Subscriptis in the MarketingTech Industry

Subscript

subscript

Monthly subscriptions have become the new norm for accessing online services for individuals and corporations. With the popularity of subscription-based services, online fraudsters have developed different ways of exploiting compromised credentials for financial gain. This article details my personal experiences dealing with Identity Theft and proposes a strategy for dealing with them at large. The most popular form of Identity Theft in an online setting is called Account Takeover fraud. In this format of fraud, a fraudster gains access to a user’s online account through social engineering and makes purchases using the previously saved payment method information. In subscription-based services, these purchases are normally additional licenses to the software. The fraudster then sells it at a cheaper rate to buyers on the dark web. When the owner of the account finds out about this fraud, they normally report it to the company that offers the service, and the company makes a refund to the user in an effort to retain them. This results in financial and reputation loss to the service offering company, and the user loses trust in the security of the service. Furthermore, auditing authorities such as payment gateways threaten to de-list the company as a merchant due to a lack of effective security measures. Personal Account As the Identity Security Architect facing this situation, I had to deal with multiple challenges. First and foremost was to implement measures to detect and prevent fraud. The Second was to do this without worsening the user experience resulting from stricter security measures. Detecting Online Fraud My approach to dealing with these problems began with identifying patterns of fraud. Common patterns that emerged in this analysis were, Suspicious Login Activity: Where the user logs in from an IP address that does not map to the physical address of the account owner or from a device that they do not normally log in from. Suspicious Purchase Activity: Where the user or a small business makes a large purchase for an unjustified number of licenses. For example, an online Yoga teacher makes a purchase of 100 licenses for a video conferencing tool when they normally need just one. Or a user makes multiple purchases of a small number of licenses in succession. Preventing Fraud Through Novel and Adaptive Fraud Prevention Techniques Strict measures to prevent fraud often lead to a poor user experience for legitimate users. In order to avoid this, I employed adaptive fraud prevention techniques. When a user logs in from a new IP address or device, they are challenged with a second-factor authentication by sending them a verification code via text. Upon successful verification, the new IP address or Device ID was added to the list of trusted traffic sources. When the users make an irregular purchase either for large quantities or repeated purchases, they are challenged to re-enter the CVV  from the back of their saved cards. Once these challenges were presented to the users, until they passed the challenge, they were disallowed from making changes to their accounts. Furthermore, the IP addresses and devices that could not pass the challenge are cataloged as high-risk traffic sources, and future activity from these devices is presented with stricter security challenges. These measures largely reduced fraud and prevented legitimate users from being inconvenienced by the stricter safety measures. Addressing the Global Problem of Identity Theft Imagine if, when a stranger attempted to open the door of your parked car, you could instantly alert your entire neighborhood through a community platform, ensuring everyone took precautions to prevent theft. This common practice in physical communities is lacking in the online world, where account takeover and identity theft are rampant. While the measures mentioned in the previous section successfully prevent fraudulent activity in most cases for a given online application, they fail to prevent online fraud from occurring across different applications due to the reuse of login credentials, a very common practice. A server-side solution presents an opportunity to mitigate this risk and prevent account takeovers across multiple platforms. By establishing a centralized index of compromised credentials (CICC), software applications can proactively protect their users. When a login attempt is made, participating applications can cross-reference the credentials with the CICC to verify their integrity. If compromised credentials are detected, the application can prompt the user to undergo additional authentication measures, such as two-factor authentication, to thwart unauthorized access. The account owners are notified of the fraud attempt and asked to change the password to a stronger password across applications. In conclusion, a shared protocol similar to the one presented above is urgently required to prevent identity theft in the online world. Detection and prevention within closed ecosystems fail to solve the problem at a global scale. An open approach to dealing with the problem seems to be a viable future alternative. Monthly subscriptions have become the new norm for accessing online services for individuals and corporations. With the popularity of subscription-based services, online fraudsters have developed different ways of exploiting compromised credentials for financial gain. This article details my personal experiences dealing with Identity Theft and proposes a strategy for dealing with them at large. The most popular form of Identity Theft in an online setting is called Account Takeover fraud. In this format of fraud, a fraudster gains access to a user’s online account through social engineering and makes purchases using the previously saved payment method information. In subscription-based services, these purchases are normally additional licenses to the software. The fraudster then sells it at a cheaper rate to buyers on the dark web. When the owner of the account finds out about this fraud, they normally report it to the company that offers the service, and the company makes a refund to the user in an effort to retain them. This results in financial and reputation loss to the service offering company, and the user loses trust in the security of the service. Furthermore, auditing authorities such as payment gateways threaten to de-list the company as a merchant due to a lack of effective security measures. Personal Account As the Identity Security Architect facing this situation, I had to deal with multiple challenges. First and foremost was to implement measures to detect and prevent fraud. The Second was to do this without worsening the user experience resulting from stricter security measures. Detecting Online Fraud Detecting Online Fraud My approach to dealing with these problems began with identifying patterns of fraud. Common patterns that emerged in this analysis were, Suspicious Login Activity: Where the user logs in from an IP address that does not map to the physical address of the account owner or from a device that they do not normally log in from. Suspicious Login Activity: Where the user logs in from an IP address that does not map to the physical address of the account owner or from a device that they do not normally log in from. Suspicious Login Activity: Suspicious Purchase Activity: Where the user or a small business makes a large purchase for an unjustified number of licenses. For example, an online Yoga teacher makes a purchase of 100 licenses for a video conferencing tool when they normally need just one. Or a user makes multiple purchases of a small number of licenses in succession. Suspicious Purchase Activity: Where the user or a small business makes a large purchase for an unjustified number of licenses. For example, an online Yoga teacher makes a purchase of 100 licenses for a video conferencing tool when they normally need just one. Or a user makes multiple purchases of a small number of licenses in succession. Suspicious Purchase Activity: Preventing Fraud Through Novel and Adaptive Fraud Prevention Techniques Strict measures to prevent fraud often lead to a poor user experience for legitimate users. In order to avoid this, I employed adaptive fraud prevention techniques. When a user logs in from a new IP address or device, they are challenged with a second-factor authentication by sending them a verification code via text. Upon successful verification, the new IP address or Device ID was added to the list of trusted traffic sources. When a user logs in from a new IP address or device, they are challenged with a second-factor authentication by sending them a verification code via text. Upon successful verification, the new IP address or Device ID was added to the list of trusted traffic sources. When the users make an irregular purchase either for large quantities or repeated purchases, they are challenged to re-enter the CVV  from the back of their saved cards. When the users make an irregular purchase either for large quantities or repeated purchases, they are challenged to re-enter the CVV  from the back of their saved cards. Once these challenges were presented to the users, until they passed the challenge, they were disallowed from making changes to their accounts. Furthermore, the IP addresses and devices that could not pass the challenge are cataloged as high-risk traffic sources, and future activity from these devices is presented with stricter security challenges. These measures largely reduced fraud and prevented legitimate users from being inconvenienced by the stricter safety measures. Addressing the Global Problem of Identity Theft Imagine if, when a stranger attempted to open the door of your parked car, you could instantly alert your entire neighborhood through a community platform, ensuring everyone took precautions to prevent theft. This common practice in physical communities is lacking in the online world, where account takeover and identity theft are rampant. While the measures mentioned in the previous section successfully prevent fraudulent activity in most cases for a given online application, they fail to prevent online fraud from occurring across different applications due to the reuse of login credentials, a very common practice. A server-side solution presents an opportunity to mitigate this risk and prevent account takeovers across multiple platforms. By establishing a centralized index of compromised credentials (CICC), software applications can proactively protect their users. When a login attempt is made, participating applications can cross-reference the credentials with the CICC to verify their integrity. If compromised credentials are detected, the application can prompt the user to undergo additional authentication measures, such as two-factor authentication, to thwart unauthorized access. The account owners are notified of the fraud attempt and asked to change the password to a stronger password across applications. In conclusion, a shared protocol similar to the one presented above is urgently required to prevent identity theft in the online world. Detection and prevention within closed ecosystems fail to solve the problem at a global scale. An open approach to dealing with the problem seems to be a viable future alternative.

