If that's not what you meant, clarify?
The broad "startups" in question are just businesses trying to sell a product. Not everyone is going to sign up, and not of those who do, most won't maintain their subscription forever.
> Is this really sustainable in the long run?
For who? For the startups? Maybe, depends on the value provided. For the users? Maybe, depends on if they feel they're getting value.
I'm kind of confused as to what the question is really asking.
Most people I know have a handful (making exception for things that have always been "subscription", like insurances): a streaming service or two, iCloud/Google One, and maybe a budgeting app or something more niche for a hobby of theirs. I'd argue that none of those are necessary, except maybe the cloud storage to retain information and backup their devices. User's can just vote with their wallets.
As for it being sustainable for a startup: who cares - a good product will be worth paying for an it'll survive.
(Hope the tone doesn't come off as rude, I'm just trying to shoot for brevity)
Oras•1d ago
bhag2066•21h ago
Using Fermi estimation, is it: 1, 10, 100? I would say 1 because I don't believe businesses can create enough value (save them time or money) for the average person to justify spending $100/month on subscriptions.
Another thought is how CISO's found themselves with 20 cyber subscriptions and found themselves wanting to consolidated down. So I would make this the absolute upper limit.
So I have somewhere between 1-20 with the average across the consumer population being somewhere closer to 1 than 20.
The implication being that there is a lot of pain coming for the long tail of startups trying to make it with a $10/month subscription model.
bhag2066•21h ago