The Internet is starting to Break - Here's Why.
Summary
TLDR视频脚本深入探讨了大型科技公司如亚马逊、优步、Netflix和Facebook等服务的商业模式,以及它们如何随着时间而变化,逐渐变得对用户不利。作者提到这些公司最初通过解决关键问题并提供卓越的服务来吸引用户,但一旦市场地位稳固,它们便开始改变策略,通过分层服务、提高价格和引入订阅模式来增加利润,同时减少对司机或内容创作者的支付。此外,还讨论了所谓的“黑暗模式”,即公司采取的策略和手段,使用户难以取消订阅或无意中进行额外消费。最后,作者呼吁政策干预,以促进平台间的无缝切换,并确保公司持续提供最初的服务承诺,同时建议消费者对订阅服务保持警惕,并在必要时通过策略性订阅和取消来避免被不公平地收费。
Takeaways
- 📈 **科技公司的商业模式**:大型科技公司如Uber、Netflix、Amazon等,通常遵循相同的模式,即先通过解决关键问题超越用户期望,随后通过市场垄断提高价格,降低服务质量。
- 🚗 **Uber的服务变化**:Uber在初期通过低价和优质服务迅速占领市场,但随着市场地位的稳固,开始提高价格并降低司机分成,同时引入服务分层,导致普通用户等待时间变长。
- 📱 **订阅服务的陷阱**:科技公司通过订阅服务模式锁定用户,并通过分层、额外费用和默认设置等手段,诱使用户支付更多费用,同时减少服务价值。
- 💸 **价格策略和平台费用**:公司在达到市场主导地位后,通过提高平台费用和调整价格策略,从每笔交易中提取尽可能多的利润。
- 📊 **服务分层的影响**:通过服务分层,公司能够为愿意支付更高价格的用户提供更多选择,但这往往以牺牲基础服务的质量和响应时间为代价。
- 📺 **Netflix的订阅模式变化**:Netflix通过引入4K质量和广告,以及提高订阅费用,改变了其服务模式,使得用户为了获得更好的观看体验需要支付更多费用。
- 🛒 **Amazon的定价策略**:Amazon通过Prime会员服务提供所谓的免费配送,但实际上增加了额外费用,并且有时默认选择非最快的配送选项,增加了用户成本。
- 🖥️ **社交媒体的盈利模式**:即使不直接收费,社交媒体公司如Facebook和Instagram通过广告和定向推广来最大化收益,同时使用户难以离开平台。
- 🕸️ **暗模式(Dark Patterns)**:公司采用各种策略和设计手法,如故意混淆的网页设计,来误导或迷惑用户,使他们无意中继续订阅服务或支付更多费用。
- 🔄 **订阅服务的循环**:随着越来越多的订阅服务出现,用户为了不错过内容,不得不支付多个服务的费用,导致单个内容的消费成本上升。
- 💭 **消费者应对策略**:用户应该更加警惕订阅服务的潜在成本,及时取消不需要的订阅,或者通过政策推动更公平的市场环境和更透明的服务提供。
Q & A
为什么作者认为当前的大型科技公司服务比我们想象的要糟糕?
-作者认为大型科技公司遵循相同的模式,起初通过解决关键问题提供卓越的用户体验来获得市场份额,但一旦市场地位稳固,它们就会改变策略,牺牲用户和供应商的利益以追求更高的利润。
Uber在初期是如何吸引用户的?
-Uber在初期通过提供比传统出租车更便宜、更方便、更清洁、更友好的服务来吸引用户,价格有时仅为传统出租车的50%甚至30%。
大型科技公司在获得市场主导地位后通常会采取哪些策略来增加利润?
-在获得市场主导地位后,大型科技公司通常会采取分级定价策略,提高服务的最低价格,同时通过提取更高的平台费用来增加利润。
Netflix在提供服务时采取了哪些策略来增加收入?
-Netflix通过引入4K质量的视频和广告支持的订阅层级来增加收入,同时提高了没有广告的基础订阅层级的价格。
作者提到了哪些大型科技公司使用的手段来提高用户的支付意愿?
