Why is everything a subscription?
Subscription services are everywhere effecting personal finance the average person is now spending $273 a month on subscriptions and at the same time less than one third of them could afford a $1,000 expense without going into debt…
This only includes software services like netflix, disney plus, hulu, spotify, adobe, apple music, xbox games pass and others. it does not include other recuring expenses like gym or club memberships.
Service companies are doing this to attract venture capital investment. These investors favour subscription businesses because they provide consistent cash flows and can be scaled rapidly before being sold through a traditional IPO, a SPAC or to a private equity fund.
But these businesses are not always perfect and there are some products that just make more sense to sell through a one time direct sale.
So it’s time to Learn How Money Works to find out how everything became a subscription.
How long till steam starts charging a sub fee to use the platform. Suddenly all those games you “owned”… not really “yours” anymore… (the illusion of ownership shatters)
I remember, years ago, before I was boycotting Steam, I was saving every purchase confirmation.
At some point they changed their wording from “Thank you for your purchase” to “Thank you for your subscription”.
I tried to look for it on the web, there was absolutely zero mention of this anywhere. Apparently they changed something in their T&C, and if you don’t like it, well you can just not use Steam at all I guess. (Which I don’t, but it’s quite a hit if you have hundreds of games.)