4 ms·

That's amazing. Matt Levine covered it in his column today as well--haven't had time to read it yet, but it's probably good as usual https://www.bloomberg.com/o

That's amazing. Matt Levine covered it in his column today as well--haven't had time to read it yet, but it's probably good as usual https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-06-08/moviepass-changed-some-passwords https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-06-08/moviep...

justusthane 5y ago
I suspect you're downvoted for recommending something you didn't read, but yes, it is very good: > If you sell $20 worth of movie tickets for $10, people will sign up, you will have rapid user growth and you can probably get someone to think that that’s valuable, even though in fact every user that you add costs you $10. > But — unlike most of the “MoviePass economy” — MoviePass was not actually a venture-funded startup, did not raise piles of money, and was somewhat constrained by economic reality. So at some point the company looked for ways to make this insane business model work, and it found one. It’s pretty simple: What if MoviePass collected your $10 each month and then, when you asked it for movie tickets, it ignored you? Then it could keep collecting your $10 a month without spending money on tickets. Eventually you’d get annoyed by not getting what you paid for, and you’d try to cancel your membership and get your money back, but MoviePass could ignore that too and keep collecting the $10. Giving people unlimited movie tickets for $10 a month is a good way to get rapid customer growth; telling people you’ll give them unlimited movie tickets for $10 a month, but not actually doing it, is a way to pivot to profitability.
- jcwayne 5y ago
  Add in a startup fee and it would be a gym membership.
- Chris2048 5y ago
  I suspect a lot a corps sub to a similar model: Make it not-obvious when something is billed, and make sure never to tip the customer off (e.g. by sending a monthly invoice). More than one company made it very easy to activate non-obvious reoccurring payments, and then communicate nothing wrt to the fact. On that note: Fuck you NowTV. also non too happy with Paperspace.

justusthane 5y ago

I suspect you're downvoted for recommending something you didn't read, but yes, it is very good: > If you sell $20 worth of movie tickets for $10, people will sign up, you will have rapid user growth and you can probably get someone to think that that’s valuable, even though in fact every user that you add costs you $10. > But — unlike most of the “MoviePass economy” — MoviePass was not actually a venture-funded startup, did not raise piles of money, and was somewhat constrained by economic reality. So at some point the company looked for ways to make this insane business model work, and it found one. It’s pretty simple: What if MoviePass collected your $10 each month and then, when you asked it for movie tickets, it ignored you? Then it could keep collecting your $10 a month without spending money on tickets. Eventually you’d get annoyed by not getting what you paid for, and you’d try to cancel your membership and get your money back, but MoviePass could ignore that too and keep collecting the $10. Giving people unlimited movie tickets for $10 a month is a good way to get rapid customer growth; telling people you’ll give them unlimited movie tickets for $10 a month, but not actually doing it, is a way to pivot to profitability.

jcwayne 5y ago
Add in a startup fee and it would be a gym membership.
Chris2048 5y ago
I suspect a lot a corps sub to a similar model: Make it not-obvious when something is billed, and make sure never to tip the customer off (e.g. by sending a monthly invoice). More than one company made it very easy to activate non-obvious reoccurring payments, and then communicate nothing wrt to the fact. On that note: Fuck you NowTV. also non too happy with Paperspace.