📄 Abstract
The article examines altruism as an economic strategy in digital markets and analyzes the so-called 99:1 principle: 99 percent of content or services are provided for free, while only 1 percent is monetized. Three case studies – YouTube creator MrBeast, educational platform Coursera, and open source company Red Hat – show how different industries operationalize this model in specific ways. The analysis makes it clear that the 99:1 principle is not an expression of moral generosity, but an economic rationality of the platform economy. It is based on the separation between freely available abundance and targeted scarcity of reputational or security-relevant goods. The article discusses potentials (reach, trust, scalability) as well as risks (dependence on paying minority, free riders, staging problems) and concludes that altruism in the digital economy is not the exception, but a strategic imperative.
🏷️ Keywords
📚 How to Cite:
Sora Pazer , ALTRUISM AS AN ECONOMIC APPROACH. AN ANALYSIS OF THE 99:1 PRINCIPLE IN DIGITAL BUSINESS MODELS , Volume 13 , Issue 8, august 2025, EPRA International Journal of Economic and Business Review(JEBR) , DOI: https://doi.org/10.36713/epra23739