-作者提到了分级定价、订阅服务、平台费用和暗模式(dark patterns)等手段,这些都是用来提高用户的支付意愿和增加公司收入的策略。
什么是暗模式(dark patterns),它们如何影响用户的消费决策?
-暗模式是公司用来误导或迷惑用户,使其做出非本意决策的设计和策略。例如,通过复杂的取消订阅流程、默认设置的选项、以及在用户尝试取消订阅时提供的折扣等手段,影响用户的消费决策。
为什么订阅服务在当前的商业模型中如此受欢迎?
-订阅服务提供了可预测的定期收入,有助于公司锁定用户,并通过升级销售和更昂贵的服务层级来增加收入。此外,订阅服务还能增加用户的粘性,促使他们为了最大化订阅价值而支付更多。
作者建议消费者如何应对日益增长的订阅服务和相关的暗模式?
-作者建议消费者在仅需要使用一个月的订阅服务时立即取消订阅,避免忘记取消而产生额外费用。此外,对于多个视频服务,可以轮流订阅,逐个观看内容。作者还呼吁政策上的支持,比如推动平台间更平滑的切换和保持对消费者的关注。
为什么作者认为订阅服务的增加会导致每个服务的质量下降?
-随着订阅服务的增加,为了维持收入,公司可能会开始削减成本,降低服务质量。同时,为了吸引和保留用户,公司可能会采取更多暗模式策略,这可能会导致用户体验的下降。
作者提到了哪些具体的大型科技公司的策略变化?
-作者提到了Uber、Netflix、Amazon、Facebook、Instagram等公司的策略变化。例如,Uber提高了价格并引入了分级定价,Netflix引入了4K质量和广告支持的订阅层级,Amazon在Prime服务中引入了额外的交付费用和最低消费要求。
如何理解作者提到的“平台费用”对消费者的影响?
-平台费用是大型科技公司从每笔交易中抽取的一部分,这通常会导致消费者支付的价格高于商品或服务的实际价值。例如,作者提到的Uber Eats案例中,平台费用可能导致消费者为同一产品支付远高于店内价格的费用。
作者为什么认为消费者应该对订阅服务保持警惕?
-作者认为消费者应该对订阅服务保持警惕,因为这些服务可能会导致消费者支付更多的费用,同时获得的服务却在减少。此外,订阅服务常常伴随着暗模式,使消费者难以取消订阅,从而导致意外的持续费用。
Outlines
😀 科技巨头的服务变差了吗?
第一段主要讨论了当前大型科技公司如亚马逊、优步、Netflix、Facebook和Instagram等服务的质量变化。作者认为这些服务正在变得比我们想象的更糟糕,并且呼吁人们对此采取行动。文章首先指出,这些科技公司都遵循一个模式:在初期通过解决关键问题来吸引用户,但随着市场地位的巩固,它们开始改变策略,牺牲用户利益以追求更高的利润。以优步为例,它在2009年推出时提供了比传统出租车更便捷、更便宜、更优质的服务,但随着时间推移,优步开始提高价格,并通过分级服务来区分用户,同时减少对司机的支付,从而增加自身的利润。
😠 用户被剥削的现状
第二段深入探讨了科技公司如何通过分级和订阅服务来最大化利润,同时减少对用户的服务和对供应商的支付。作者以Netflix为例,说明了它如何通过引入4K质量和广告来提高收费,并通过订阅模式来绑定用户。同时,文章还提到了亚马逊如何通过Prime会员服务来提高收费,并且通过增加额外的费用来增加利润。作者强调,这些做法并非为了提升用户体验,而是为了从愿意支付更多费用的用户那里获得更多收入,并且给不愿支付更多费用的用户以最低可接受的体验。
😡 黑暗模式和不公平的订阅服务
第三段讨论了所谓的'黑暗模式',即公司用来欺骗或误导消费者的策略,例如通过设置多重步骤来取消订阅,或者在用户尝试取消订阅时提供折扣。文章还提到了亚马逊如何通过预选更慢的配送选项来欺骗用户,即使用户已经为Prime会员服务支付了费用。作者分享了自己在尝试取消PlayStation在线服务订阅时遇到的困难,强调了这些公司如何使用复杂的步骤和策略来阻止用户取消订阅。
🤔 订阅服务的泛滥和消费者的影响
第四段分析了订阅服务的泛滥如何导致每个服务的质量下降,并且增加了消费者为享受相同服务所需支付的总费用。作者通过比较不同流媒体服务的订阅费用和观看电影的成本,说明了消费者现在需要支付更多的费用来订阅多个服务,以观看他们感兴趣的内容。文章还提到了作者自己的订阅服务数量和每月的总支出,强调了订阅服务对个人财务的影响。
💡 对策和建议
第五段提出了一些对策和建议,以应对订阅服务和黑暗模式带来的问题。作者建议用户在仅需要使用一个月的订阅服务时立即取消订阅,以避免被绑定。对于需要订阅多个电视服务的情况,建议用户轮流订阅,一次只订阅一个服务,并在短时间内集中观看所需的内容。文章还呼吁政策上的改变,包括推动平台间更平滑的转换和加强监管,以保护消费者利益。作者还推荐了Surfshark VPN作为一个提供优质服务的订阅服务示例,并赞扬了它的价格和不断增加的功能。
Mindmap
Keywords
💡订阅服务
💡价格分层(Tiering)
💡平台费(Platform Fees)
💡黑暗模式(Dark Patterns)
💡捆绑销售
💡免费试用
💡内容枯竭
💡消费者锁定
💡价格歧视
💡长期健康
💡市场垄断
Highlights
大型科技公司如Amazon、Uber、Netflix和Facebook等服务正在变得更糟糕,用户需要采取行动。
科技巨头遵循相同的模式:初期通过解决关键问题超越用户期望,随后改变策略。
Uber在2009年推出时,以更低的价格和更好的服务迅速获得市场,但随着市场地位的稳固,开始改变对司机和乘客的政策。
大型科技公司通过分级服务(Tiering)和提高价格,减少了基础服务的价值,同时为愿意支付更多费用的用户提供更多高级服务。
Netflix通过引入4K质量和广告,改变了其服务模式,减少了基础订阅的价值。
订阅服务本身可以是有益的,但当前大型科技公司的订阅模式往往意味着用户支付更多,却得到更少的服务。
Amazon Prime最初提供无限次日送货服务,但现在用户常常需要支付额外费用或满足最低消费才能享受该服务。
Uber通过提高价格和引入Uber One订阅服务,进一步增加了用户的支出,并减少了服务的价值。
Uber Eats通过提高食品价格和收取多种费用,从每笔交易中获取高额收益。
Amazon通过收取Prime费用、额外的送货费以及向卖家和买家收费,增加了用户的成本。
社交媒体平台如Facebook和Instagram通过操纵默认选项和使用暗模式(Dark Patterns),从用户那里获取更多收益。
暗模式包括故意混淆的网站设计、难以取消订阅的流程和操纵默认选项,以误导用户。
用户在尝试取消订阅服务时,平均会遇到六种以上的暗模式。
随着越来越多的订阅服务出现,每个服务的质量都在下降,用户为了享受同样的内容,不得不支付更多的费用。
作者建议用户在只打算使用一个月的订阅服务时,使用后立即取消订阅,以避免未来的费用。
为了应对订阅服务的问题,需要政策上的支持,比如促进平台间更平滑的转换和保持对消费者的关注。
Surf Shark VPN作为一个正面的例子,提供了一个不断改进的服务,没有采用暗模式或不公平的定价策略。
Transcripts
Amazon sucks right now Uber sucks right
now Netflix Sucks Facebook sucks
Instagram sucks every big tech company
is changing in front of our very eyes
and I know I usually try and see the
bright side of tech but for this video I
just want to be very brutally honest I
think most of these Services we use are
worse than you think and I want people
to do something about it the first thing
to understand is basically every big
tech company follows the exact same
pattern something that a guy called
Corey drro summarized really well with
the term ification see when any of these
companies first starts their only chance
of succeeding is to go above and beyond
for their users by solving a key problem
let's take Uber for example Uber came in
in 2009 and I remember first using it
around that time and thinking this is
the end for traditional taxis this is
far more convenient the taxis find me
instead of the other way around the
drivers are friendlier the cars are
cleaner and it did all of that while
being so much cheaper I mean Uber at the
start was 50% sometimes 30% of the price
of a traditional taxi and so it's not
surprising just how quickly people
flooded onto Uber I remember that within
just about a year of it becoming
operational it went all the way from
party trick to an essential app that
everyone should have but then things
changed as soon as Uber felt like they
