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Subscriptions are the ultimate rent-seeking business model for software and online services. When you need to increase profits to justify insane valuations, ev

Subscriptions are the ultimate rent-seeking business model for software and online services. When you need to increase profits to justify insane valuations, eventually you need to start wringing your customers dry.

falcolas 4y ago
See: Adobe Cloud I cant think of a more exploitative “SAAS” off hand.
- llanowarelves 4y ago
  They buy good software and then neglect them until they fall into disrepair or kill them off. Extracting rents the whole way. Slumlords of software.
CharlesW 4y ago
BTW, subscriptions/recurring charges aren't "rent seeking" per se. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/rentseeking.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/rentseeking.asp
- JohnFen 4y ago
  As I read the article you link to, the vast majority of SaaS appears to qualify as rent-seeking. The exceptions would by the things that can only usefully operate "as a service". But that's a minority of the SaaS offerings.
  - CharlesW 4y ago
    > As I read the article you link to, the vast majority of SaaS appears to qualify as rent-seeking. The word "rent" can be confusing. Knowing that "rent" in this case means economic rent and not the recurring payments you make to a SaaS provider, which SaaS vendor are you thinking of, and how are they rent-seeking?
    - JohnFen 4y ago
      By making people use SaaS when there's little to no actual benefit to them for doing so, it makes them do all their work on the company's server. Getting recurring payments for this is one obvious way this increases the company's income. But it also allows companies to derive income even if they don't directly charge for the service, because it allows for comprehensive collection of the user's data. (Note: I'm not talking about the data the user is processing -- although that's a risk, too -- but data about the user's machine, how they use the software, etc.) And it locks them in to such a system.

falcolas 4y ago

See: Adobe Cloud I cant think of a more exploitative “SAAS” off hand.

llanowarelves 4y ago
They buy good software and then neglect them until they fall into disrepair or kill them off. Extracting rents the whole way. Slumlords of software.

CharlesW 4y ago

BTW, subscriptions/recurring charges aren't "rent seeking" per se. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/rentseeking.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/rentseeking.asp

JohnFen 4y ago
As I read the article you link to, the vast majority of SaaS appears to qualify as rent-seeking. The exceptions would by the things that can only usefully operate "as a service". But that's a minority of the SaaS offerings.
- CharlesW 4y ago
  > As I read the article you link to, the vast majority of SaaS appears to qualify as rent-seeking. The word "rent" can be confusing. Knowing that "rent" in this case means economic rent and not the recurring payments you make to a SaaS provider, which SaaS vendor are you thinking of, and how are they rent-seeking?
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    By making people use SaaS when there's little to no actual benefit to them for doing so, it makes them do all their work on the company's server. Getting recurring payments for this is one obvious way this increases the company's income. But it also allows companies to derive income even if they don't directly charge for the service, because it allows for comprehensive collection of the user's data. (Note: I'm not talking about the data the user is processing -- although that's a risk, too -- but data about the user's machine, how they use the software, etc.) And it locks them in to such a system.