Battling Identity Theft in Subscription Based Services: A Personal War Story

Nowadays, we've witnessed the remarkable growth of the subscription market, which has expanded by more than 435% in the last nine years. The market's sheer size and potential are evident in the U.S. alone, with 42% of men and 28% of women having three or more subscriptions. Initially popularized by digital services like music and video streaming, this growth has extended to physical goods, including everyday consumables, durable products, and even high-tech gadgets like laptops. This shift in consumer behavior towards convenience and modernity poses unique challenges, particularly in managing subscriptions for physical products. Broadening the Scope: Physical Product Subscriptions The evolution of markets like electric bike rentals has shed light on the distinct differences between standard rental services and subscription models. Unlike one-off rentals, subscriptions foster long-term relationships and are increasingly viewed as viable alternatives to outright purchase. They typically offer comprehensive customer care, including maintenance, repairs, replacement, and sometimes delivery and technical support. The recurrent payments model ensures ongoing customer engagement and continuity of service. This model's scalability, capable of managing extensive inventories, starkly contrasts traditional rental companies' small-scale operations. In practice, items like electric bikes require constant upkeep; they need inspection and sometimes repair each time they are rented and returned. Subscription services in this sector are designed to respond quickly to such needs. Additionally, the financial structures of these subscriptions often resemble those of digital services, with a monthly billing cycle. Managing such models necessitates addressing late payments and ensuring the timely return of items, highlighting the complex operational demands of physical product subscriptions. Innovation in Subscription Management Systems With existing systems primarily designed for one-off transactions or digital-only subscriptions, there's a clear gap in managing physical items within a subscription framework. This gap presents not just a challenge but an opportunity for innovation. Traditional systems for the rental and sales of physical goods often fall short of meeting the specific needs of subscription-based operations. Recognizing this, there's a shift towards developing bespoke systems tailored to handle the dynamics of subscription billing, logistics, customer reliability, and the rotation of physical products. Such systems aim to streamline internal processes, ensuring seamless, reliable operations adaptable to evolving business models. So, as CTO of Whizz, a company dealing with electric bike subscriptions, I decided to develop a system that could combine all the individual solutions we used in our business before. A comprehensive system for managing a service like electric bike subscriptions might include modules for recurring payments, inventory management, CRM, analytics, debt collection, and integrations with various services. Features like lead management, loyalty programs, and client-side subscription management via web and mobile apps are becoming standard. Streamlining operations with electronic document management and digital queuing systems can significantly reduce service times and improve efficiency. Impact and Outcomes of Custom Systems Deploying these custom systems can lead to substantial cost reductions, quicker launches of new locations, and efficient management of large inventories. Decision-making processes in such setups are increasingly data-driven, enhancing fleet utilization rates and reducing risks associated with theft and fraud. The success in this field stems from a thorough understanding of customer interactions and business dynamics. This comprehensive approach contrasts with solutions addressing only partial needs and highlights the importance of detailed knowledge in developing systems attuned to the complexities of the subscription model. While challenging, the journey towards creating such bespoke solutions can yield highly rewarding and effective outcomes.

Efficiency of Custom Solutions in Physical Subscription Services

FTC v. Amazon Court Filing, retrieved on Sep 26, 2023, is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 8 of 80. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here D. Amazon Prime 98. Amazon runs a subscription program called Amazon Prime. Amazon launched Prime in 2005 as a shipping subscription. For an annual fee of $79, subscribers bought unlimited shipping on eligible items, at no per-order cost to shoppers. Amazon today continues to include a shipping service as part of Prime, with an unlimited two-day shipping promise on eligible items at no per-order cost. 99. Over time, Amazon has expanded Prime from a shipping program to a subscription that is, in Amazon's internal assessment, (redacted) It includes a broad combination of products and services, including many that are unrelated to online retail shopping, such as: (1) Prime Video, a video-on-demand and streaming service; (2) Amazon Music Prime, an ad-free music streaming service; (3) Prime Gaming, a video gaming service that includes downloadable games, exclusive in-game content, and channel subscriptions and badges on Twitch, a livestreaming service Amazon acquired for nearly $1 billion in 2014; and (4) RxPass, which provides access to a list of eligible prescription medications, including shipping, for a flat $5 per month fee. Prime subscribers also receive access to exclusive online shopping discounts and promotions such as "Prime Day," a highly publicized annual promotion with exclusive deals for Prime subscribers. 100. Amazon has increased the subscription fee for Prime from the original $79 to nearly double that price, at $139 per year, with a monthly subscription priced at $14.99. 101. Amazon charges a Prime subscription fee primarily to (redacted). As Amazon puts it, (redacted) The Prime subscription fee makes subscribers feel as though they must make the subscription fee worth it by making more purchases on Amazon. A former Amazon employee who was involved in the development of Prime explained that Prime pricing "was never really about the seventy-nine dollars. It was really about changing people's mentality so they wouldn't shop anywhere else." 102. According to Amazon's internal analyses, (redacted). Accordingly, the average Prime subscriber spends (redacted) each year on Amazon than the average non-Prime Amazon shopper. Conversely, consumers who are not Prime subscribers are (redacted) Amazon’s rivals’ analyses also show a (redacted) 103. As shown in Figures 9a (desktop) and 9b (mobile), Amazon displays a "Prime Badge" to show Prime subscribers which items are eligible for the prepaid unlimited shipping included in the Prime subscription. 104. Amazon’s interfaces let Prime subscribers filter their searches to display only Prime-eligible offers. On the top left-hand side of Amazon’s desktop webpage and mobile app, Amazon displays a “Prime” filter. Once a shopper selects the filter, only Prime-eligible offers appear in search results, as shown in Figures 10a (desktop) and 10b (mobile). 105. For Amazon, signing up and maintaining as many Prime subscribers as possible is a top priority. In service of this goal, Amazon has even knowingly tricked shoppers into signing up for Prime and actively thwarted their efforts to cancel their subscriptions. Amazon internally admits to using (redacted) for its user interfaces "to mislead or trick users to make them do something they didn't want to do, like signing up for recurring bill, (redacted). Amazon constructed a cancellation process so lengthy, arduous, and complex that it was internally codenamed the “Iliad Flow,“ after Homer’s 15,693-line epic poem. 106. As of late 2021, nearly (redacted) people in the United States-(redacted)% of U.S. households-were enrolled in Prime. Amazon’s U.S. Prime. In some zip codes, more than (redacted)% households have a Prime subscriber. Amazon's U.S. Prime subscriber base is larger than the populations of (redacted) Amazon projects that by 2024, (redacted)% % of all U.S. households (redacted) and that Prime enrollment will be (redacted) (This info is Redacted) Figure 11. Source: Amazon Internal Documents. 107. In 2021, Prime subscriber purchases accounted for more than (redacted)% of the purchases by dollar amount on Amazon’s U.S. online superstore. And in 2021 alone, U.S. customers paid Amazon more than (redacted) in Prime subscription fees. Continue Reading . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case 2:23-cv-01495 retrieved on October 2, 2023, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. ftc.gov

