The Future has a Subscription Fee

With Facebook saying it will likely create a premium version that’s Ad-free for those who choose to opt-out of Ads, the entire world knows what’s coming. Sheryl Sandberg was coy on the matter and primed us to this coming reality in a recent interview.

In this day and age, you can pay for travelling in China with Apple Pay while cash barely exists anymore in China due to WeChat Pay and Alipay and here in the west Amazon Prime was years ahead of its time with its subscription model that’s always adding even more value.

Even Uber now offer bike-sharing and access to some transportation services. As tech consolidates it’s all about offering the most value in one app and in one subscription fee. The era of stand-alone subscription fees like Netflix, may not be forever.

Spotify and Hulu Join Forces for Discounted Bundle

Music streaming service Spotify now offers a Premium bundle with Hulu, for just $12.99 a month, something Netflix and Apple should be watching closely.

Instead of paying $9.99 per month for a paid subscription to Spotify’s on-demand music service, they can choose to pay $12.99 per month for a combination of Spotify Premium and Hulu’s Limited Commercials plan. (TechCrunch)

Congressional interest in Facebook’s business model means all of tech will likely quickly pivot to Amazon’s model, where the future is management of subscription services. You will notice many news publishers have already made the switch. Including our beloved Medium.

However the future lives in discounting bundles of such services. The Tech company that offers the most consumer value in its bundle, wins. Right now, it’s hard not to admit that’s not Amazon.

While Google and Facebook will bitterly stick with their Ad-centric revenue streams and business model since they are cash-cow duopolies of an unregulated humanity new to AI, the rest of the world is moving on already.

Facebook Premium

No Ads in Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram or WhatsApp, that’s something some of those 2 billion users would pay for. Facebook makes too much of its revenue from Ads, it’s not a safe business model as consumers evolve and refine their mobile habits and spend more time on new apps in the attention economy.

Facebook will also have a subscription News mechanism and could use a more advanced version of Facebook Events to provide actual value to consumers in the real world to attract more Millennials and GenZ citizens to use it. Instagram is apparently stealing teens from Snap Inc., so there’s no reason why Facebook can’t or won’t do a Facebook Premium subscription model.

Google Must Bundle Subscription with to Monetize YouTube Better

It’s actually not Facebook, but rather Google that could be the big winner with a subscription model that competes with Amazon. Google’s services and AI scales better than Facebook to daily living.

YouTube dominates western viewership of video content, and Google has made serious progress with Google Maps, with Waymo soon to pilot self-driving ride-sharing — all of which they can bundle intelligently into a monthly subscription fee.

Google Home and Google Mini and their forthcoming smart screen for YouTube are so much better than the failure that is Apple’s luxury and music-centric HomePod. After Amazon, Google is the premium tech subscription fee that seems to make the most sense.

Google partners as well in voice-activated E-commerce with the likes of Walmart and a host of other stores and retail brands via Google Express. Here then, is an ecosystem in the making.

Amazon is soon coming out with their epic LOTR inspired TV-series that will put Amazon Prime Video on the map. Amazon could end up investing around $1 Billion on it, and every penny will be worth it. That’s how brave Amazon is to create value for consumers, and why paying Amazon Prime is nothing compared to the value it offers and affords consumers. It also means we trust Amazon more than say, Facebook.

You think Facebook copied Snapchat? You haven’t seen anything yet.

How do you see subscription bundles working out? Would you pay for Facebook Premium sub where you could opt-out of Ads completely?

By the way I recently created a new publication here on Medium that you are welcome to join, it’s called FutureSin. I’m Medium’s most prolific futurist.

The Future has a Subscription Fee was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.