4 ms·

Does the pricing make sense to anyone? 2TB is is $10/mo but 20TB is $200/mo. That means on a per-TB basis, the bigger plan is 2x as expensive. And then the 30TB

Does the pricing make sense to anyone? 2TB is is $10/mo but 20TB is $200/mo. That means on a per-TB basis, the bigger plan is 2x as expensive. And then the 30TB is 2x as expensive as 20TB. Aren't things usually cheaper when you buy bulk?

bdibs 8y ago
That’s usually the case, however they’re pricing for value, not some simple linear increase. A business that needs 100TB (or whatever) has more to spend, and is much less sensitive to price.
- sudhirj 8y ago
  Think this is a personal product, they have Google Apps or Suite or Drive or whatever for businesses.
  - Gaelan 8y ago
    To be fair, someone who needs hundreds of TBs of storage is probably using it for something they're willing to spend quite a bit on (my first thought is self-employed photographers).
sudhirj 8y ago
They're trying to discourage large amounts of data in a single account, probably because the solution is currently engineered to scale in O(cN), where c > 1. Can't think of any other reason. If the engineering scales O(logN), you'd see linear pricing as a way to make a killing in bulk.
- ronilan 8y ago
  “Never attribute to big O notation that which is adequately explained by an Excel error.” —- some razor
  - _nalply 8y ago
    Lacking any data it's better to start with the face value that is given to one.
bad_user 8y ago
Not necessarily. Many people pay for 2 TB without actually needing 2 TB. I currently pay for Dropbox Pro, which has 2 TB of space available, but I'm only using 300 GB. I'm pretty sure that at this point people going over 500 GB are a tiny minority. When you pay for 30 TB on the other hand, you probably need it, so their actual cost might be reflected well in that price. This is basically the long tail effect, so when you optimize the price for the majority, price increases are not linear.
- PakG1 8y ago
  This is a fantastic example and explanation (kudos to you) of value pricing vs cost pricing.
  - dmix 8y ago
    Which basically every book on pricing recommends doing - pricing on value. People always apply Walmart style retail pricing models onto everything - including most entrepreneurs to their own detriment. Which is a terrible idea for software and most other non-retail/non-low-margin businesses.
- aaaaaaaaaab 8y ago
  Lol, I would just buy multiple 2 TB subscriptions from different accounts.
  - comboy 8y ago
    Services usually offer convenience. If you don't care about it then you can already register on tons of sites with multiple accounts and get vast amounts of free storage. This and they have been working on making many accounts hard for some time now.
    - nolok 8y ago
      > This and they have been working on making many accounts hard for some time now I disagree with that. The only "hard" part is stuff that absolutely makes sense during the creation part if you're making several: captcha, not allowing the same phone number to be the recovery for more than ~10 accounts, etc ... It's all very obvious protection against spam/mass registration, and if you are an actual person it takes only a few minutes to get around. And if you go for paid accounts, all of those limits cease existing. But beside that, once you have the accounts, it's all very friendly, the multi login where you don't even have to logout / log in other account / logout again / relog in first account, account delegation so you can have a master account with automatic access to others, library (apps, photos, ...) sharing, and all of that is on the free accounts ! It might be far from perfect, but compared to the other big ones Google is very friendly to multi-accounts users.
Matthias247 8y ago
Typically. I guess this one has something to do with the target market. 2TB/10$ is still a reasonable offer for individuals. 100$/month would already be rather an offer for companies, and those might not care if it's 200 instead.
sigi45 8y ago
alone the 2tb at $10/mo is what me annoys way more. I need 1tb of space for my images but having to pay $10 makes me feel strange (yes it is relativly cheap and i can afford it) but this non linearity is probably here because of some mix calculation they are doing.
- nolok 8y ago
  They're not doing mix calculation they're aligning themselves to the market, aka Dropbox, while doubling the space offered.
  - r3bl 8y ago
    It's way more than doubling. Dropbox offers 1TB for $10 and 2TB for $20. Google added another zero (10x as much for the same price). Dropbox was definitely the first to offer a viable cloud storage, but they've always offered laughable storage plans (compared to their competition).
    - dwild 8y ago
      > Dropbox offers 1TB for $10 and 2TB for $20. Google added another zero (10x as much for the same price). 2 TB on Google One is $10, which is half of $20. I don't understands what you means by adding a zero. Are you comparing the 20TB offer which is $200 and have missed the 10x prices increase too?
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
Zelmor 8y ago
They put expensive pricing out so that the items covering 90% of their userbase look more appealing. Pricing 101. Look at any free to play game where you can buy in-game currency. [poor man's offer] [crap offer] [real offer] [expensive crap offer]
- mrhappyunhappy 8y ago
  Price anchoring. I do this with my services.
- lugg 8y ago
  I've started to notice this sometimes. I kinda laugh it off but am actually terrified about how much thought I give to figuring out the optimal bargain offer for something I had zero need for.
PopeDotNinja 8y ago
It could be a typo. That happens.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
remus 8y ago
The pricing is interesting when you compare it to G Suite pricing. For $10/user/month (with a minimum of 5 users) you get unlimited storage space. a pretty roundabout way of getting unlimited storage, but then you'd also save yourself $150/month or $1.8k/year
- tk75x 8y ago
  Split the cost with 4 other like-minded individuals and all of a sudden you're paying $10/month for all the benefits.
  - ianhowson 8y ago
    They're not enforcing the storage limit for <5 person accounts, either. My wife and I have GSuite+storage for $10/mo each and I've got about 4TB in my Drive right now.

