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Comment by ViViDboarder | Hacker News Reader

But Postmates, Uber, Lyft, etc are not really the same type of business. SaaS had been mainstream but memberships to a p2p app wasn’t really.

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SaaS was mainstream but e.g. Creative Cloud was not really SaaS - it was "we give you desktop products and you pay an yearly fee instead of the one-time cost". Adobe tried very hard to add Saas features but especially initially, the appeal was purely in the payment model (and I know a lot of individuals didn't like it! But a lot of companies did).

Arguably, Netflix started this trend even earlier - with their exclusively-subscription model for renting DVDs (something that one used to at least be able to pay-per-rental).

It isn't obvious at all why a membership would work for postmates or Uber eats but not for let's say movie pass or hypothetically Airbnb.

Could someone share their thoughts on this? When does an all you can eat type membership (or any other type) work?

I looked up Uber Eats Pass; it’s not an all you can eat subscription. It waives delivery fees and gives a percentage discount to orders. It’s more like a loyalty program you pay for, like Prime.

Sorry, all you can eat was a bad choice of words. I meant in terms if the fees that Uber Eats collects.

I'd say prime is similar because you get free shipping but clearly Amazon.com makes money on each sale so the more they sell the more they earn.

On the other hand, movie pass is a fixed price. You pay the same regardless of whether you watch one movie or a hundred. What makes Netflix work with all you can eat but not movie pass? Is there a way to know ahead of time what works with all you can eat?

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