Amazon Prime: The Hotel California of Subscriptions—You Can Check Out, But You Can Never Leave

অ্যামাজন প্রাইম: সাবস্ক্রিপশনের হোটেল ক্যালিফোর্নিয়া—আপনি চেক আউট করতে পারেন, কিন্তু আপনি কখনই ছেড়ে যেতে পারবেন না

Amazon Prime: Das Hotel California der Abonnements – Sie können auschecken, aber nie gehen

Amazon Prime: el hotel California de las suscripciones: puede pagar, pero nunca podrá irse

Amazon Prime : l'hôtel californien des abonnements : vous pouvez payer, mais vous ne pouvez jamais partir

अमेज़ॅन प्राइम: सब्सक्रिप्शन का होटल कैलिफ़ोर्निया-आप चेक आउट कर सकते हैं, लेकिन आप कभी नहीं छोड़ सकते

Amazon プライム: サブスクリプションのホテル カリフォルニア — チェックアウトはできますが、外出はできません

Amazon Prime: 구독이 가득한 호텔 캘리포니아 - 체크아웃은 가능하지만 떠날 수는 없습니다.

Amazon Prime: o hotel Califórnia das assinaturas – você pode conferir, mas nunca pode sair

Amazon Prime: отель «Калифорния» с подписками — вы можете оформить заказ, но никогда не сможете уйти

Amazon Prime: Aboneliklerin Kaliforniya Oteli—Giriş Yapabilirsiniz Ama Asla Ayrılamazsınız

Amazon Prime: Khách sạn California của các gói đăng ký—Bạn có thể thanh toán nhưng không bao giờ có thể rời đi

