2023's Top Subscription News
Robbie Kellman Baxter
Advisor to the world's leading subscription-based companies | Keynote Speaker | Author of The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction | Host of Subscription StoriesPodcast
As 2023 draws to a close, I wanted to share some of the biggest stories in the world of subscriptions.
It has been a rough and tumble year!
From pricing shifts and regulatory disputes to innovative offerings and unexpected challenges, the subscription world has witnessed significant transformations.
Here are some of the biggest subscription headlines from the past 12 months—with my thoughts on each.
TLDR: Ads are coming for our streaming service, which could keep costs down but are mostly another way to drive revenue in a saturated market. Automotive and Health subscriptions are on the rise -- 2 key areas to watch for innovation in the coming year. The FTC is cracking down on badly-behaved subscriptions -- and going after two of the biggest -- Amazon and Adobe.
Streaming Subscriptions Incorporate Ads
As recently as January 2020, Netflix founder Reed Hastings promised "No ads. Ever." He even described ads as “exploiting users”.
? Never say never.
In November 2022, the company began offering a “Basic with Ads” tier for $9.99/month, which was made widely available this year. Disney+ launched a lower-priced, ad-supported subscription as well. And Amazon just announced that they would be incorporating ads into their standard streaming service -- the one we all get with Prime. If you still want ad-free Amazon, you’ll have to pay an extra $2.99/month.
Ad-supported tiers provide a “downgrade instead of cancel” option to price-sensitive subscribers, and significant revenue too.
Car Subscriptions on the Rise
?? The automotive industry has had subscriptions as a top priority for this decade. Stellantis has committed to a goal of 1/3 of total revenue coming from digital services by 2030. Many organizations have already launched subscription experiments. While BMW had to walk back their heated seats subscription, other subscriptions, including those for autonomous driving and total vehicle access, were well received. In the same way that the cost of our phones is now less than the cost of our phone services -- we expect car service costs to be on the rise.
Dating Apps go Upmarket
According to an August 2023 OnePoll/Forbes Health poll, nearly 70% of individuals who met someone on a dating app said it led to a romantic, exclusive relationship. So apps are working, and more people are flocking to them. There are already so many targeted options, to complement generalists like Hinge, Match, and Tinder -- JDate, Silver Singles, and FarmersOnly to name a few.
Did you find true love on a dating app? ???? If not, you might consider some of the high-end services being introduced to provide a faster, safer, and more exclusive experience.
Subscriptions Come to Healthcare
?? Healthcare is ripe for change. Prices are high and service is low, and industry leaders and entrepreneurs are making a grab at serving specific parts of the healthcare change via subscriptions. After all, what forever transaction is more important than maximizing our healthy minutes? ??
领英推荐
Help for Subscription Fatigue is on the Way
Raise your hand if you're frustrated with your subscriptions (*Robbie raises hand here* ????♀?).
We are frustrated when:
???? we have to subscribe to something we only want to use once
???? we can't find the cancel button
???? we didn't realize we had signed up in the first place!
For years, Financial Services organizations like Mastercard have been providing tools to help us manage our subscriptions. Now, the FTC is investigating these practices, coming up with new rules, and even suing some. They are leading by going after big, well-established brands like Amazon and Adobe, but this should be seen as a warning to all subscription businesses to make sure that your processes aren't "tricking and trapping" your customers.
Social Media Experiments with Paid Subscriptions
?? Streaming services are moving to ad-supported subscriptions, while social media is going the other way, introducing paid subscriptions to let consumers avoid some of the pain of being in the fray -- including ad-free subscriptions. This move is positioned as providing choice to consumers, but can also be seen as a way to maximize revenue in a saturated market.
Have I covered everything? Let me know what other stories caught your attention!
Here's to a fantastic year behind us and the promising adventures awaiting us in the coming year. ??
About Robbie Kellman Baxter
Robbie is the founder of Peninsula Strategies LLC, author of The Membership Economy, and The Forever Transaction, as well?the Instructor for 10 LinkedIn Learning courses including: Create a Membership-Based Business and B ecome an Entrepreneur Inside the Company.?Her clients have included large organizations like Netflix , SurveyMonkey, and the National Restaurant Association, as well as smaller venture-backed start-ups. Over the course of her career, Robbie has worked in or consulted with subscription-oriented clients in more than 20 industries.
As a public speaker, Robbie has presented to thousands of people in corporations, associations, and universities. She has an AB from Harvard College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Find Robbie on Twitter @robbiebax,?on Instagram @robbiekellmanbaxter, and on?Facebook @robbiekellmanbaxter.
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#subscriptionapps #application #app
?? Subscription, Membership & Recurring Revenue ??????
10 个月Three stories come to mind… Our SubSummit team found that the subscription commerce economy is worth $2T as of 2023! The subscription model is taking social media by storms, and every company is now leveraging it (Snap, Meta, X, etc.). 2024 will be very telling on the industry’s future. Streaming was both the most ADDED subscription service and the most CANCELED (per our annual report). Most platforms have been steadily increasing their prices while competing with one another for consumers’ attention. And now, bundling and strategic partnerships are at an all-time high.
The Subscription Attorney | National Award-Winner | GenAI Enhanced | Latent Legal Market Provider | Podcaster (200+ Episodes) | Public Speaker (120+ Events)
10 个月More are more attorneys are ditching the billable hour and looking at subscription billing, in particular, thanks to GenAI making billing time less profitable.
Fractional CMO | Driving B2C revenue & growth ?? ?? | Keynote Speaker | Empowering Women in AI
10 个月It will be interesting to watch ads continue to be part of subscriptions as a way for organizations to boost revenue and keep costs down.
B2B Subscription | Sharing | Servitization | plan:build:validate:optimize:run
10 个月Thanks Robbie Kellman Baxter for the summary of the subscription year 2023. I expect a real breakthrough in car subscriptions in 2024. However, the innovations will probably not come from the manufacturers but from third parties (mobility concepts that are not attached to the dedicated vehicle). In 2025 we will probably see the first OEM-independent incar subscriptions. The competition authorities will push for the user interface to be opened up to third parties as well, as soon as the car subscriptions have a significant level of acceptance. But let‘s start with 2024 first ??. Happy New Year, Robbie!