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Netflix (and other similar platforms), Amazon Prime, Twitch subscriptions. Those are only 3 examples a ton of people pay for. If you provide a good service, y

Netflix (and other similar platforms), Amazon Prime, Twitch subscriptions. Those are only 3 examples a ton of people pay for. If you provide a good service, you will get subscribers. News have been available for free for decades thanks to OTA TV broadcasts. That's why people don't pay for it. Niche journalism needs to have subscriptions since they can have way less views and people looking for news on that niche are ready to pay.

pavel_lishin 9y ago
They're also not exactly something a developer can launch and start making money off of. Would you pay a subscription for Flappy Bird?
- klez 9y ago
  > Would you pay a subscription for Flappy Bird? I don't do that on the app store either. And software was sold way before app stores existed, so what's your point?
- eitland 9y ago
  I happily pay for games and apps, including upgrades if they are valuable to me. I refuse to pay monthly for stuff that shouldn't need backend services.
- skinnymuch 9y ago
  Flappy Bird didn’t make money from selling the app though. The example actually hurts your argument. Flappy Bird and many sites make money the same way - ads.
Turing_Machine 9y ago
What makes you (and others) think that citing three (or even half a dozen) examples constitutes some kind of refutation of the general rule? There are somewhere over a billion web sites, dude. The number of those that are profitable with a subscription model (as opposed to being supported by advertising, or not being profitable at all) is a rounding error -- in the fourth or fifth decimal place.
- vonmoltke 9y ago
  The number of apps in all app stores combined that are profitable from store sales is also likely a rounding error.
- skinnymuch 9y ago
  How many apps are profitable and of those how many are made by independent people?
  - Turing_Machine 9y ago
    More than one out of 50 million, you can bet.
    - skinnymuch 9y ago
      Are you saying there’s only like 30 sites with a subscription model that are profitable?

pavel_lishin 9y ago

They're also not exactly something a developer can launch and start making money off of. Would you pay a subscription for Flappy Bird?

klez 9y ago
> Would you pay a subscription for Flappy Bird? I don't do that on the app store either. And software was sold way before app stores existed, so what's your point?
eitland 9y ago
I happily pay for games and apps, including upgrades if they are valuable to me. I refuse to pay monthly for stuff that shouldn't need backend services.
skinnymuch 9y ago
Flappy Bird didn’t make money from selling the app though. The example actually hurts your argument. Flappy Bird and many sites make money the same way - ads.

Turing_Machine 9y ago

What makes you (and others) think that citing three (or even half a dozen) examples constitutes some kind of refutation of the general rule? There are somewhere over a billion web sites, dude. The number of those that are profitable with a subscription model (as opposed to being supported by advertising, or not being profitable at all) is a rounding error -- in the fourth or fifth decimal place.

vonmoltke 9y ago
The number of apps in all app stores combined that are profitable from store sales is also likely a rounding error.
skinnymuch 9y ago
How many apps are profitable and of those how many are made by independent people?
- Turing_Machine 9y ago
  More than one out of 50 million, you can bet.
  - skinnymuch 9y ago
    Are you saying there’s only like 30 sites with a subscription model that are profitable?