Amazon Prime：订阅领域的加州旅馆——你可以结帐，但你永远不能离开

In an increasingly digital world, subscriptions have become a pervasive part of our lives. From streaming services to productivity tools and online shopping platforms, it seems like there's a subscription for every need and interest. While these subscriptions offer convenience and access to a plethora of services, managing multiple subscriptions can quickly become a daunting task. This is where subscription management comes to the rescue, offering a solution to simplify and optimize your digital life. What is Subscription Management? Subscription management is the art of efficiently handling and organizing your various subscriptions in one centralized system. It involves keeping track of payment schedules, renewal dates, and cancellation policies for each subscription. By taking control of your subscriptions, you can effectively manage your expenses, and ensure you're only paying for what you need, and avoid unnecessary charges. The Challenges of Multiple Subscriptions With the exponential growth of subscription-based services, it's no surprise that many of us find ourselves juggling numerous subscriptions simultaneously. From video streaming platforms like and Prime Video to music streaming services like and Apple Music, our digital lives are filled with a variety of subscriptions. Add in subscriptions for news publications, software tools, fitness apps, and more, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed and lose track of what you're actually paying for. Netflix Amazon Spotify Subscription management addresses these challenges by providing a streamlined approach to keeping tabs on your subscriptions. It eliminates the need to remember multiple login credentials, payment dates, and cancellation policies, allowing you to regain control of your digital life. , the Co-founder of Frank, a fintech startup, has a fascinating story to tell. From early exposure to computers as a child to launching successful products, Sami's passion for entrepreneurship and software design led him to establish his own company. Frank aims to revolutionize subscription management, offering a no-code solution that simplifies complex processes. Sami Bekrar Simplifying Your Digital Life The benefits of subscription management extend far beyond mere convenience. Let's take a look at how subscription management can simplify your digital life: 1. Subscription management tools provide a centralized hub where you can view and manage all your subscriptions in one place. You can see a comprehensive overview of your active subscriptions, upcoming payments, and renewal dates, giving you a clear picture of your digital expenses. Centralized Organization: 2. It's not uncommon for individuals to sign up for subscriptions on a whim or forget to cancel services they no longer use. Subscription management helps you identify redundant or unused subscriptions, enabling you to save money by canceling those you no longer need. It's a simple and effective way to optimize your expenses and ensure you're getting the most value out of your subscriptions. Cost Optimization: 3. Have you ever been surprised by an unexpected subscription charge? Subscription management tools often come with built-in renewal reminders that notify you before a subscription is set to renew. This allows you to evaluate whether you still want to continue the service or make any necessary changes before the renewal date. Renewal Reminders: 4. With traditional subscriptions, canceling a service can sometimes feel like a hassle. Subscription management simplifies the cancellation process by providing direct links or instructions for canceling subscriptions with just a few clicks. It eliminates the need to navigate through complex menus or engage in lengthy customer support interactions. Easy Cancellation: Taking Control of Your Subscriptions Subscription management is all about regaining control and making informed decisions about your digital subscriptions. By utilizing the right tools and strategies, you can simplify your digital life, save money, and ensure that your subscriptions align with your needs and interests. Start by conducting an audit of your current subscriptions. Identify the ones you use regularly, those you rarely use, and those you no longer need. Take note of their renewal dates and payment amounts. This will give you a clear understanding of your subscription landscape. Next, research and choose a subscription management tool that suits your needs. There are various options available, ranging from dedicated subscription management apps to personal finance apps that offer subscription tracking features. Look for features such as automatic renewal reminders, cancellation assistance, and the ability to categorize and organize your subscriptions. Once you have selected a tool, input all your subscriptions into the system. Include the name of the service, payment amount, renewal date, and any relevant login information. Some tools even allow you to link your payment accounts directly, enabling automatic tracking of your subscriptions. With your subscriptions organized and tracked, it's time to evaluate their value. Review each subscription and ask yourself if you're truly benefiting from it. Consider factors such as frequency of use, cost, and whether there are alternative services that offer similar features. Be ruthless in eliminating subscriptions that no longer serve you. As you continue to manage your subscriptions, stay mindful of free trial periods. It's easy to sign up for a trial and forget to cancel before it converts to a paid subscription. Set reminders to cancel trials you're not interested in pursuing further. Another strategy to optimize your subscriptions is to explore bundle packages or family plans. Many services offer discounted rates when you subscribe to multiple services under one account. Assess your needs and see if bundling can save you money without sacrificing the services you enjoy. Regularly review your subscription management tool and update any changes in your subscriptions. This includes new subscriptions you may add or cancellations you make. By keeping your subscription management system up to date, you can ensure accurate tracking and maximize its benefits. In conclusion, subscription management is the key to simplifying and optimizing your digital life. By centralizing your subscriptions, staying informed about renewal dates, and making conscious decisions about the services you subscribe to, you can regain control of your expenses and enjoy a more streamlined digital experience. Take the time to assess your subscriptions, choose the right management tool, and regularly review and update your subscriptions. With subscription management on your side, you can embrace the digital world with confidence and ease. This story was distributed as a release by Actuls under HackerNoon’s Brand As An Author Program. Learn more about the program here: https://business.hackernoon.com/brand-as-author The lead image for this article was generated by HackerNoon's AI Image Generator via the prompt "an overflowing mailbox".

