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This is going to be a disaster - Bending Spoons is not a good actor: “let’s talk about Bending Spoons’ business model. The basic concept is very simple: - Fin

This is going to be a disaster - Bending Spoons is not a good actor: “let’s talk about Bending Spoons’ business model. The basic concept is very simple: - Find a solid app that someone else built and buy it from them (see Splice (acquired from GoPro) and 30 Day Fitness) - Optimize the monetization of said app (by implementing from scratch or fine-tuning existing subscriptions), thereby driving higher lifetime value (LTV) - Take that higher LTV and use it to bid on expensive ad inventory (on Google, Facebook, Apple Search) where you can acquire more users (aka drive more downloads) - i.e. leverage performance marketing for growth - Convert those new downloads to paying users - Massively ramp revenues and cash flow by combining the new users + the better monetization - Use the new cash flow - plus the debt from those lovely Italian banks - to fund the next acquisition - Lather, rinse, repeat There is absolutely nothing wrong with this business model. What differentiates Bending Spoons, though, is how they do it. Remini - Bending Spoons’ new app that the press is gushing over - is $10 a WEEK. And Splice, the app that started it all? That’ll set you back a cool $5/week. Does anyone really think it’s appropriate to pay $10 a week for a photo editing app?” https://open.substack.com/pub/impassionedmoderate/p/ryan-reynolds-didnt-pay-close-enough?utm_source=direct&r=1ix542&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web https://open.substack.com/pub/impassionedmoderate/p/ryan-rey...

presentation 4y ago
How dare they charge money for products they own that have value.
nneonneo 4y ago
The really key bit is right afterwards: “There is absolutely nothing wrong with this business model… What differentiates Bending Spoons, though, is how they do it. Remini - Bending Spoons’ new app that the press is gushing over - is $10 a WEEK. And Splice, the app that started it all? That’ll set you back a cool $5/week.” In short, they buy apps, add aggressive and practically exploitative monetization, and ride the revenue stream until it dries up.
boole1854 4y ago
I must admit it's not entirely obvious why that business model makes them "not a good actor". And what's with the snark about Italian banks?
- Manjuuu 4y ago
  > is $10 a WEEK.
- handoflixue 4y ago
  The issue is that people are at least somewhat "locked in" to whatever apps they're already using, so sudden major price increases are a bit extortionate: Either you pay us a bunch of money, or lose access to your data/workflow. Prior to acquisition, one could reasonably expect Evernote not to announce sudden, shocking price changes, because they were trying to build a long-term brand. Now, suddenly, that's not the case. This is made worse when the app doesn't do a good job of letting you export your data in the first place.
- lioeters 4y ago
  From September 2022: > Italian app developer Bending Spoons has raised more than 340 million euros ($327 million) from investors including Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds and Kerry Trainor, the former CEO of video streaming platform Vimeo. > Bending Spoons, whose apps include popular video editing tool Splice and Remini, an image editor based on artificial intelligence technology, said the money could be used for acquisitions. > A source close to the company said former Google Executive Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt was among the investors. Other backers included Italian banks Intesa Sanpaolo and Banco BPM.
paxys 4y ago
None of what you wrote makes them sound like a "bad actor". All of these are good things for a failing business. Why shouldn't a photo editing app be $10/week? If you don't think you are getting that much value out of it then don't subscribe. Yet there is probably a group of power users who will gladly pay that amount. Evernote needs to be catering to them, not the millions of users who will endlessly complain but never spend an actual dollar on their services.
- Manjuuu 4y ago
  > is $10 a WEEK. Paxys. You probably don't have a clear idea of what kind apps he was referring to. There are no power users in this case.
  - tqi 4y ago
    https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html
    - Manjuuu 4y ago
      Completely different type of applications, I remember an old thread on twitter about one useless wallpapers app being sold for that kind of money. And it was not the only one. It's a business model.
      - paxys 4y ago
        Not sure what "useless wallpaper" app you are talking about but I just took a look at https://bendingspoons.com/products https://bendingspoons.com/products and everything there seems pretty useful and well designed.
        agos 4y ago
        if you browse Bending Spoons' site on archive.org you'll see that a few years ago they indeed sold wallpaper apps and keyboard apps for debatable prices. They had even more apps, but most of them were removed entirely from their portfolio, and some ended up in the account of Easy Tiger Apps, LLC [1], including a 4,99€/week step counting app that is a blatant rip off of a more famous one [1]: https://apps.apple.com/tz/developer/easy-tiger-apps-llc/id570748343 https://apps.apple.com/tz/developer/easy-tiger-apps-llc/id57...
Manjuuu 4y ago
Came here to write something similar, you did it better. I will never accept that selling wallpaper apps or something with the same level of complexity for hundred of dollars every year is an acceptable business model.
sporedro 4y ago
sigh well it looks like I’ll be jumping ship to Joplin this weekend. I’ve honestly lost hope in Evernote and just kept using it out of laziness to migrate, but I don’t like what the future holds.
zild3d 4y ago
> Does anyone really think it’s appropriate to pay $10 a week for a photo editing app? Apparently yes, otherwise it would have just been a failed experiment and revert back to $X/month Even if they charged $100/week I don't see how it makes them a bad actor. If the pricing/cancellation policies are deceptive then sure, but that is irrelevant to the price.

