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Joel Spolsky addressed this, much more insightfully, in one of his early strategy letters: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/05/12/strategy-letter-i-ben-and-

Joel Spolsky addressed this, much more insightfully, in one of his early strategy letters: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/05/12/strategy-letter-i-ben-and-jerrys-vs-amazon/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/05/12/strategy-letter-i-... There are real reasons why companies like MoviePass exist, why companies like Snap lose money, and why investors back them. It's just a land grab where you have to move fast to establish dominance.

lozenge 8y ago
Snap I can understand, but MoviePass not. People can easily switch to another subscription.
- twostorytower 8y ago
  People can easily switch to another social video app, too. Instagram Stories stunted Snap pretty heavily.
- tlynchpin 8y ago
  People can easily switch, maybe so, but generally they don't. That is one of the reasons subscription revenue is highly prized. Many businesses are sustained on long forgotten subscriptions landing on credit card bills every month.
  - intrasight 8y ago
    This is so true. Less true for me since I have my credit card email me about every transaction, and every time I get one I must decide if I wish to keep that subscription. Here's an idea for a business. Monitor customers credit card transactions for subscriptions, and do bulk negotiation with the service provider to knock down the price based upon how much service the customer is actually using. Take 10% of the savings. Each time one of these subscription payment emails arrives, the user would be shown a few extra buttons: 1. cancel my subscription, 2. Offer service $X/month to keep me as a customer, 3. No change. Just the "one click cancel" would be useful, but the "get me a better price" should be real popular.
    - cimmanom 8y ago
      What would the incentive be for the service provider to participate in this? Most of these customers aren't going to cancel anyway.
      - intrasight 8y ago
        There are lots of business that are in the business of negotiating better prices. It's arbitrage - assuming that a service provider with list price of $25/mo would still be happy to get $20 as opposed to losing the customer.

lozenge 8y ago

Snap I can understand, but MoviePass not. People can easily switch to another subscription.

twostorytower 8y ago
People can easily switch to another social video app, too. Instagram Stories stunted Snap pretty heavily.
tlynchpin 8y ago
People can easily switch, maybe so, but generally they don't. That is one of the reasons subscription revenue is highly prized. Many businesses are sustained on long forgotten subscriptions landing on credit card bills every month.
- intrasight 8y ago
  This is so true. Less true for me since I have my credit card email me about every transaction, and every time I get one I must decide if I wish to keep that subscription. Here's an idea for a business. Monitor customers credit card transactions for subscriptions, and do bulk negotiation with the service provider to knock down the price based upon how much service the customer is actually using. Take 10% of the savings. Each time one of these subscription payment emails arrives, the user would be shown a few extra buttons: 1. cancel my subscription, 2. Offer service $X/month to keep me as a customer, 3. No change. Just the "one click cancel" would be useful, but the "get me a better price" should be real popular.
  - cimmanom 8y ago
    What would the incentive be for the service provider to participate in this? Most of these customers aren't going to cancel anyway.
    - intrasight 8y ago
      There are lots of business that are in the business of negotiating better prices. It's arbitrage - assuming that a service provider with list price of $25/mo would still be happy to get $20 as opposed to losing the customer.