A Fintech Startup's Journey to Disrupting Subscription Management

El viaje de una startup fintech para interrumpir la gestión de suscripciones

Le parcours d'une start-up Fintech pour perturber la gestion des abonnements

एक फिनटेक स्टार्टअप की सदस्यता प्रबंधन को बाधित करने की यात्रा

サブスクリプション管理を破壊するフィンテック スタートアップの旅

A jornada de uma startup fintech para interromper o gerenciamento de assinaturas

Hành trình phá vỡ quản lý đăng ký của một công ty khởi nghiệp Fintech

一家金融科技初创公司颠覆订阅管理的旅程

Online subscriptions are evolving rapidly, with Web3 and NFTs playing a significant role in this transformation. As we venture into this new era, it’s essential to understand the potential benefits and drawbacks of adopting NFT-based subscriptions. Let’s dive into the topic and discuss some startups making waves in this emerging space. Web2-based subscriptions have been widely adopted across industries, but they come with certain limitations: Traditional Web2 Subscription Models and Their Limitations: Centralized control by platforms Illiquid and non-transferable subscriptions Limited secondary markets and revenue opportunities The Web3 Revolution: Subscription NFTs NFTs are bringing new possibilities to the world of online subscriptions: Users gain ownership and control over their subscriptions Increased liquidity and transferability New revenue streams for content creators and subscribers Startups Pioneering Subscription NFTs Several startups are leading the way in adopting NFTs for online subscriptions: A decentralized platform that enables creators to monetize their content through NFT-based memberships and access passes. Unlock Protocol: ( ) https://unlock-protocol.com Aims to create a more equitable subscription economy by leveraging NFTs, allowing users to own and trade their subscriptions. Fairmint: ( ) https://fairmint.co Pros and Cons of NFT-based Subscriptions Despite the potential benefits, it’s essential to consider the drawbacks of adopting NFT-based subscriptions: Pros: Enhanced user experience and flexibility Creation of secondary markets for buying, selling, and renting subscriptions Royalty conditions for additional revenue generation Cons: Potential barriers to adoption, such as lack of understanding and familiarity with Web3 technologies Scalability and environmental concerns associated with blockchain technology Regulatory uncertainties surrounding NFTs and digital assets Key Statistics: Subscription-based models represent a significant portion of the digital content industry, with the global market expected to reach $246.6 billion by 2026. (Source: ) Allied Market Research NFT sales r eached $10.7 billion in Q3 2021, highlighting the growing interest in digital asset ownership. (Source: ) DappRadar The potential of NFT-based subscriptions is promising, but weighing the pros and cons before fully embracing this emerging technology is crucial. As more startups like Unlock Protocol and Fairmint lead the way, we’ll better understand the true impact of Subscription NFTs on the digital content landscape. If you’re from Unlock Protocol, Fairmint, or a similar startup representative, we’d love to hear your thoughts on NFT-based subscriptions! Feel free to leave a comment below, and we’d be happy to include your insights in this article to provide our readers with a broader perspective. Let’s collaborate and share knowledge! Follow me: | | | Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Telegram Peace 🌻

Are Subscription NFTs the Future? 
Exploring the Pros and Cons of Web3 Online Subscriptions

