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Zencoder here. Amazon has done a good job of making their pricing look simpler/cheaper than ours, and for some customers, it is. Two quick comments. 1. Our lar

Zencoder here. Amazon has done a good job of making their pricing look simpler/cheaper than ours, and for some customers, it is. Two quick comments. 1. Our larger customers don't pay more than this already. 2. Paying 33% less doesn't necessarily mean getting 33% more value. We'll be writing up an analysis today. Off the record (ahem), we've known about this for a long time, and we aren't worried.

jpdoctor 14y ago
> and we aren't worried. So are you working on designing them out? Or are you counting on them never giving your AWS account short shrift?
- wpietri 14y ago
  I think Amazon is smart enough to know that they can't give anybody short shrift. The only reason they're the leading computing platform is trust. Trust is the biggest factor in a platform decision, and they'd be foolish to put all their other business at risk for a temporary advantage in one small slice. Especially since they are still making money on every Zencoder job.
  - jpdoctor 14y ago
    > I think Amazon is smart enough to know that they can't give anybody short shrift. Really? One example: When states threatened sales tax (before CA), they cut off retailers in those states. They can and they have given people short shrift when it's in their business interest. To be fair, that just means they know how to increase sales by selecting who gets thrown to the lions, which is necessary in any business.
    - wpietri 14y ago
      Sorry, I am speaking specifically of the AWS business. I think most people making platform selections are mainly focused on AWS. I'm sure they pay some attention now to Amazon proper, but their affiliate programs were a peripheral thing, and
  - brownbat 14y ago
    > The only reason they're the leading computing platform is trust. Is there a lot of that left since they knocked Netflix offline on Christmas eve?
    - huhtenberg 14y ago
      Plenty left.
Dylan16807 14y ago
Well of course not. Paying 33% less means 50% more value! But in all seriousness I look forward to the post.
jmartens 14y ago
Jon- How does this effect your relationship with EC2?
dhbanes 14y ago
I've been using Zencoder for a little over a year now and it's been a great experience. We're definitely not one of your larger customers, paying about $100-$120 a month (and rising) on HD transcoding jobs. At our level, switching to AWS would reduce our per minute cost from $0.08 (HD costing 2x normal minutes) to $0.03 (62.5% cheaper). So our $120 bill would go down to $45. As a small startup, every $1 makes a difference and the price discrepancy will only increase as our usage increases. I'm curious if you're concerned about erosion of your low-volume customer base eventually leading lost revenue from future high-volume customers.
deleted 14y ago
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jpdoctor 14y ago

> and we aren't worried. So are you working on designing them out? Or are you counting on them never giving your AWS account short shrift?

wpietri 14y ago
I think Amazon is smart enough to know that they can't give anybody short shrift. The only reason they're the leading computing platform is trust. Trust is the biggest factor in a platform decision, and they'd be foolish to put all their other business at risk for a temporary advantage in one small slice. Especially since they are still making money on every Zencoder job.
- jpdoctor 14y ago
  > I think Amazon is smart enough to know that they can't give anybody short shrift. Really? One example: When states threatened sales tax (before CA), they cut off retailers in those states. They can and they have given people short shrift when it's in their business interest. To be fair, that just means they know how to increase sales by selecting who gets thrown to the lions, which is necessary in any business.
  - wpietri 14y ago
    Sorry, I am speaking specifically of the AWS business. I think most people making platform selections are mainly focused on AWS. I'm sure they pay some attention now to Amazon proper, but their affiliate programs were a peripheral thing, and
- brownbat 14y ago
  > The only reason they're the leading computing platform is trust. Is there a lot of that left since they knocked Netflix offline on Christmas eve?
  - huhtenberg 14y ago
    Plenty left.

Dylan16807 14y ago

Well of course not. Paying 33% less means 50% more value! But in all seriousness I look forward to the post.

jmartens 14y ago

Jon- How does this effect your relationship with EC2?

dhbanes 14y ago

I've been using Zencoder for a little over a year now and it's been a great experience. We're definitely not one of your larger customers, paying about $100-$120 a month (and rising) on HD transcoding jobs. At our level, switching to AWS would reduce our per minute cost from $0.08 (HD costing 2x normal minutes) to $0.03 (62.5% cheaper). So our $120 bill would go down to $45. As a small startup, every $1 makes a difference and the price discrepancy will only increase as our usage increases. I'm curious if you're concerned about erosion of your low-volume customer base eventually leading lost revenue from future high-volume customers.

deleted 14y ago

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