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Semi-rhetorical question: why do customers accept something like this delivered in SaaS form? It seems so antithetical to customer obsession when this is the ex
by Denzel 7y ago
Semi-rhetorical question: why do customers accept something like this delivered in SaaS form? It seems so antithetical to customer obsession when this is the exact type of problem that lends itself well to a locally running application.
Why not deliver this as a desktop application that users download and pay for one-time? There’s absolutely no need for an ongoing subscription to a backend service here. Outside of rent-seeking.
- autonoshitbox 7y agoCustomers are typically stupid, cash-rich and easily exploited.
- stallmanite 7y agoSounds like you are really good at finding customers.
- autonoshitbox 7y agoCorrect.
- oDot 7y agoThe explanation is that this is probably the best offering they're aware of, and whatever the price is, it's less than the value they receive.
- jcytong 7y agoMaybe you can do it and compete with them?
- lotsofpulp 7y ago> Why not deliver this as a desktop application that users download and pay for one-time? Because when given the option, sellers usually choose more money than less money. Anyone is welcome to create a competing product and take their margins.
- raverbashing 7y agoAnd buyers choose less money over more money. The one time purchase could have been, let's say, $20, but if I want to use it a couple of times, paying $5 per month might be a better deal. And you're always getting the latest version
- michaelbuckbee 7y agoSemi-rhetorical answer: 1. It still provides more value than the monthly subscription. 2. People have shown a greater willingness to pay for ongoing features and support in a SAAS model than in other formats. 3. It better aligns with the costs of support and maintenance that the provider needs to provide. 4. It's less risky for the consumer to get started. 5. There's no piracy or people decompiling your app and putting it out under their own name. 6. No updates to fiddle with and works across machines. Not all answers above directly apply to the podcast->video service here but these are the general reasons.
- csallen 7y agoI built and sold an installable application in the past, and #5 was brutal. For some reason it's rarely discussed.
- ThomPete 7y agoI had a customer openly admit to me that they had been using a pirated version of my app until now. Pretty crazy when you see your own app on torrent sites.
- z3ncyberpunk 7y agoOnly when your goal is making money and not making apps to further humanity
- RussianCow 7y agoIsn't that implied if you charge money for your app?
- tempestn 7y agoCan't you do both? Why should people be expected to work for free?
- ArnoVW 7y agoMaking money allows you to invest. If you can't make money, the scope of what is possible is restricted to "what one guy can make as a hobby". Not all problems are workable within that constraint.
- devinplatt 7y agoCash flow? If it was a one time purchase they'd have to charge more upfront. Also maybe there could be automation with this service that saves time?
- heliodor 7y agoThe main point people make about differentiating your digital product is to not compete on price. A lower price means less money for advertising and marketing, so a losing proposition. What you're proposing with the one-time upfront fee model is to compete on price, so smart entrepreneurs steer clear of that model.
- Denzel 7y agoHave to disagree with your conclusion, counterpoint being Jeff Bezos who maintains a number (a majority?) of business lines that compete on price.
- exclusiv 7y agoI like SaaS but one time has the advantage of being able to use more money on growth. So if you have your acquisition dialed in it can be advantageous to offer a larger annual or lifetime model.
- hobofan 7y agoWith this specific product, I would argue that being OS and desktop independent is actually a feature. I can imagine that a significant amount of the users might even upload the videos to their social media profiles from their phone. The choice is between maintaining 2 mobile apps + a desktop app that is compatible with macOS and Windows and maintaining a single webapp.
- QuantumGood 7y agoCustomers "accept" an explanation of value vs. alternatives, which is largely marketing communication. Your second (main?) point: "no need" / "rent-seeking" is addressed well by michaelbuckbee, particularly point #5.
- austhrow743 7y agoA subscription as opposed to an upfront one time payment allows them to pay on a timescale that more accurately reflects the value they are receiving. This is generally a good thing. Renting is often exactly what businesses want to do. They have better uses for their money than pre-purchasing all of their future expenses. They rent office space, lease cars, pay salaries fortnightly instead of at the start of the year, pay for their inventory not only as they receive it rather than in advance, but often on terms of credit. Software doesn't have a reason to be an exception to this. If I can pay $X now or $X spread over a number of years, I'm going to pick the latter. The payment terms of a product are effectively part of the product itself. I'm in sales and I've won and lost deals against comparatively priced competitors on the basis that my/their pricing schedule better matched what the prospect wanted. I took renting to mean just ongoing payments by the way. If you meant rent seeking as in the concept in economics then 1. this isn't it and 2. using IP law to prop up the value of locally installable software would be a closer example of it than doing so by keeping some of the code under your own control is.
- duxup 7y agoI've kinda reached the point where I don't want to install anything... unless I'm 100% sure I want it. I'm happy to do a free trial, and have it instantly accessible on all my devices that have a browser and etc.
- register 7y agoTo me the easiest answer is that they are leveraging FFMPEG which is GPL. If they had embedded it in a mobile or desktop application they would have had to release it as open source.
- ivanhoe 7y agoOne-time fee means that you pay more money upfront. Plus you have to install it, which is both a security issue and unnecessary hassle if you don't like it and need to uninstall it. If you change your machine you need to reinstall the app. If you need it from more than one location (home, office) you need to pay for more licenses. Support is way more complicated for desktop apps. And then next year they release a new version of the app, and you need to pay for the upgrade, so it's pretty much the same dynamics as annual subscription.
- pjc50 7y agoIt looks to me like the video isn't "trapped" in their app - in fact it's intended to be uploaded elsewhere? So once you've used it, you only need to continue paying if you're continuing to use it. That's the opposite of rent-seeking, that's .. charging money for a service.