In recent years, consumption or usage (vs subscription) based business models have proliferated in existence as more and more customers demand value and flexibility from their vendors. This trend is easiest to observe in cloud-based software infrastructure companies like Snowflake, Databricks, MongoDB and Confluent - all of whom have implemented the consumption-based model for their cloud product and services. Before we dig deeper, let us define key terms: Customers are charged based on their actual usage or consumption of a product or service. Pricing structure is usually variable and customers have flexibility to pay for only what they use. Popular in cloud computing, pay as you go services and on-demand platforms Consumption model: Customers sign an upfront contract to pay a recurring fee at regular intervals (e.g., monthly, annually) to access a product or service. Pricing is generally fixed, irrespective of usage, and customers have access to the offering as long as they maintain their subscription. Popular in SaaS services since it provides greater predictability of revenue Subscription model: In this article, I will share that companies need to adopt as they look to build consumption based model in their organization. I will frequently refer to examples from cloud based SaaS world since that is where consumption models are becoming most prevalent. best practices Product features require ‘end-user’ and consumption focus In traditional subscription based models, most of the product feature development effort is focused on winning traditional decision makers e.g., senior leadership, Info-sec & Security leads. For large enterprises, this generally means focus (outside of core functionality) is on building security, compliance and networking features - many of which are table stakes without which a product is not approved for use. There is generally less emphasis on meeting core product needs of the ‘end-user’. As a result, features that promote ease of use and rapid adoption are frequently de-prioritized. Consumption completely changes this equation. Since revenue is not recognized until a customer utilizes the product, a different mindset is required. On the product side, features that allow ease of consumption need to be part of core product build.  For instance, an important customer requirement from infrastructure service providers is to ensure their product can elastically scale from 0 to potentially a very high throughput depending on customer needs. This functionality allows customers to manage spend efficiently based on their usage patterns. In addition, features that allow customers to understand and optimize their product usage or provide them visibility to real-time expenditure are critical and give them confidence to scale up their spend on consumption models. Pricing needs to be usage based As noted earlier, pricing is one of the biggest differentiators between subscription and consumption models. Typical cloud based SaaS companies, say Salesforce or LinkedIn, charge users recurrently based upon access on a per seat basis. Expansion means either selling additional products or adding more seats. This proved to be an excellent model financially due to its predictability and repeatability. There are however two drawbacks to this model: First, customers started to suspect that the subscription pricing was not well correlated with value. For e.g., people used products like LinkedIn recruiter more heavily when recruiting for a candidate than otherwise. Second, with the rise of Data-as-a-Service or Infrastructure-as-a-Service business models, the unit of value became data or compute, which is easier to track in terms of consumption. Both of these factors made the consumption model much more attractive. Consumption based businesses charge companies on a unit basis e.g., per usage hour, per transaction or per volume of data consumed/stored/computed. In lieu of discounts, customers agree for fixed length contracts. In this model, the ability to predict and correctly adjust pricing based on future consumption patterns is extremely important. Since pricing is based on unit of consumption (e.g., data), product features or integrations that allow customers to consume more data or throughput become the most important requirements. Evolve GTM Roles to drive consumption The need to drive consumption requires a very different mindset throughout the organization be it sales, marketing, finance or product. However, no topic raises more questions than the impact of the consumption model on the traditional GTM pod with its blend of pre-sales and post-sales roles working in tandem with the account executive to drive sales. Every traditional SaaS GTM organization invests in a pod that consists of the following roles - or account executive (AE) who is accountable for bringing in new business ‘Hunter’ who is accountable for expansion in existing accounts ‘Farmer’ roles - like technical pre-sales engineers, customer success managers, professional services resources etc., that partner with the AE to generate revenue Support Most GTM organizations are looking for ways to optimize productivity and efficiencies across different customer segments by adjusting ratios of different support functions in comparison to quota carrying functions Focus on consumption (vs subscription) changes the above model in fundamental ways: First, in a consumption world, the upfront contract does not yield revenue unless the customer starts consuming. Depending on the product & segment, this could mean a lot of work identifying appropriate use cases and pulling in the right support resources to ensure consumption. This leads to accountability issues in traditional hunter/farmer model. One way to solve this and break down silos between ‘hunters’ and ‘farmers’ is by making a single person accountable for upfront contract negotiation plus actual consumption during the course of the contract. Second, companies are rethinking the role of customer success managers (CSMs). In the traditional subscription model, they would be incentivized on retention and/or expansion. However, in a consumption environment where accountability on actual consumption rests with the AE, the skill sets needed for customer success teams may not be relevant anymore. There are companies that have eliminated the role completely e.g., Snowflake; others are experimenting with transitioning them to be project managers or service professionals Role of professional services also changes in the consumption world. Traditionally, services have been seen as a cost center and the emphasis has been on providing small, higher value add services given the lower margin structure of service model. However, a lot of value services teams add is in unblocking or accelerating certain implementation details that are essential to increase consumption. This means relooking at services charter to focus on activities that directly contribute to increasing consumption and de-prioritizing the rest. There are similar questions to be asked across other GTM functions e.g., demand generation, field marketing etc to ensure the functional charter is linked with the customer needs in a consumption based environment. Once an appropriate resourcing model has been defined, emphasis shifts to enablement so that the field teams can be trained and enabled in the new operating model. Restructure the incentive model Most people who have run GTM organizations know that getting the right incentive structure to drive proper business outcomes is one of the most important tasks facing any leader. Consumption based models make the task even harder. Sales compensation is one of the core ways (outside of bonus and equity) by which the incentive structure is driven. Key question every executive faces is how to drive the appropriate balance between incentivizing new business vs consumption of existing accounts. In a world, where accountability to drive both rests with different functions, the calculation is more straight-forward. But if (as we discussed in the above section), the preferred model is to make an AE accountable for consumption then a proper balance needs to be found to drive right outcomes. In my experience, this balance varies with the customer segment since the effort required to translate contractual obligation into consumption differs by customer size and complexity. Typically for the SMB segment, with smaller customer size and lower organizational complexity it is easier to translate contractual obligation into consumption. On the other hand, for large strategic customers it might take a few months to put in place all the processes/systems to ramp the consumption up to the anticipated amount. Given the challenges involved, the best approach to reduce unwanted surprises is by being evolutionary and empirical in approach to drafting incentives for the GTM org. Focus on right partners Focusing on right partners - System Integrators, Resellers, cloud service providers, OEMs etc has always been integral to grow a SaaS business especially once the business achieves a certain scale. A traditional subscription B2B company focuses on building partnerships with resellers or SIs like Accenture, TCS etc to bring new business. In a consumption world, this model requires a rethink. As noted above, the most important activity in a consumption environment is to accelerate the ability to identify new use cases and facilitate their implementation which translates to an increase in consumption. This means partnering with companies critical to the modern architectural stack. Done right, this would create positive network effects leading to higher consumption of data (or compute) thus increasing revenue. The emphasis in short, is not just on bringing new deals but to create an ecosystem or a joint architecture that increases consumption. This is an emerging field that has already led to big changes in how the industry operates - for instance, many open source based companies (Elastic, MongoDB) started by competing against CSPs like AWS, Azure etc with alternate offerings available on CSP platforms (think AWS’s Spark or managed Kafka offering) but have recently started cooperating since both parties understand that they stand to drive much greater benefit by driving overall consumption of the platform by allowing customers to consumer best products. Align metrics, systems & processes Finally, let us discuss how the operating rhythm for a business is different in subscription vs consumption models. In a subscription model, the most important metric is ARR or Annual Recurring Revenue (Net retention, gross margin and ARR growth % are other key metrics to measure). The operating cadence is primarily structured to ensure a company meets quarterly and annual ARR targets. Revenue recognition directly follows from ARR irrespective of whether the customer actually consumes the product or service. In a consumption model, revenue is directly tied to consumption of product or service within the financial timeframe e.g., quarter. This adds complexity since there is a need to forecast consumption and also operational requirement to monitor leading indicators of consumption at customers a few quarters out and take appropriate actions if there is a gap. Top quartile companies build completely new systems and dashboards to track, forecast and report consumption by different customer cohorts and segments. Predictability can be much harder especially in case of fluctuating usage patterns and requires additional process or analytical rigor to ensure accuracy. Finally In conclusion, the rise of consumption led business models has created an opportunity to create products and services that are much better aligned with how customers derive value. However, to fully realize the potential of consumption motion, it is important to understand the nuances between subscription and consumption model. This will ensure the resources, metrics, and roles are structured appropriately to ensure success.

