The company hopes one day to make money by offering users optional fee-based services from others.

WSJ: A Free Service to Store Medical Data in Case of an Emergency

At the low end of the business, growth is dependent on adding franchisees and hitting them with fee-based services.

FORBES: No Time To Relax

One method is fee-based services, which is based on total assets being managed.

FORBES: Invest in Yourself and Live Financially Independent

This has put a premium on generating more revenue from fee-based services, for example by selling pensions and insurance policies.

ECONOMIST: The advance of Austrian banks

Mr Semel has changed the site to make it more attractive to advertisers, while adding new job listings and other fee-based services.

ECONOMIST: A dotcom revival? | The

If the client wanted more help, Schwab later punted him off to a small army of 400 investment advisers, the independent financial planners who passed Schwab's sniff test for fee-based services and unbiased service and who agreed to pay referral fees for the clients.

FORBES: Charles Schwab, Version 4.0

WPP's profit centres into closer contact and has shifted two-thirds of its total services to a fee-based system.

ECONOMIST: Advertising

After acquiring Gate5 last year, Nokia decided that adding navigation capabilities was "a natural move, " and its forthcoming Smart2Go system will offer up free mapping and routing services and a fee-based turn-by-turn option if you've just got to have that robotic helper bossing you around (or can't take your eyes off the road).

ENGADGET: Nokia to offer Smart2Go mapping services Mobile