had the user side of the market cornered
completely locked into the app they
switched Focus to the other side the
drivers cuz the users aren't going
anywhere at this point and so if Uber
can manage to control them and also the
drivers Uber owns the market it means
the users will have to stay where the
drivers are and the drivers will have to
stay where the users are so they
sweetened the deal for them Uber started
handing out sign on bonuses for new
joiners they started giving cashback on
fuel and discounts on car maintenance
they paid their drivers 80% of what the
app made and the best part of it was
Surge pricing anytime there was a pickup
in demand drivers could well earn two
times three times sometimes more I
remember coming out of a music festival
once thinking I don't need to pre-book
my car Uber will sort me out only to
realize that because I was coming out
with crowds of other people my only way
to get guantee that I got an Uber was to
outp pay all of them with five times
surge pricing I paid £100 for a 15minute
cabide but there is a third stage to
this master plan because what does Uber
do when they have the users when they
know they're by far the most convenient
way to hail a cab and they have the
suppliers the X taxi drivers the
restaurant takeaway drivers the package
delivery drivers well that is when true
entation occurs they gave users a
surplus at the start to make their app
essential then shifted to giving
suppliers that Surplus to get them all
on it to build Monopoly power and make
it much harder to get a car outside of
uber but this is the point where Uber
and every other big tech company in this
position will take all of that Surplus
for themselves because a well they can
but also be because by the time a
company reaches this stage more than
likely they are a public company which
means that the decisions aren't being
made by one potentially passionate
founder but instead just many many
shareholders and because because
shareholders aren't usually as invested
in the long-term health of the business
they just want the business to earn
quick money so that they can cash out
their objectives often boil down to how
do we make the users pay up until the
absolute limit of what they're willing
to but just not past it and then how do
we pay the suppliers the absolute least
that they're willing to take but just
not less than it so this is what that in
ification looks like in practice and it
all starts with tiering splitting the
base service up into multiple tiers all
at different price points and on the
face of it that sounds great like on
Uber for example it means that you can
now get priority if you want faster
Comfort which is newer cars with more
leg room exec which is highend cars with
top rated drivers and then Lux which is
the very very top end think about it now
that they offer all of these options
what happens when you're just getting a
normal Uber now you get extremely long
wait times because no driver who can
charge exec prices is going to take a
ride for normal prices you get all the
drivers who don't qualify for high rated
service and all the cars that don't
count is new enough for comfort and
trust me when I say the requirements for
Comfort are not very high this idea of
splitting things up to offer more
premium Services it's not inherently bad
it's just the way these companies
achieve this is much less about making
the experience better for the people who
are paying more but much more about just
making it worse for the people who
aren't Uber isn't changing the pool of
cars on the road to accommodate these
tiers they're the same cars the same
people with the same training but it's
just now they're segregated in a way
that each user user pays the maximum
they're willing to pay and the service
provided is the bare minimum for that
price or take Netflix when Netflix first
started it felt revolutionary I can pay
£5.99 a month which is cheaper than an
average movie ticket nowadays and get
all of this at free but then Netflix
introduced 4K quality which instead of
just being added to the base service
became part of a separate tier now being
charged at 17.99 a month then they
actually went as far as to introduce
adverts back into your movies after the
whole deal about this being the way to
watch movies without adverts and unless
you upgrade to the middle subscription
tier which is £10.99 you're going to get
those adverts Netflix isn't even the
worst offender to be honest at least
their ad supported tier is cheaper than
the normal tier whereas Now TV and
Amazon Prime they just stuck ads into
the normal tier the point is tiering is
not being used to benefit the user it's
being used to charge you more if you're
willing to pay more and then give you
the minimum acceptable experience if
you're not and that brings me on to
subscriptions in general en
subscriptions on their own they can be
fine they can be a way to make Services
more accessible instead of having to
frontload a big upfront cost they can be
a way to force companies to continue to
provide value and updates over a period
of time but the way that these big tech
companies are using subscriptions now
has meant that we're often not paying
those monthly subscriptions instead of
the bigger upfront costs we're paying
them both and you're actually getting a
worse service now whilst paying for a
subscription than you were originally
for free like Amazon for example the
entire purpose of Amazon Prime was
unlimited one-day deliveries so why is
it that now we're also having to often
pay to get the fastest delivery and for
many products actually having to hit a
minimum spend just to get that perk
which is how every online store has ever
worked since the very beginning but
without needing to pay a monthly fee or
for Uber I regularly used to take Ubers
to go see drisha early on when we were
dating she was about 120 miles away and
it used to cost about
£120 but over the last few years I have
seen that price not just creep but sore
up to 1502 200 250 and now
£300 Uber has gone from half the price
of a normal taxi to in a lot of cases
actually more expensive than just
calling up your local cap company and
pre-booking a car and remember that's
for the lowest tier which because this
tiering exists means that you are
specifically selecting a car that's at
least 8 years old with a driver who's
completed less than 100 trips or someone
who just hasn't been able to keep a good
rating and you remember that surge
pricing we talked about earlier that
still exists but now you just don't see
it instead of uber telling you that
you're about to pay three times what you
should be paying it just does it so that
you start losing your reference point of
what the journey even should cost and
that is where the subscription service
comes in to save the day Uber one I'm
paying for it every single month because
it gives you a 5% discount on your rides
and free delivery on your Uber Eats food
orders I'll get to that one very soon
cuz that is actually an even bigger
problem in itself but the point I'm
trying to make here is that if Uber is
just inventing the price if Uber is just
deciding how much it can charge you for
this particular Journey as opposed to
giving you an actual breakdown of why it
costs what it costs then a 5% discount
on a madeup price it doesn't actually
mean anything and you're still paying
far far more than you used to just a few
years ago for the same rides and now you
have a monthly expense as well that
further ties you into using Uber and
Uber only for all your driving and
delivery needs and if you're enjoying
this rather painful video then a sub to
the channel would be
[Music]
ironic because we're asking you for a
subscription but this one's free and we
do try very hard so anyway if you're
wondering why that Uber now cost £300
well it's not because the drivers have
started earning more the biggest way
that companies like uber and Amazon once
they become the default option start to
take all of that Surplus away is simply
by extracting the largest cut that they
possibly can from every transaction
let's call this the platform fees let me
show you Uber Eats for a minute so so I
fancy some McDonald's chicken nuggets
McDonald's right okay wow so the first
thing you'll notice is pricing almost
every item of food on Uber Eats is
between 10 and no joke 100% more
expensive than it actually is in person
like 20 chicken nuggets
£6.99 that seems like an awful lot but
okay add to basket so then when we go
into our basket oh look at that add £81
to save with Uber 1 so again notice just
like with Amazon Prime Uber is trying
trying to frame this as if I'm getting
some sort of perk when actually free
delivery is something that I'm actively
