Research On Pricing Strategy Of SaaS Cloud Services In The Freemium Mode

SaaS services are slowly replacing traditional software, not only convenient and efficient, but also cheaper. However, the current studies for SaaS service pricing are mostly about free trial,bundling pricing and bilateral charges. But every enterprise has his own marketing mode, it is not reasonable to apply mechanically other enterprise's pricing strategy, it will limit the further development of the SaaS industry. Then, taking the freemium mode as a breakthrough point to discuss SaaS service pricing will has its practical research value. The pricing strategy of the enterprise is directly related to the profit of the enterprise. No matter what the strategy is, profit is the ultimate goal. Pricing always play an important role in enterprise strategy, a good pricing can directly affect the enterprise's short-term profits and long-term profits. On the contrary, a bad pricing may damage the enterprise's reputation and reduce the competitiveness. Therefore, a reasonable and scientific pricing strategy seems to be significant to enterprise.This paper reviews the latest research results in consumer perceived value, game theory,information economics, on the basis of previous research results, according to the characteristics of SaaS service, analyzes the influencing factors of SaaS service pricing. From the perspective of freemium, take Cournot Duopolies for example, using dynamic game theory to construct a two-step pricing model. The first step is to use free service to occupy the market, and the second step is to determine the optimal price of premium service. Finally, an example is given to analyze the optimal pricing and free service openness of SaaS service providers in competitive market.The results show that, in the case of symmetric duopoly competition, absolute rational oligopolies will take the same pricing strategy,that is,will set the same level of openness for the free service and make the same price for the premium service. The profit of the SaaS service provider increases firstly and then decreases with the openness for the free service, and decreases with the increase of the competitor's openness. Consumer perceived value will have a positive impact on the price of premium service, and SaaS service provider's profit increases with the increase of consaumers' perceived value. Therefore, the pricing model has good reliability and practicability, which can provide some theoretical support for suppliers to make pricing decisions.