Robert J. Dolan
  • Angie's List: Ratings Pioneer Turns 20 By: Robert J. Dolan and Ayelet Israeli
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