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Comment by palata | Hacker News Reader

> Every person I know wants a subscription, too.

You mean consumer? I genuinely cannot understand why anyone would buy a car or a bed or a fridge that requires a subscription. That's beyond me.

I do understand why companies want to screw consumers, obviously.

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> I genuinely cannot understand why anyone would buy a car or a bed or a fridge that requires a subscription.

There's a huge car finance market where people do exactly that. How much they pay a finance company monthly vs. how much they pay the manufacturer monthly makes little difference to them. It's all about the monthly fee and what they get in return for it.

I meant everyone wants to have a recurring income. After all, we have a recurring need to feed and house ourselves.

Sure, but when you buy a spoon, you expect to own the spoon. You don't pay 1$/month/spoon, do you?

That is neither here nor there. I was making a tongue in cheek comment that companies wanting recurring revenue is not notable, because everyone wants recurring revenue. The only thing limiting it before was lack of technical ability.

> You mean consumer? I genuinely cannot understand why anyone would buy a car or a bed or a fridge that requires a subscription. That's beyond me.

If I'm buying something that has recurring costs to deliver services, I feel better if I'm covering those costs, so I'm buying something with a sustainable business model.

Subscription service for heated seats - outrageous.

Subscription service for premium, ad-free mapping - reasonable.

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