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Subscription Hell

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Re: Subscription Hell

#571

Post by jakobegger »

taneq wrote: post #508
jakobegger wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a flaw in your logic: You assume that everyone keeps using every app they bought forever. If that was the case, pay-once would be unsustainable. However, that is not the case. Everyone stops using your app at some point. So you don't need to support users forever, you just need to support them for some finite amount of time. Some users might use your app for a few years, some use your app just for a few weeks…

> There's a flaw in your logic: You assume that everyone keeps using every app they bought forever. If that was the case, pay-once would be unsustainable. There's also a flaw in this logic: It assumes that all apps require some kind of server provided by the developer in order to run. Once upon a time, standalone software was standalone and could run in perpetuity without requiring anything more of the original devel…

Until your standalone software answers customer support requests automatically, you‘re still going to have variable costs that grow with your user base.

Re: Subscription Hell

#572

Post by dabockster »

doh wrote: post #435
dabockster wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's possible to create a sort of tiered system. The latest news and top stories are always free, but the detailed analysis and exposes (the stuff that usually wins awards) require a subscription. On the more local news level, maybe require a subscription to read the restaurant reviews or something. I'm not going to pretend that this is the end all solution. But both the open web and journalism cannot survive i…

Gigaom tried that before, but it didn't work that well. Very few people care about the topic that they will purchase the analysis. Not enough for the business to be sustainable. Seems like there is a market for deeper analysis done stratchery, the information and couple of others, but it barely sustains a few writers, hardly able to compete with the large scale newsrooms of WSJ, WaPo, NYT, ...

> Gigaom

The issue with your observations is that Gigaom isn't known widely outside of big tech. So I don't feel it's fair to compare their failure to the possibility of a mainstream outlet attempting this.

Re: Subscription Hell

#573

Post by doh »

dabockster wrote: post #572
doh wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gigaom tried that before, but it didn't work that well. Very few people care about the topic that they will purchase the analysis. Not enough for the business to be sustainable. Seems like there is a market for deeper analysis done stratchery, the information and couple of others, but it barely sustains a few writers, hardly able to compete with the large scale newsrooms of WSJ, WaPo, NYT, ...

> Gigaom The issue with your observations is that Gigaom isn't known widely outside of big tech. So I don't feel it's fair to compare their failure to the possibility of a mainstream outlet attempting this.

Agree, they weren't known outside of big tech.

My thinking is, that if they couldn't get it to work in a specific category, then it would be even harder to make it work in more general one.

In general, a very few people care about any topic enough to purchase deeper analysis of it. I'm not sure that this would work as a business model in general.

Re: Subscription Hell

#574

Post by haglin »

twblalock wrote: post #362
haglin wrote: post #337

What we need is a cryptocurrency capable of handling microtransactions. Then we need web browser support (a standard) for a cryptocurrency wallet. When you visit a web page, you can pay for the content by clicking Yes in a dialog box. When you don't have money in you wallet, you can fill it up using your credit card, or some bank solution. The price is shown in your currency of choice, but all the transactions happen…

Good luck getting normal consumers to start using a cryptocurrency for this. Most of them will give up in utter confusion when they try to set up a wallet. I see no reason the US dollar is unsuitable for microtransactions.

If it is built into the browser, it will not be harder than say cookies. When it comes to US dollars, you have to pay transaction fees and it can take days before the transaction is completed.

The user doesn't need to know what a cryptocurrency is, the dialog will be displayed in dollar, or whatever currency you happen to use in your country.

Today's system is more complicated. You have to create an account, confirm e-mail, remember your password, enter credit card number, address, expiration date etc.

Re: Subscription Hell

#575

Post by haglin »

doingmything wrote: post #345
haglin wrote: post #337

What we need is a cryptocurrency capable of handling microtransactions. Then we need web browser support (a standard) for a cryptocurrency wallet. When you visit a web page, you can pay for the content by clicking Yes in a dialog box. When you don't have money in you wallet, you can fill it up using your credit card, or some bank solution. The price is shown in your currency of choice, but all the transactions happen…

This solution seems to be addressing a problem completely different from what the author is discussing. How would using a cryptocurrency solution reduce monthly fees for subscriptions? How would it help reduce the aversion to paying for previously free content? How would it help with bundling?

