Subscription Fatigue: Why the next global crisis is at your doorstep

Aside the on-going you know what crisis (Yes that one we thought was going to be over by now!), we have witnessed this year:

A UK Fuel Crisis (Gas for those Americans) - Link

A somewhat incoming Food Crisis - Link

A Social Media crisis - Link

Lately I experienced a crisis of my very own: subscription fatigue.

My friend asked me to joint venture with him on a sports subscription and I declined (I had enough on my own plate!?)

But the question is, how did we get to this point?

Image credit: Visual Capitalist

The subscription business has seen YoY growth in recent years, and even companies in various industries have found a way to transform the most unexpected goods or services into a subscription. For instance, we’ve seen this in the food and beverage industry with Pret A Manger launching their own, which most would question if it’s even profitable.

Heck, my friend even has an ice-cream subscription business!?

This hints that anything and everything now can become a subscription.?

You can’t really blame companies and individuals using this business model. In times of uncertainty, the first thing you want to do is to predict your revenue, be it MRR (monthly recurring revenue) or ARR ( annual recurring revenue). ?

It’s evident the pandemic has accelerated the intake of subscriptions on the marketplace as consumers rely more and more on the internet for everything ranging from Entertainment (Netflix, Disney Plus), to Food ( Amazon, Hello Fresh).

Subscription Growth rates in the US market for 2020 (Credit: Recurly )

Amazon Prime, Netflix, Sky Sports, ESPN, Cable, Satellite, Patreon, Spotify, Apple Music, Birchbox, Graze, Gousto, Gym+..........Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Is life one big paywall?

How do we escape all of this ??

Before you hit subscribe, ask yourself one question.

Do you want it or do you NEED it?

Adrian is a SaaS ( Software-as-a-service) professional with six years experience in the industry. He currently works for a software subscription company, iubenda, which focuses on helping over 80,0000 enterprise businesses and SMEs websites and apps stay compliant with the law across multiple countries and legislations with their 360 solutions. He also consults and has experience in the EdTech and Startup industry.