77
Why were online subscriptions once rare, but now they are everywhere? (self.nostupidquestions)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
38 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 54 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Because companies make their best and most reliable income from subscriptions.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I’d say companies THINK they will make more money. That might be true with big, complex software that can be sold as a service that people will use (Photoshop, Windows, Office etc) or services that offer a lot (like the original version of Netflix or Amazon Prime)

    But it’s not true for things you can take or leave. (Such as most mobile apps which now have to really on sales to boost conversion rates from Free tier to subscription).

    Then you also have the issue of a fragmented market so even previously successful services like Prime are looking to get more money by adding extra costs (eg Prime Video will have adverts from the summer unless you pay $40 extra per year as a new top up subscription)

    So it’s more of a theoretical reliable income.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    It works great when people have it on autopay and are paying without consuming any services, or they make it a giant pain in the ass to unsubscribe and people put it off.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    or they make it a giant pain in the ass to unsubscribe

    Which is why I'll never subscribe to SiriusXM again. I won't even take it for free. You can sign up for whatever plan you want online, but to cancel you have to call (and it's not 24/7) and listen to ten minutes of "but what if I offered you X service for $ per month? and gave you a month free? Don't you enjoy the service we provide? Let me put my supervisor on the phone so he can try to convince you not to quit us."

    I think in California there's a law that if you can sign up online you must be able to cancel online, which pisses me off even more because Sirius could do this for the whole country but they'd rather drag and guilt people to get them to stay.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    I often wonder how many people are still paying for AOL. I know people that were still paying for it when dsl or cable internet became the better option. I'll bet people are still paying for it decades later.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent