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Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

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

#51

Post by rco8786 »

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...)

Dear customers: Also, we realized that even when our ad-hoc purchase models were working that we could triple our margins by making it a subscription service and most people just went along with it.

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

#52

Post by xg15 »

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.

But the whole point of this thread is that everything is moving to subscriptions. So... dont use any service ever then I guess?

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

#53

Post by boffinism »

amelius wrote: post #23
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.

From a monetization-persepective, the only difference between a subscription model and a purchase model is that in the former there are always some people paying for something they do not want to have anymore.

In the former there are always some people paying for something they do not want enough to go through the effort of buying (although they may still consider it reasonable enough value to stick with given it requires no further effort to do so).

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

#54

Post by ChildOfChaos »

lawgimenez wrote: post #5
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.

This is how I feel as a happy customer of Fantastical calendar. The hate is just unwarranted.

But why is a calendar app a subscription service? That is ridiculous.

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

#55

Post by K0balt »

ChildOfChaos wrote: post #50
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...)

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…

This is a much bigger deal than most people appreciate.

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

#56

Post by johannes1234321 »

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 can see the unsubscription flow only after subscribing. Thus you can't make your buying decision based on it.

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

#57

Post by joshuak »

Barrin92 wrote: post #28

One thing that subscriptions have going for them is that they're a relatively fair way to charge for products that have continuous operating and development costs. With one-off payments there's the obvious issue that you're either overcharging in case the startup (which the article talks about specifically) fails or you're severely undercharging which I think is more common if anything. Just a few days ago I noticed…

A problem, however, is that subscriptions are desirable revenue streams regardless of continuous operating costs. A product I can buy for a largely concrete exchange in value, whereas subscriptions will (at best) go to value in the future that I may not have chosen to buy.

I notice that you feel bad for the devs of the podcast app, but not so bad as to give them the word of mouth marketing they no doubt hopped would be the fair trade value of early lifetime memberships.

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

#58

Post by yarky »

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...)

It does though. Once a new money-making strategy is found to work by a market participant, others will try that same path (it's a competition).

The fact that so many companies are moving to the subscription model shows that it works better than others.

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

#60

Post by andix »

chrisseaton wrote: post #42
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.

After paying for housing, power, food, insurance, transportation, savings, …, I have maybe 1000$ left for spending every month. I don’t want to spend 10% of it for some apps/services that save me maybe a few minutes every months, for tasks that can be also somehow achieved with the apps that came with my phone.
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