Subscription Exploitation: How Adobe Pioneered the Subscription Model

[@123uch]

I read your comment about Netflix on cold fusion... That is how l came here. Thanks for this educative piece.

[@Thinking_Business]

Thanks for watching, I’m glad you found it informative!

[@itsrelativ3967]

Subscription services = rent or temporarily have access to the software through their online servers which is 24/7 surveillance of your activities. This is how they record customer behavior and their purchase decisions to sell more software/add-ons. $50 a month eventually turns into $450 a month because you keep adding new subscriptions.

[@ReillyBJohnson]

Great channel! You deserve a lot more subs!

[@Thinking_Business]

Thanks Reilly, I really appreciate the support and hope you enjoy the videos going forward!

[@feysalshukri9546]

Great video bro

[@lottery248]

software-as-a-service is already an tremendous reduction of its service components that constitutes a legitimate reason for piracy and is also why FOSS is skyrocketing in popularity.

[@imanmokwena1593]

Keep going. Don't give up

[@thumperhunts6250]

Right so if a subscription service means a customer can afford something they may not have before it is not parasitic but if the service forces a recurring payment but it was already affordable then it is.

[@Thinking_Business]

@Thumper Hunts Yeah, that’s definitely a useful heuristic. But I think it also comes down to market power. Adobe is the gold standard throughout most of the creative industry. If you’re a photographer, it’s pretty much expected that you use Adobe Lightroom to edit your photos. In the same way that if you’re a voiceover artist, you probably use Adobe Audition. But companies with so much market power (like Adobe) recognize and can take advantage of this. Under normal circumstances, both types of consumers would just buy the individual software for their desired program. But a subscription bundle forces consumers to pay for features they will never use (like a photographer who will never use Adobe Audition or a voiceover artist who will never use Adobe Lightroom). And the software industry is particularly vulnerable to this type of manipulation because the marginal cost of replication is negligible (Giving customers access to an additional piece of software is essentially zero). So they can sell subscriptions for unneeded software bundles at a higher price than they would if it was just a single software program in the subscription. And if the exact program you need as part of your job or hobby is only available in the bundle, that photographer or voiceover artist has no other option but to pay the higher subscription fee (and keep doing so indefinitely).

[@thumperhunts6250]

@@Thinking_Business I love learning about different forms of rent seeking and how it effects different Industries. Totally overlooked

[@DigitalZeitgeist]

Really interesting video! I remember when Adobe first began its subscription model I was shocked and angry. Now it’s normal to me and I’m more likely to accept similar services to operate the same way. I definitely think more companies will continue introducing it, and it will become more difficult for consumers to push back.

[@Artist1974CH]

Whatever you say rich woman.

[@duta6388]

TLDR - “Enclosing the commons” comes to a product, service, alienated life segment and commodity near you. i.e. capitalism gets desperate and needed to figure out how to sustain an infinite growth!

[@fionarofl]

🎉

[@krone5]

I never went to this company after this, I already pay for other things in life.

[@malithaw]

Good content man.

[@Hubris1998]

I could be a billionaire and I still would pirate their software out of spite