Pirating is even more woke than watching Netflix or Disney+! Take that Ron DeSantis!
I think the Wikipedia article needs to be updated to be honest. Continuing to describe it as a "conspiracy theory" is quite misleading given the phenomenon is already underway and only picking up pace.
That was an excellent read. I have often wondered myself how other people are going when I see them so adamant that they'll never use a mainstream social media/messaging service ever again and now refuse to be friends with anyone who does. I've heard "if my friends won't value my privacy, they're not real friends", or variations of it, so many times in privacy communities.
Wonder if ads actually makes up for the difference or if it’s just under priced to push people towards it.
The ads are almost certainly making up the difference and then some, otherwise I don't see why Netflix would pursue that strategy at all. The only other theory I can think of is that people are less likely to initially cancel an $8 monthly subscription than a $19 subscription, and are therefore more likely to forget to cancel it in the future.
Like the rest of the tech industry, Netflix is way past the point of making a loss just to drive growth and is now obsessed with driving maximum profits because their shareholders are demanding (or are owed) returns on the big investments they made in a different financial climate years ago. That's why Netflix is introducing ads, pushing up prices and cracking down on shared subscriptions (and now even a one-off payment to "add" an account member from outside of your household) and cancelling projects with real artistic merit at short notice when they don't show immediate signs of becoming the next massive hit. It's all about making as much money as possible now. We are no longer in the age of focusing on providing a reasonably priced and objectively good service and that will drive people back to piracy, just as it has done previously.
How is the standard plan a bad value?
Because of how it is priced relative to the other tiers. It is significantly closer in price to the highest tier ($7 gap) despite being almost identical to the lowest tier in terms of features ($11 gap). The only meaningful difference is ads. It's very clear that Netflix is trying to price out customers who are unwilling or uninterested in paying for all the features limited to the highest tier (4K, double the simultaneous streams, better audio, etc) and force them on to the cheaper, ad-supported plan instead because they believe they can make more money this way.
Additionally, the middle tier is priced closer to the highest tier to imply that the highest tier is great value (because it has so many extra features for a smaller price increase than between the lowest tier and the middle tier). This is a classic retail strategy designed to trick consumers into spending more money than they originally needed or wanted to because "it's better value". Consumers often conflate "better value" with "saving money", even though they are doing the complete opposite when they pay $7 more for features they didn't initially care about at all.
PTSD flashbacks to Willy's Chocolate Experience...
This is even more concerning (or funny, depending on how dark your humour is) when you realise that it will be replaced by AI-generated webpages. Humanity's presence on the internet is disappearing before our eyes.
I think the previous model had the best battery life of any phone GSMArena had tested, so I guess that's the niche. But I'm sceptical of a crossover between people who buy phones with with an extreme focus on battery life and people who buy phones with pretty unimpressive and out of date mid-range processors. Particularly at the price the 10 series retails for. I'm struggling to understand why Sony continues with the 10 but I guess there is a market somewhere.
Through subscriptions. Both Google and Samsung are focusing heavily on that at the moment. That's also why their unique software features are often free at first. If Galaxy AI started off as a monthy subscription everyone would ignore it but their plan is to get you reliant on it then introduce a fee.
That's a boring answer but it is sadly true for Google and every other big tech company currently. They focused on massive growth for years off the back of heavy investment but now that the financial climate is bad and interest rates are up, all these companies suddenly need to refocus the business around profitability. It's why this wave of enshittification has hit the internet within the last few years.
The funny bit to me is how obvious they are about restructuring their business model. Netflix clearly wants a greater proportion of their revenue to come from advertisers, so they're charging exorbitant prices for the 4K and, in particular, standard plan while keeping the "ad-supported" plan fairly low. They were probably seeing waves of short-term subscribers in response to big releases and are trying to bait those people into staying subscribed permanently while also milking then through advertisements. I wouldn't be surprised if the standard plan is removed at some point because it's such bad value now.
None of that has anything to do with what I said (clumsiness). Thank you for replying to a comment you didn't even bother to read, very respectful of you.