Its much better than the ad driven model of the Internet where advertisers and investors called the shots instead of the users. Maybe subscription model would

Its much better than the ad driven model of the Internet where advertisers and investors called the shots instead of the users. Maybe subscription model would have been de facto model of the Internet from the start if the unlimited amounts of VC money that was made possible through low interest rates and the dominant foreign ex currency position of the dollar did not enter the landscape and turned everything into a growth race without heeding any healthy financials. So we ended up with gigantic social media companies that do not have actual revenue that could justify their stock price like Twitter, FB etc, companies that basically rode on attempting to corner a market with the assumption that it would end up being profitable at some point like WeWork, Uber etc. Companies that had healthy financials and unit economics were belittled and ignored, they were not ambitious enough and they were not growing fast enough. Now that the global economics is changing with competing currencies eating into dollar's foreign currency dominance and cash-awash economy through low interest rates not being possible, the startup game will likely change. The subscription model is one of the models that could make things work. But everything being a subscription does not feel like its sustainable consumer-side - $3-$5 apiece, dozens of subscriptions for different things, amounting to a hundred dollars or more - that doesnt look like manageable or affordable. So eventually bundled services may rise - subscribe for $x, and get all of these services across the Internet. Not the open Internet we want yet, but its better than the corporate dominated Internet - at least this format gives an opportunity to small players too.