Ask HN: What consumer web apps do people pay for?

#1

Post by revorad » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 9:27 PM UTC

This is something I've been thinking about for some time. Prompted by the discussion on this thread - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2356292 - I thought I should ask the question to you all.

So, what consumer web apps do you or other people you know pay for, for personal use? Not for anything related to work. So, for example, paying for a time tracking app for your freelance work doesn't count.

I feel that consumers don't want to pay recurring fees for software. One-time payments, as in mobile apps, are OK, but asking even $9 per month for a really useful app seems to be hard.

I can only think of a handful of examples. Can you tell me more?

Re: Ask HN: What consumer web apps do people pay for?

#2

Post by Travis » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 9:38 PM UTC

I know of non-technical friends and family who use: dropbox, pandora, rdio, one or two w/ 37 signals products. I think many of them would pay for mint. Can't think of too many others.

I agree that people prefer the "buy once" option. Which sucks, because then it doesn't align the developers' interests of new revenue with getting updates pushed out to old users. Retraining users is difficult.

Your best bet may be to calculate your estimated product life cycle, charge that much up front, then giving them access for that amount of time.

Re: Ask HN: What consumer web apps do people pay for?

#3

Post by bigtech » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 9:54 PM UTC

This is probably not much help to you, but I pay yearly for Yahoo Mail Plus -- mainly because it allows me to use POP3.

Re: Ask HN: What consumer web apps do people pay for?

#4

Post by wmboy » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 10:06 PM UTC

I pay for Skype. Almost paid for Grooveshark but in the end decided to stick with the free version.

Good question btw. There are too many ideas for B2C web apps out there where the only hope of making money is from being bought out.

Re: Ask HN: What consumer web apps do people pay for?

#5

Post by eggbrain » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 10:08 PM UTC

For me, my thinking on one time fees vs monthly fees comes down to this: Once I buy something, every time I use it decreases the amount of money I spent on it per time I used it. But with monthly payments, every time I don't use it makes it more expensive for every time I use it. The latter forces me to use it more, which is a burden if it is not something I need to have.

I think you'll find that most of the webapps people pay monthly for are those things that they can't get with a one time purchse: generally new content, updated on a regular basis (Newspapers, Music, Movies, Television Shows,etc)

Re: Ask HN: What consumer web apps do people pay for?

#6

Post by Major_Grooves » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 10:10 PM UTC

I pay for DropBox, but that is almost like a "but once". I currently pay for Spotify but that is only because I am studying a lot at the moment and hate the adverts. I will cancel it for next month but reactivate next time I am studying. I also have money in my Skype account which I use occasionally. I don't think there's anything else I pay for as a consumer.

Re: Ask HN: What consumer web apps do people pay for?

#7

Post by staunch » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 10:10 PM UTC

Flickr, Smugmug, Netflix, Dropbox, Skype, eFax, Wordpress, Typepad, Hulu Plus.

In my experience some people can't imagine how willing other people are to pay for things. If you're one of the people that hasn't even bought a $0.99 iPhone app you're very out of touch with a huge segment of the population.

Re: Ask HN: What consumer web apps do people pay for?

#8

Post by streblo » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 10:16 PM UTC

Flickr, Github, Linode, Rdio, and a usenet provider. I would pay for gmail if I had to.

Re: Ask HN: What consumer web apps do people pay for?

#9

Post by pclark » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 10:17 PM UTC

I pay for: Dropbox, Spotify, Last.FM, CloudApp,

Certainly Spotify and Dropbox are no brainers "need these to live" expenses.

Re: Ask HN: What consumer web apps do people pay for?

#10

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 22, 2011, 10:18 PM UTC

staunch wrote: post #7

Flickr, Smugmug, Netflix, Dropbox, Skype, eFax, Wordpress, Typepad, Hulu Plus. In my experience some people can't imagine how willing other people are to pay for things. If you're one of the people that hasn't even bought a $0.99 iPhone app you're very out of touch with a huge segment of the population.

[deleted]