paying a monthly subscription just to
get and the app is denying that benefit
until I hit a minimum spend which by the
way almost always means wastage I mean
it's encouraging people to order more
than they want to order besides what can
I order that's going to exactly hit £81
I'm going to have to go over but anyway
let's go to the next page oh people also
ordered to really try and tempt me into
getting those group savings but no
resist next oh my goodness would you
look at that priority delivery
£249 and just to be very clear priority
delivery isn't some sort of hyper
accelerated personalized service that
would very much be worth that price all
it means is your driver doesn't take
stops on the way to you you know exactly
how every takeaway service ever used to
work and this is a great example of
tearing when Uber Eats first started it
was just an assumed thing that of course
your driver is going to come straight to
you to deliver your order up until
normal restaurant takeaway service have
been eliminated and now well you want
fast you pay for fast so okay fine we're
going to go priority I don't want my
food to be cold when it gets to me and
then you scroll down and oh priority
delivery is actually being charged at
£478 and that's because it's actually on
top of an already existing base delivery
fee and then there's just fee so if I
click that it says part of that is the
small order fee for orders less than £10
because orders less than £10 should have
an extra charge because they're going to
cost more to be delivered what because
the priority delivery fee is my delivery
fee so why is there a separate delivery
fee for the fact that my order is small
do you see what I'm saying and then
there's the service fee and this is what
Uber wants you to think of as their cut
but the truth is Uber is taking a slice
out of every single part of this pie
actually I can show you so McDonald's
chicken nuggets price okay so it's £ 449
on the McDonald's app which basically
means that just for delivery Uber is
taking 70% % of the value of the order
what a joke and this is actually what I
find the most insulting part of it it's
the fact that we're paying a monthly
subscription for Uber 1 right I've just
paid extra for priority delivery which
says between 10 and 20 minutes but when
you click order Uber will only get
involved and even think about refunding
you anything if the order actually takes
45 minutes or longer okay so just to be
very clear your special guarantee just
for me because I'm one of your highest
paying customers is that my order will
not take two and half times longer than
the upper limit of what you just
guaranteed it might oh well thank you
very much Uber one it is mortifying how
much they're exploiting the consumer
here I mean imagine what happens if
companies like this get in charge of
your medical and Emergency Services
Amazon is just as bad the other day
drisha was buying a batch of mini little
hampers for some gifts she was putting
together £12.99 is the absolute cheapest
you could find them on Amazon and just
before we checked out we thought let's
just do one little check elsewhere and
within a minute of browsing outside of
Amazon we found them for £4 it's so easy
to fall into the Trap of thinking well
I've paid my delivery fee that's what
I'm paying the subscription cost for
there's no way that this thing is going
to be cheaper in another store that I'm
not paying a monthly fee to have free
delivery from that's what they want you
to think but the truth is Amazon is
charging for prime Amazon is charging
extra for delivery in some cases Amazon
is charging sellers to sell on the
platform and then they're charging you
extra to buy on the platform and you can
even notice this effect with free plat
platforms social media for example even
though companies like Facebook and
Instagram Tik Tok even YouTube even
though they're not directly charging you
will still absolutely find ways to
maximize their earnings from you once
they know that you're in once Facebook
had got ever on to sign up for the first
time by being this open Haven where you
come to keep connected with every single
person you know and love they became
very aware that no individual person
could just leave that would be social
suicide so Facebook could Crank That
money-making lever as much as they
wanted to they could fill it with ads
