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MoviePass CEO says the app tracks your location before and after movies

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Re: MoviePass CEO says the app tracks your location before and after movies

#151

Post by wolco »

hueving wrote: post #148
Jasper_ wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I fail to see who MoviePass hurt except its own investors. Games on the iOS App Store are generally free (or 99 cents). It is not profitable to recoup your costs by selling the product, because consumers will not pay for an app that costs more money than $1. In order to sustain this environment, the industry has moved to selling data, ads, and other sort of nonsense. Let's suggest that MoviePass successfully "disru…

The consumers that bought expensive games aren't the same ones that expect to pay 0.99$ for a game so the comparison doesn't really apply. In particular, people still pay $50 for a game.

I paid more than amount in 80s for a nintendo game as I do now for that $50 game.

Re: MoviePass CEO says the app tracks your location before and after movies

#153

Post by mynameisvlad »

csmiller wrote: post #118
kc10 wrote: post #58

I was a MoviePass subscriber for about 4 months. But I noticed that international movies and few theaters are blocked, can't reserve tickets ahead of time as per TOS. With all these restrictions I didn't even watch any movies for a couple of months. So I just cancelled and subscribed to Sinemia (I am in no way related to this service).

Never heard of Sinemia. How is it different?

Looking at their plans (https://www.sinemia.com/new-plans/) it's capped at 2 or 3 movies a day, available at any theater and in any format. You can also apparently buy advance tickets, which is a huge limitation for MoviePass.

Their business model seems more sustainable than MoviePass, too. Well, at least when it's not heavily reduced due to the Oscar promo.

Re: MoviePass CEO says the app tracks your location before and after movies

#154

Post by sdenton4 »

AlexandrB wrote: post #53
slg wrote: post #22

MoviePass announced their their new, improved, and unrestricted plans in August. We all knew the $10 a month plan was not going to be profitably by itself. In the last week they have started blocking out specific movies, requiring some users to provide photographic proof of their ticket purchases, and bragged about collecting data outside what is described in their TOS. This is after already locking out customers fro…

> We all knew the $10 a month plan was not going to be profitably by itself. How is this kind of "growth hack" not simply dumping[1]? The only new development here is that dumping is no longer limited to large companies with large war chests thanks to the availability of venture capital. The more interesting question is can healthy, truly profitable technology companies develop in an environment where they have to co…

My guess is that the plan was or is to demonstrate that a subscription model can fill mostly empty theatres, while providing theaters with more stable revenue than they currently experience.

From there, the question is what to price the subscription at. It could be that revenue sharing on $10/mo with a couple added restrictions (No opening weekends) will provide theatres with more than they're currently making.

Re: MoviePass CEO says the app tracks your location before and after movies

#155

Post by murukesh_s »

sixothree wrote: post #106
thevardanian wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People going to theaters is on the decline. If MoviePass reverses that trend they will have shown their value. I'm going to wager they're at a tipping point.

I received a MoviePass as a Christmas give. I've learned a few things. 1. I hadn't been to my local theaters in a long time. 2. I was surprised just how convenient it had become now that nobody else is visiting. 3. I am thoroughly enjoying this movie subscription service model combined with the lack of crowds at theaters.

"lack of crowds at theaters" > I am also not a crowd lover, i too love it when visiting not so popular theaters where i could stretch myself in between the movie, but sad thing is it won't last long isn't it.. either the theatre closes down or the maintenance goes really low it starts to stink..

Re: MoviePass CEO says the app tracks your location before and after movies

#156

Post by lxmorj »

castlecrasher2 wrote: post #30
mcescalante wrote: post #8

From my understanding, the bet that MoviePass is making is that they will be able to sell user/usage data to studios (or others) to make back the money that they're losing paying full price on the tickets; they've even admitted this in other interviews... just without specifying what data. Even if it's not location data, I would imagine that any/all data they can associate with a user they will.

Off the top of my head I'd say they're looking to see what other things people do after movies, like go out to eat, shopping, or go home.

It's also potentially a great way to smooth the road for a hostile takeover of AMC...

Re: MoviePass CEO says the app tracks your location before and after movies

#158

Post by fitzroy »

ChadMoran wrote: post #63
jnnnthnn wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that is clever about MoviePass, is that in order to use their membership, one must have location services activated at least for a brief instant every time they are going to the movie. Indeed, you need to “check in” in the app when you’re within a 100 yard radius of the theater in order to be able to charge the ticket price to the MoviePass-provided payment card. Odds are, most people won’t want (or remembe…

iOS 11 introduced the ability to allow apps to only access your location while you're actively using the app. Using this method should be a good mitigation.

Mine is clearly set to only "While Using" on iOS 11.

I don't see why it's surprising that MoviePass tracks your location when you open the app to look up movies or check in. Would that not be obvious?

Re: MoviePass CEO says the app tracks your location before and after movies

#159

Post by cyphar »

EggsOnToast wrote: post #107
throwaway2048 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://i.imgur.com/uPnlHlq.png Ok, its 11 pages, which according to http://niram.org/read/ should take 32 minutes to read, can be updated at any time, and contains such language as You agree to indemnify and hold MoviePass, its officers, directors, shareholders, predecessors, successors in interest, employees, agents, subsidiaries and affiliates, harmless from any demands, loss, liability, claims or expenses (includ…

The only two words that are beyond what's taught in highschool in those quoted passages are "indemnify" and "pursuant" neither of which is actually too complex to understand from a cursory google search. The sentence structure is straightforward and it's grammatically clear that the parties listed are all part of the clause pertaining to who you agree to indemnify. The bulk of your argument is that it's unfair to exp…

The thing that makes legalese prone to misinterpretation is not the complexity of the words or grammar used. It's that the interpretation of a paragraph is different for a lawyer (or court) than it is for a lay-person. Just because you understood all of the words doesn't mean you actually understood the text (this is of course ignoring how insanely over-the-top the quoted paragraphs are, and the length of the text itself).

When you go through a law degree you have several subjects dedicated to "learning how to read a legal document". If it just required high school literacy, why would you ask very intelligent people to go through a literacy course in university? Because there is more to reading a legal document (such as knowing precedents in contract law, how courts interpret certain conditions, what the agreement means in the context of any related laws, and so on) than just knowing what the words mean.

Re: MoviePass CEO says the app tracks your location before and after movies

#160

Post by cyphar »

EggsOnToast wrote: post #85
throwaway2048 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

some vaugely worded crap that would take a lawyer to figure out buried in a 40 page TOS isn't informed consent, sorry.

I'm not sure why your tone is so hostile when I was just asking a clarifying question. More to your point, I don't see what part of the ToS you found especially convoluted, but since your estimate about the length is so exaggerated I doubt you actually read it. The wording was boring but clear and its formatting wasn't particularly mysterious either. If your point is more generally that we shouldn't be able to just s…

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