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The Entire Economy Is MoviePass Now

nytimes.com

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Re: The Entire Economy Is MoviePass Now

#31

Post by Bucephalus355 »

mabbo wrote: post #16

> The king of money-losers, of course, is Amazon, which went years without turning a profit. Instead, it plowed billions of dollars back into its business The key difference with Amazon is that Amazon could choose to be profitable at any time- just raise prices ever so slightly, reducing growth in customer demand, and the stop building out its enormous logistics empire and new businesses. Amazon could have had profit…

Raising prices would solve lots of problems for Amazon. They’d lose some market share, reducing the monopoly accusations. Most likely companies are going to face increasing pressure to do something about inequality levels, so maybe a $5 / hour (hopefully more) pay raise for their 28k a year warehouse workers could also be in the store.

Re: The Entire Economy Is MoviePass Now

#32

Post by crazygringo »

andrewjrangel wrote: post #4

I am curious if this will end with a "bubble-burst" or a slow burn like twitter has experienced. Surely the money has to dry up sometime? It is too bad that none of these companies create any kind of net good for society like a startup that pays you over minimum wage to clean up a park or sort recycling.

> Surely the money has to dry up sometime?

Why? A bit simplified, but think of the money as coming from the profits from the companies that have been successful. It's just how investment works. And when you add up all the gains and losses, it's still a net positive as the economy grows a little bit more year after year.

And what do you mean no net good? The companies create jobs which create huge amounts of income taxes (always) and corporate taxes (when profitable) that pay the salaries of the people who, for example, maintain our parks, or manage a city's recycling systems.

Re: The Entire Economy Is MoviePass Now

#33

Post by dragonwriter »

dragontamer wrote: post #18
empath75 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There will eventually be a pets.com of the tech bubble. Something like Tesla or Uber or Blue Apron going belly up.

Pets.com is probably the wrong example from the 90s. Webvan.com is a bit better: hundreds of millions spent on actual warehouses, trucks and more. Pets.com clearly overspent on advertising, but I don't think they risked too many assets on the line. So when Pets.com eventually died, it wasn't a big deal. Its funny, because they had superbowl commercials and huge outreach. But nothing like like Webvan's huge warehouses…

Pets.com was a potent and visible symbol that the money for nothing dotcom era was over.

I suspect that the upthread poster picked exactly the right 90s example for what they wanted.

Re: The Entire Economy Is MoviePass Now

#34

Post by arcbyte »

dragonwriter wrote: post #30
arcbyte wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Surely the money has to dry up sometime? Yup, this fall. By the close of 2018 all the world's central banks will be in quantitative tightening after having spent the past 10 years perpetuating an unprecedented level of quantitative easing.

QEs been tapering off for a long time (US QE ended in 2014); there's very little reason to believe that it's global final (for now) end will do much to capital markets.

Yes easing has been tapering off, but the balance sheet reductions are a whole other beast that only started in ~November and only from the Fed. Once the ECB starts, and potentially the JCB (although I think they've changed direction now), there will actively be a drain on the world's economy instead of the artificial faucet.

Don't quote me though, I'm several months out of date on following it super closely.

Re: The Entire Economy Is MoviePass Now

#35

Post by Certhas »

> But it also reflects the willingness of shareholders and deep-pocketed private investors to keep fast-growing upstarts afloat long enough to conquer a potential “winner-take-all” market.

That's the gamble. Destroy competition, get lock in, become a monopolist and the free market is your money printing machine. If regulators had teeth to break up such monopolies, we wouldn't be seeing these gambles, and maybe more honest competition.

Re: The Entire Economy Is MoviePass Now

#36

Post by toomuchtodo »

bonestamp2 wrote: post #26
empath75 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There will eventually be a pets.com of the tech bubble. Something like Tesla or Uber or Blue Apron going belly up.

Tesla and Uber aren't going anywhere. There's way too much invested for them not to secure another tiny drop in the bucket to keep going. That doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea ("throwing good money after bad"), but that's the reality of what will happen, especially since it will probably be someone else's money as they dilute.

Hooboy, it only takes a bit of loss of confidence for a corporation to liquidate. Never underestimate the difficulty level of refinancing corporate debt in a shaky macro environment.

Re: The Entire Economy Is MoviePass Now

#37

Post by CabSauce »

pmoriarty wrote: post #28
xivzgrev wrote: post #2

Pretty much. Seated was another gravy train. You got a $15 Amazon or Uber gift card just for going to restaurant with a second person. There were no minimums. you just had to show up and had to order food. There was a 2-3 month period where my girlfriend and I were getting good meals for a net $15-$20 total. It was awesome, but I knew it wouldn't last. Then they put in restrictions - to qualify for the $15, you neede…

I got an even better deal: I cook my own meals, or eat at even cheaper restaurants. I'm also looking in to joining a community garden and growing some of my own food. Amazon restaurant deals are not worth it for me, even with their discounts. But I understand that a certain segment of the population doesn't think much of such an expense, and that's who Amazon is targeting.

That sounds like a different product, not a better deal.

Re: The Entire Economy Is MoviePass Now

#38

Post by jncraton »

bonestamp2 wrote: post #26
empath75 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There will eventually be a pets.com of the tech bubble. Something like Tesla or Uber or Blue Apron going belly up.

Tesla and Uber aren't going anywhere. There's way too much invested for them not to secure another tiny drop in the bucket to keep going. That doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea ("throwing good money after bad"), but that's the reality of what will happen, especially since it will probably be someone else's money as they dilute.

Tesla's financials are terrifying. I hope that Tesla succeeds, and I believe that they can. However, there is nothing about the company that makes an investment in TSLA feel like a sure thing to me.

Re: The Entire Economy Is MoviePass Now

#39

Post by acchow »

> Over all, 76 percent of the companies that went public last year were unprofitable on a per-share basis

How is this the entire economy? I bet if you added the revenues (or market caps) of all those companies together, they would pale in comparison to Apple.

Re: The Entire Economy Is MoviePass Now

#40

Post by worldsayshi »

mabbo wrote: post #16

> The king of money-losers, of course, is Amazon, which went years without turning a profit. Instead, it plowed billions of dollars back into its business The key difference with Amazon is that Amazon could choose to be profitable at any time- just raise prices ever so slightly, reducing growth in customer demand, and the stop building out its enormous logistics empire and new businesses. Amazon could have had profit…

But MoviePass "could also choose to raise prices ever so slightly". It seems very likely it would not work.

What's the categorical difference between the two business models? Guess it's the fact that when MoviePass tries to change prices it will force every user to opt in all over again. Opting in is part of the everyday user interaction for Amazon.

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