they could charge companies as much as
they wanted to Target Those ads at you
they can curate your feed taking the
people you follow not as commands of
what you want to see but just
suggestions suggestions that are quite
quickly discarded as soon as Facebook
realizes what they can show you to make
more money out of you now where this all
gets really deceptive is the dark
patterns basically tricks that companies
employ to make you do things that you
didn't mean to do chicken nuggets are
here I'm actually fasting so I can't eat
them
there you go enjoy them they were £
1375 last year actually I signed up to
using an app called Piccolo it's just a
social or drinking game where it serves
you prompts on your phone and then you
get those people to do those things like
hey Brian from now on you have to do the
worm every single time you say
something sorry Brian the game's got a
3-day free trial oh great but then it's
£49 per week £44 per week for a game
that's very clearly been designed to be
played once a month at most and I would
have happily bought it for £4.49 or
even1 if that's what they charg it as as
a one-off fee you know how it used to be
before the subscription thing took over
but anyway I went for the free trial I
played the game with my friends we were
drinking so I didn't specifically
remember to cancel it when I woke up the
next day and it took half a year when my
accountant asked what is this £4.49
every week going to Apple when he
mentioned it I realized I had seen it a
couple of times coming up on my accounts
but because it was just a payment to
Apple I assumed oh it must be iCloud or
something negligent on my end yes
absolutely but I'm human I forgot once
and my penalty for that for playing one
phone game for 2 hours one night about
£110 there are plenty of subscription
Services I have that I think are fair
but this is a very clear example of one
that is predatory one whose entire
business model clearly revolves around
charging an unfair price and hoping that
people will forget another dark pattern
that I see so so much of nowadays is the
manipulation of the default option like
I shop a lot on Amazon right and the
reason for that is that even though I
know they're often no longer the
cheapest is that they're basically the
only company whose delivery
infrastructure I can mostly rely on the
only company for who when they say next
day it really does mean that it will
come next day this is the key problem
that Amazon first solved for its users
it's what godess also invested in the
platform and well got me and millions of
others to start paying monthly
subscriptions to Prime but now Amazon as
well as often times introducing a
minimum order quantity to get that free
delivery also often pre-selects the
slower delivery option with and I've
looked into this no way to stop it doing
that so let me just get this straight
you're charging me a monthly
subscription for unlimited next day
delivery but then assuming that unless I
specify otherwise I'd rather get the
slower delivery that I didn't have to
pay for and this is absolutely an
example of a dark pattern cuz we've had
at least three or four occasions where
we're about to film a video and then we
realize some of the stuff that we'
ordered for that video hasn't actually
arrived we go back and we realize it's
because when checking out in a hurry we
didn't realize that Amazon didn't select
the fastest option that was advertised
to us as the delivery window on the
product page honestly at this point
there is an intricate web of dark
patterns these companies are using and
you'll absolutely have experienced some
of them like deliberately confusing
website design intended to fool or
confuse the customer into not canceling
their subscription for example it's
quite common to have multiple Pages you
have to go through to cancel but then
what some companies have started doing
is flipping the continue and the back
buttons between each page so as you're
trying to mash your mouse as quickly as
possible to unsubscribe you're actually
being taken around and around the
company's pages in a loop so that you
end up reading their entire Spiel
aggressively offering you discounts and
only offering those discounts right
before you decide you want to cancel
which always makes you realize how much
you were overpaying in the first place
encouraging you to pause your