Someone always have to pay, one way or the other.

With microtransactions you only pay for what you want to consume and you don't need 10+ different subscriptions. That is the benefit.

If you only want to spend 2 dollar a month, that's fine.

Re: Subscription Hell

#576

Post by shripadk »

andrei_says_ wrote: post #558
shripadk wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> then apply updates but you have no access so no updates for you. But that is denial of service that I legitimately paid for. Either they should provide the updates till end of subscription or refund the collected update fees pro-rata (viz. if I cancel after 9 months of purchase, 3 months of excess update fee collected should be refunded).

My sense is you paid for the software as it is on the date of purchase. With that you get a trial of all updates for a year. If you don’t like the trial you don’t pay and revert to the version you paid for.

Yes it's possible to think of it that way and it makes sense now! However, they should explicitly mention it in their license terms that the updates are provided on trial basis and valid for a year and those updates can be purchased as a version upgrade at the end of the year.

Re: Subscription Hell

#577

Post by chiefalchemist »

vel0city wrote: post #567
chiefalchemist wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slightly off topic, but semi related. My parents had a one year membership at Costco. The level where you get some percentage back. I think it was 2%. Long to short, the "rebate" was paid ~60 days prior to the end of the 12 months. The remaining 60 days' purchased will only be rebated if they renew. I presume this is in the small print somewhere. None the less, it's complete crap.

That's strange, as that was not my experience not long ago. I'm thinking there was some miscommunication about the rebate with your family. I received my rebate after I had let my membership lapse without any issue. You can use the rebate even without an active membership. You can even walk up to the customer service counter and get your rebate amount in cash if you want. I ended up getting pizza and took the rest as…

Thanks. I'll report back to The 'Rents.

Re: Subscription Hell

#578

Post by twblalock »

haglin wrote: post #574
twblalock wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck getting normal consumers to start using a cryptocurrency for this. Most of them will give up in utter confusion when they try to set up a wallet. I see no reason the US dollar is unsuitable for microtransactions.

If it is built into the browser, it will not be harder than say cookies. When it comes to US dollars, you have to pay transaction fees and it can take days before the transaction is completed. The user doesn't need to know what a cryptocurrency is, the dialog will be displayed in dollar, or whatever currency you happen to use in your country. Today's system is more complicated. You have to create an account, confirm…

But the user needs a wallet at some point, and the user needs to put money into the wallet so it can be spent. How can that part be hidden from the user?

Today's system may be complicated, but users understand it and are used to it.

Re: Subscription Hell

#579

Post by masonic »

vel0city wrote: post #567
chiefalchemist wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slightly off topic, but semi related. My parents had a one year membership at Costco. The level where you get some percentage back. I think it was 2%. Long to short, the "rebate" was paid ~60 days prior to the end of the 12 months. The remaining 60 days' purchased will only be rebated if they renew. I presume this is in the small print somewhere. None the less, it's complete crap.

That's strange, as that was not my experience not long ago. I'm thinking there was some miscommunication about the rebate with your family. I received my rebate after I had let my membership lapse without any issue. You can use the rebate even without an active membership. You can even walk up to the customer service counter and get your rebate amount in cash if you want. I ended up getting pizza and took the rest as…

  You can even walk up to the customer service counter and get your rebate amount in cash if you want.
Here, cashing out is the only way they redeem the vouchers unless it's a really high amount (4 figures+), in which case they cut you a company check (that happened to me once in 6+ years).

Re: Subscription Hell

#580

Post by yurishimo »

cube2222 wrote: post #525
AlexandrB wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 3. Password Manager This one is a total non-starter for subscription pricing. I'm not willing to use software that will potentially cut access to all my accounts if I stop paying them monthly.

Check out 1password. Read access is retained, and you still have everything stored offline.

Most password managers retain read access. The subscription is to sync between devices and delegate shared access across teams.
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