bdibs 8y ago

That’s usually the case, however they’re pricing for value, not some simple linear increase. A business that needs 100TB (or whatever) has more to spend, and is much less sensitive to price.

sudhirj 8y ago
Think this is a personal product, they have Google Apps or Suite or Drive or whatever for businesses.
- Gaelan 8y ago
  To be fair, someone who needs hundreds of TBs of storage is probably using it for something they're willing to spend quite a bit on (my first thought is self-employed photographers).

sudhirj 8y ago

They're trying to discourage large amounts of data in a single account, probably because the solution is currently engineered to scale in O(cN), where c > 1. Can't think of any other reason. If the engineering scales O(logN), you'd see linear pricing as a way to make a killing in bulk.

ronilan 8y ago
“Never attribute to big O notation that which is adequately explained by an Excel error.” —- some razor
- _nalply 8y ago
  Lacking any data it's better to start with the face value that is given to one.

bad_user 8y ago

Not necessarily. Many people pay for 2 TB without actually needing 2 TB. I currently pay for Dropbox Pro, which has 2 TB of space available, but I'm only using 300 GB. I'm pretty sure that at this point people going over 500 GB are a tiny minority. When you pay for 30 TB on the other hand, you probably need it, so their actual cost might be reflected well in that price. This is basically the long tail effect, so when you optimize the price for the majority, price increases are not linear.

PakG1 8y ago
This is a fantastic example and explanation (kudos to you) of value pricing vs cost pricing.
- dmix 8y ago
  Which basically every book on pricing recommends doing - pricing on value. People always apply Walmart style retail pricing models onto everything - including most entrepreneurs to their own detriment. Which is a terrible idea for software and most other non-retail/non-low-margin businesses.
aaaaaaaaaab 8y ago
Lol, I would just buy multiple 2 TB subscriptions from different accounts.
- comboy 8y ago
  Services usually offer convenience. If you don't care about it then you can already register on tons of sites with multiple accounts and get vast amounts of free storage. This and they have been working on making many accounts hard for some time now.
  - nolok 8y ago
    > This and they have been working on making many accounts hard for some time now I disagree with that. The only "hard" part is stuff that absolutely makes sense during the creation part if you're making several: captcha, not allowing the same phone number to be the recovery for more than ~10 accounts, etc ... It's all very obvious protection against spam/mass registration, and if you are an actual person it takes only a few minutes to get around. And if you go for paid accounts, all of those limits cease existing. But beside that, once you have the accounts, it's all very friendly, the multi login where you don't even have to logout / log in other account / logout again / relog in first account, account delegation so you can have a master account with automatic access to others, library (apps, photos, ...) sharing, and all of that is on the free accounts ! It might be far from perfect, but compared to the other big ones Google is very friendly to multi-accounts users.

Matthias247 8y ago

Typically. I guess this one has something to do with the target market. 2TB/10$ is still a reasonable offer for individuals. 100$/month would already be rather an offer for companies, and those might not care if it's 200 instead.

sigi45 8y ago

alone the 2tb at $10/mo is what me annoys way more. I need 1tb of space for my images but having to pay $10 makes me feel strange (yes it is relativly cheap and i can afford it) but this non linearity is probably here because of some mix calculation they are doing.

nolok 8y ago
They're not doing mix calculation they're aligning themselves to the market, aka Dropbox, while doubling the space offered.
- r3bl 8y ago
  It's way more than doubling. Dropbox offers 1TB for $10 and 2TB for $20. Google added another zero (10x as much for the same price). Dropbox was definitely the first to offer a viable cloud storage, but they've always offered laughable storage plans (compared to their competition).
  - dwild 8y ago
    > Dropbox offers 1TB for $10 and 2TB for $20. Google added another zero (10x as much for the same price). 2 TB on Google One is $10, which is half of $20. I don't understands what you means by adding a zero. Are you comparing the 20TB offer which is $200 and have missed the 10x prices increase too?

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

Zelmor 8y ago

They put expensive pricing out so that the items covering 90% of their userbase look more appealing. Pricing 101. Look at any free to play game where you can buy in-game currency. [poor man's offer] [crap offer] [real offer] [expensive crap offer]

mrhappyunhappy 8y ago
Price anchoring. I do this with my services.
lugg 8y ago
I've started to notice this sometimes. I kinda laugh it off but am actually terrified about how much thought I give to figuring out the optimal bargain offer for something I had zero need for.

PopeDotNinja 8y ago

It could be a typo. That happens.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

remus 8y ago

The pricing is interesting when you compare it to G Suite pricing. For $10/user/month (with a minimum of 5 users) you get unlimited storage space. a pretty roundabout way of getting unlimited storage, but then you'd also save yourself $150/month or $1.8k/year

tk75x 8y ago
Split the cost with 4 other like-minded individuals and all of a sudden you're paying $10/month for all the benefits.
- ianhowson 8y ago
  They're not enforcing the storage limit for <5 person accounts, either. My wife and I have GSuite+storage for $10/mo each and I've got about 4TB in my Drive right now.