subscription so that that it
automatically resumes after a set period
of time as opposed to you being a
functioning adult who can just cancel
and then rejoin later if you decide you
want to and trying every single thing
they can to guilt you with the fear of
missing out with things like continue
your deactivation only if you are a
boring person who never likes to have
fun again there was a big study by email
tool tester who found that the average
consumer encounters over six dark
patterns when trying to cancel any
Subscription Service nowadays I mean
imagine talking to a person and they try
to mislead you six times in the span of
a few minutes that's so bad that it's
hard to wrap your head around I actually
experienced one of the worst examples of
this just last week when I found myself
with a little bit of spare time and I
thought I'd love to get just one month's
worth of PlayStation online play that
should be simple right so I opened up
the purchase page for online and no I
don't want premium no I don't want extra
I just want to play online but wait
there's no option to just buy one month
there used to be does it just assume
assume now that when I subscribe I want
to stay subscribed forever but okay fine
so I'll just buy the essential package
and then I'll cancel straight away so
that I don't get charged in any
subsequent months so I do that but then
where's the cancel button you'd think
you'd be able to go to the same place
you bought it from to cancel but no the
only thing you can do on that page is to
upgrade the cancel is actually hidden in
your console settings but where in the
settings I spent so long looking I gave
up and I actually had to Google to find
that you have to go into users and
accounts then you go into account then
payment and subscriptions then
subscriptions then click PlayStation
Plus okay so then surely you just click
cancel and you're good right oh no
because then it asks you if you'd rather
change your plan after I've specifically
chosen to click the cancel button
instead of the change button okay so
click cancel are you sure you're about
to lose these benefits and more then
when you confirm yet another window
asking you for your reasons before it
will actually let you cut but it's not
even just about what any one company
does in isolation it's just the fact
that every big tech company is doing a
subscription is in itself part of the
problem because in most cases the more
subscription Services there are the
worse each one gets and the more that
you end up having to pay just to be able
to still do the things you want to do
see you have a limited amount of time
right let's say you have enough spare
time to watch two movies a week in an
era where subscribing to Netflix at its
original £599 price lets you watch all
the big blockbuster movies people were
talking about that's a cracking deal
you're basically paying 75p per movie
but then Disney plus comes along and
takes Disney owned shows onto their own
platform Apple TV plus comes along
Amazon Prime video Paramount Plus
Peacock and every single one takes the
rights for one or two of the big
exclusive mustat shows and before you
know it you're paying like six different
subscription Services combine that with
the tiering which means that if you want
the perks and the adree experience that
you initially signed up for along with
that high quality you'll be paying
mostly between £10 and 20 per month to
each one remember your time hasn't
increased the amount of content you
consume hasn't changed you're just
paying movie Rent to more different
companies and using each service much
less amounting to £1 per movie you watch
now which is about what you would have
paid for a DVD in the first place it
feels like we've looped all the way
around and now we're back in the same
place we were except now you don't own
anything and services like Netflix are
constantly culling their libraries just
to keep their cost down I was counting
up the number of my own paid
subscriptions I had a few days ago while
planning out this video and it's only
when I tossed it all up that I realized
just how ridiculous it's become like
just for work I subscribe to epidemic
sound slack Trello the entire Adobe
Creative Suite frame.io Sur shark
Twitter blue Google Drive Uber one a
whole load of different plugins and then
personally Netflix Spotify Vodafone