presentation 4y ago

How dare they charge money for products they own that have value.

nneonneo 4y ago

The really key bit is right afterwards: “There is absolutely nothing wrong with this business model… What differentiates Bending Spoons, though, is how they do it. Remini - Bending Spoons’ new app that the press is gushing over - is $10 a WEEK. And Splice, the app that started it all? That’ll set you back a cool $5/week.” In short, they buy apps, add aggressive and practically exploitative monetization, and ride the revenue stream until it dries up.

boole1854 4y ago

I must admit it's not entirely obvious why that business model makes them "not a good actor". And what's with the snark about Italian banks?

Manjuuu 4y ago
> is $10 a WEEK.
handoflixue 4y ago
The issue is that people are at least somewhat "locked in" to whatever apps they're already using, so sudden major price increases are a bit extortionate: Either you pay us a bunch of money, or lose access to your data/workflow. Prior to acquisition, one could reasonably expect Evernote not to announce sudden, shocking price changes, because they were trying to build a long-term brand. Now, suddenly, that's not the case. This is made worse when the app doesn't do a good job of letting you export your data in the first place.
lioeters 4y ago
From September 2022: > Italian app developer Bending Spoons has raised more than 340 million euros ($327 million) from investors including Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds and Kerry Trainor, the former CEO of video streaming platform Vimeo. > Bending Spoons, whose apps include popular video editing tool Splice and Remini, an image editor based on artificial intelligence technology, said the money could be used for acquisitions. > A source close to the company said former Google Executive Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt was among the investors. Other backers included Italian banks Intesa Sanpaolo and Banco BPM.

paxys 4y ago

None of what you wrote makes them sound like a "bad actor". All of these are good things for a failing business. Why shouldn't a photo editing app be $10/week? If you don't think you are getting that much value out of it then don't subscribe. Yet there is probably a group of power users who will gladly pay that amount. Evernote needs to be catering to them, not the millions of users who will endlessly complain but never spend an actual dollar on their services.

Manjuuu 4y ago
> is $10 a WEEK. Paxys. You probably don't have a clear idea of what kind apps he was referring to. There are no power users in this case.
- tqi 4y ago
  https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html
  - Manjuuu 4y ago
    Completely different type of applications, I remember an old thread on twitter about one useless wallpapers app being sold for that kind of money. And it was not the only one. It's a business model.
    - paxys 4y ago
      Not sure what "useless wallpaper" app you are talking about but I just took a look at https://bendingspoons.com/products https://bendingspoons.com/products and everything there seems pretty useful and well designed.
      - agos 4y ago
        if you browse Bending Spoons' site on archive.org you'll see that a few years ago they indeed sold wallpaper apps and keyboard apps for debatable prices. They had even more apps, but most of them were removed entirely from their portfolio, and some ended up in the account of Easy Tiger Apps, LLC [1], including a 4,99€/week step counting app that is a blatant rip off of a more famous one [1]: https://apps.apple.com/tz/developer/easy-tiger-apps-llc/id570748343 https://apps.apple.com/tz/developer/easy-tiger-apps-llc/id57...

Manjuuu 4y ago

Came here to write something similar, you did it better. I will never accept that selling wallpaper apps or something with the same level of complexity for hundred of dollars every year is an acceptable business model.

sporedro 4y ago

sigh well it looks like I’ll be jumping ship to Joplin this weekend. I’ve honestly lost hope in Evernote and just kept using it out of laziness to migrate, but I don’t like what the future holds.

zild3d 4y ago

> Does anyone really think it’s appropriate to pay $10 a week for a photo editing app? Apparently yes, otherwise it would have just been a failed experiment and revert back to $X/month Even if they charged $100/week I don't see how it makes them a bad actor. If the pricing/cancellation policies are deceptive then sure, but that is irrelevant to the price.