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Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

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Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#41

Post by isoprophlex »

xg15 wrote: post #26
mattjenner wrote: post #21

Dear innovative people: think of a better model. 1. Free = problematic with the lack of money 2. Freemium = looks good if the balance is right 3. Ads = Mostly works but the model is flawed and skewed 4. Subscription = Love/Hate currently trendy but too relied on 5. Pay-what-you-can = Fans provide the service for everyone 6. Premium only = Only what it's worth, when it's worth 7. Enterprise = S'ok because my company/o…

How about good old "pay for it once, then own it"?

Sorry, no, ridiculous idea. We've hired some MBA's and they say it'll be "milk your customers for that monthly recurring revenue", or bust.

/s

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#42

Post by chrisseaton »

andix wrote: post #39

Most subscriptions are just way too expensive! I make good money, but I can’t afford to have 10 subscription services for 9,99 per month. I have a few for 0,99 per month.

> I make good money, but I can’t afford to have 10 subscription services for 9,99 per month.

So 100 a month total? Surely that's not any kind of issue if you're making good money? I get tons of value from the services I subscribe to.

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#43

Post by bagaswastu »

xg15 wrote: post #26
mattjenner wrote: post #21

Dear innovative people: think of a better model. 1. Free = problematic with the lack of money 2. Freemium = looks good if the balance is right 3. Ads = Mostly works but the model is flawed and skewed 4. Subscription = Love/Hate currently trendy but too relied on 5. Pay-what-you-can = Fans provide the service for everyone 6. Premium only = Only what it's worth, when it's worth 7. Enterprise = S'ok because my company/o…

How about good old "pay for it once, then own it"?

It goes into the premium category only

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#44

Post by xg15 »

cplli wrote: post #37
xg15 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But our businesses are viable as subscription services, and not as one-off or ad-hoc puchase models. Doesn't explain businesses that had been per-purchase for a long time and are now still switching to subscriptions though. (E.g. photoshop, jetbrains...)

I wouldn't throw Jetbrains in the same boat. I quite like their pricing model. You get to keep the last version, so you're basically paying for updates in the end (which are worth it IMO). On top of that, you get a discount after the first year.

Yeah, Jetbrains' model is one of the better ones in that. At least your money doesn't completely vaporize with that, even though you'll still lose a year of features and improvements once you cancel.

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#45

Post by chrisseaton »

schnulller wrote: post #27

Everybody hates subscription services. It's called generating a steady and long revenue stream and to et rid of that you will have to burn the world down.

> Everybody hates subscription services.

I think they're great. Continual updates, ability to cancel when I stop getting value. Some services I sign up to just for a single project.

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#46

Post by Flankk »

I agree completely. Taking more but giving the same in return. What companies lose is brand loyalty. Startups want to be Apple but plan for sprints instead of a marathon. Spotify and Netflix work as a subscription model because the model provides more value to customers. The artists get screwed over but I digress.

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#47

Post by xg15 »

manigandham wrote: post #17
xg15 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But our businesses are viable as subscription services, and not as one-off or ad-hoc puchase models. Doesn't explain businesses that had been per-purchase for a long time and are now still switching to subscriptions though. (E.g. photoshop, jetbrains...)

Restate it as "more viable".

Yeah, I'll restate that as "more profitable", a.k.a. "we're greedy and if we can make more money by lowering the quality of our products and restricting the range of people who can use them, of course we'll do that."

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#48

Post by Renaud »

erfgh wrote: post #30
amelius wrote: post #25

Dear governments, I hate that I can't unsubscribe from services without going through the provider's dark-patterns first.

So don't subscribe to them.

You usually don’t know the pain until you try it.

The immense majority of subscription services go to great lengths to make it as easy as possible to get you on and too many go to great length to make it very hard to let you stop.

We are at the point where I believe there should be regulations that forces a company to make it as easy to stop as it is to join.

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#49

Post by xg15 »

phphphphp wrote: post #36
auveair wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So we're catering to the people who are OK with buying a subscription because there are enough of them. Are there enough of them? Many services seems like they can only exist because many people forget to cancel their subscription.

There’s many reasons someone may continue their subscription while they’re not actively using the product, so while some people may forget, it’s difficult to determine that without someone saying explicitly that they forgot — and many companies will refund unused subscriptions. I have subscriptions that remain active despite not actively using the product: I could save money by unsubscribing and resubscribing but the…

> but the money saved isn’t worth the effort to re-subscribe each time I want to use it.

The effort needed to un-/resubscribe is something that the service can directly control though.

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#50

Post by ChildOfChaos »

xg15 wrote: post #10
boffinism wrote: post #4

Dear customers: we know. But our businesses are viable as subscription services, and not as one-off or ad-hoc puchase models. We know because we tried them. So we're catering to the people who are OK with buying a subscription because there are enough of them. Sorry if that doesn't suit you.

> But our businesses are viable as subscription services, and not as one-off or ad-hoc puchase models. Doesn't explain businesses that had been per-purchase for a long time and are now still switching to subscriptions though. (E.g. photoshop, jetbrains...)

Agreed, it's usually nothing to do with the fact they weren't viable before, it's just that subscriptions are more profitable.

With cost of living crisis and such, soon enough though it won't be able to last. People are already cancelling one of the biggest main subscriptions they have (netflix).

Also I fear this is really changing society. Many years ago, as you got older you got into a better place in life because you had saved up and bought all the stuff you need and slowly aqquired good equipment and everything you need.

Now our lives are full of tech that needs to be replaced every couple of years, heck even now headphones have gone wireless, your headphones needs replacing every few years and now with more and more things being subscription, it's fine when your are young, but your not able to save so much as your constantly having to replace/buy new stuff, when your older what happens? You don't have the same stuff you would have built up in the past, you need to keep paying for it all.

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