tidal Apple TV plus Apple iCloud Amazon
Prime YouTube premium delivery plus
PlayStation Plus Xbox Live Nintendo
switch on online oh my God so the total
I spend on subscriptions in a month is
1,212 per month oh my
God now the truth is subscriptions and
the dark patterns that often come with
them they're not going anywhere it's not
surprising that every single company
wants them they give predictable regular
Revenue which is basically the holy
grail for businesses I mean it's a lot
more encouraging to say to investors we
have a th users and you can expect 950
of them to pay again next month than to
say 1,000 people bought our product
we'll try and get more next time it's
way easier to get people in with a cheap
subscription and then upsell them later
on with add-ons and more expensive tiers
as opposed to having to go all in with
the big upfront Hard Sell on a big
purchase and also subscriptions create
lockin so the people who are subscribed
they're not just paying you for the
subscription but they're also likely to
keep paying you more while trying to
make the most out of that subscription
and then finally lots and lots of money
I mean here's what a company's Revenue
looks like if they sell 100 products
each month for £10 and here's what that
same company's Revenue looks like if
they sell 100 subscriptions for £2 a
month it overtakes the individual
purchases very quickly and it just keeps
accelerating so what do we do about it
well just me to you what I would do is
when you sign up to a subscription that
you know you only want to use for a
month just cancel it straight away
you'll get that first month and you can
make sure it's nothing past that if
you're stuck subscribing to every single
one of the TV Serv Services because you
don't want to miss out and you do want
to watch them all you could just try
rotating subscribing to one at a time
binging the thing that you most want to
watch on that one for one month and then
moving on to the next but then part of
it also has to be policy we should be
pushing for governments to enforce
smoother switching between platforms
like still being able to contact your
Facebook friends without having to be an
active Facebook user and focusing on
making platforms continue to deliver on
their initial promises beyond that
initial honeymoon phase so a social
media platform for example should first
show you what you signed up to see as
opposed to what will drive the most
retention Amazon should first show you
the product it genuinely thinks is best
matched to your search as opposed to
who's paid the most to advertise and
Google search should first show you the
reviews that it thinks best answer your
questions as opposed to just assuming
that Google's own reviews should always
be on top and then also just keeping the
consumer in mind when it comes to
companies fragmenting a lot of attention
is given to when companies get too big
and rightly so that's a big issue but
but it's also bad for the consumer
especially in this subscription era when
they get split up in ways that make each
one a worse proposition in their own
right now one of the few subscriptions
that I have that I genuinely think flies
in the face of most of this is surf Shar
VPN for a few reasons it actually fixes
the mess created by some other
subscription services like Netflix who
don't buy the licenses to all their
shows in all the countries so every
country has a different Library which
this lets you access by just flicking
your location it doesn't have any of
those weird catches like like this
subscription only works for people so
long as they stay in the same household
no this subscription works for you and
every single person you know they didn't
price themselves at $20 or $15 or $10
it's less than $3 a month when you use
the code boss with 3 months for free
with a 30-day money back guarantee and
most importantly instead of in ifying
themselves surf shark has actually
gotten better I've been using it for
years now and the app has got clean up
there are no ads baked in there's been
no price creep and the number of
features included for this one price it
keeps going up up not down big thanks to
Cory drro by the way I've been reading a
lot of his stuff while planning out this
video and I'll pop his main articles
below if you want to have a read catch
you in the next one
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