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It appears the MoviePass master plan for world domination was inspired by the underpants gnomes of South Park[a]: Step 1. Charge customers $10/month for unlimi

by cs702 5y ago

It appears the MoviePass master plan for world domination was inspired by the underpants gnomes of South Park[a]: Step 1. Charge customers $10/month for unlimited passes to movie theaters Step 2. Change passwords to prevent customers from getting their passes Step 3. ??? -- [a] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO5sxLapAts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO5sxLapAts

Chris2048 5y ago
But if that where the case, they could just recover their passwords? From the sound of the "suspicious activity" line, it seems they may have been blocked? Also, I wonder how the corp avoided chargebacks
richardwhiuk 5y ago
Also relevantly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBO_7UezpbY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBO_7UezpbY
kingaillas 5y ago
Matt Levine's summary in his current newsletter is this: "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." And the way they ignored you was even worse - changing the passwords on their highest volume users. Anyway, it's a great read. Subscribe, it is a fantastic free newsletter. Past awesome coverage included the RobinHood stock hijinks. (Bloomberg's Money Stuff newsletter, sub here: https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/money-stuff https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/money-stuff)
- nerdponx 5y ago
  Surely some enterprising state AG or class action attorneys could take this up, no?

by cs702 5y ago

Chris2048 5y ago

But if that where the case, they could just recover their passwords? From the sound of the "suspicious activity" line, it seems they may have been blocked? Also, I wonder how the corp avoided chargebacks

richardwhiuk 5y ago

Also relevantly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBO_7UezpbY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBO_7UezpbY

kingaillas 5y ago

Matt Levine's summary in his current newsletter is this: "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." And the way they ignored you was even worse - changing the passwords on their highest volume users. Anyway, it's a great read. Subscribe, it is a fantastic free newsletter. Past awesome coverage included the RobinHood stock hijinks. (Bloomberg's Money Stuff newsletter, sub here: https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/money-stuff https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/money-stuff)

nerdponx 5y ago
Surely some enterprising state AG or class action attorneys could take this up, no?