Best Practices to Move From Subscription to Consumption Based Business

The lead image for this article was generated by HackerNoon's AI Image Generator via the prompt "apple logo" 's platform presents an array of options for app developers and marketers to promote their apps. Among these, stand out as a robust tool for promoting subscription-based apps. But what makes Apple Search Ads so special? The secret lies in the rich, accurate marketing attribution data they provide. Apple Apple Search Ads In this article, I'll dig into the world of Apple Search Ads, how they function, and how you can leverage them to grow your app. Understanding Apple Search Ads Apple Search Ads is a mobile ad platform that allows developers to advertise their apps directly within the App Store search results. When users search for a specific keyword related to your app, your ad can appear at the top of the search results, thereby increasing your app's visibility and potential downloads. This targeted approach makes it a potent tool for promoting subscription-based apps. The Impact of Apple Search Ads The effectiveness of Apple Search Ads is supported by robust statistics that highlight the platform's potential for success. According to AppsFlyer's benchmark index (https://index.appsflyer.com/), Apple Search Ads is ranking number #1 for non-gaming apps user acquisition by retention, showing high value of users acquired through the platform. These underscore the potential of Apple Search Ads for promoting subscription-based apps, making it a key element in any subscription app marketing strategy. The Benefits of Accurate Marketing Attribution Data Marketing attribution data forms the backbone of any advertising campaign. It helps you determine which campaigns, keywords, or ads drive the most subscriptions or in-app purchases, allowing you to optimize your advertising budget for better results. One of the major benefits of Apple Search Ads is that they provide this data on a keyword level, making it easier to attribute in-app revenue and in-app subscriptions to the exact ad spend. However, accessing this rich data through Apple's API can be challenging without the right technical tools. Simplifying Data Access with Qonversion Most likely you don't have time and resources to build your attribution solution on top of Apple's API. You want to focus on buidling your app and growing it. So you need to use third party solution to jump start you Apple Search Ads user acquisition. We at Qonversion are building the powerful analytics platform specifically designed for subscription apps. For full disclosure, I'm the Co-Founder of Qonversion. Qonversion takes the complexity out of accessing Apple's API by offering this functionality out of the box, enabling you to easily track and analyze your marketing attribution data. Setting up Qonversion is straightforward. Once you've linked your app with Qonversion, you can start receiving accurate marketing attribution data from your Apple Search Ads campaigns. You are getting ASA data in a simple customizable dashboard with all metrics needed - from impressions and installs to subscriptions and revenue. You can also see the ROAS of your campaigns and even keywords. This empowers you to make informed decisions about your ad spend, understand your return on investment, and ultimately grow your subscription base. Apart from simplifying access to Apple Search Ads attribution data, Qonversion provides in-depth subscription analytics that help you understand your app's performance. It offers insights into subscription metrics like conversion rates, retention rates, and churn rates, giving you a holistic understanding of your app's health. It's not just an analytics tool; it's a comprehensive solution for managing and optimizing your subscription-based app. Conclusion Apple Search Ads, combined with the power of Qonversion, can greatly enhance the promotion of your subscription-based apps. By unlocking access to accurate marketing attribution data, you can better attribute in-app revenue and subscriptions to specific campaigns or keywords. This, in turn, empowers you to optimize your ad spend, making every dollar count towards acquiring valuable users for your app.

An Intro to Apple Search Ads for Subscription-Based Apps

AB testing is an essential aspect of mobile app development, especially when it comes to subscription-based iOS and Android apps. By conducting AB tests, app developers and marketers can determine which version of their app's paywall design, pricing strategy, and user experience is most effective at driving subscription revenue growth. In this blog post, I will discuss the importance of AB testing for subscription-based mobile apps and delve into the required infrastructure and technical details needed to conduct these tests accurately. I will also explore the metrics that matter for subscription apps and highlight the significance of speed in launching new tests. Finally, I will introduce Qonversion.io, a subscription revenue growth platform that is specifically designed to provide the right infrastructure and tools for mobile apps. Why Paywalls AB Testing is Important AB testing is crucial for subscription-based mobile apps because it allows developers and marketers to experiment with different paywall designs and pricing strategies to find the most effective one. With AB testing, two versions of the app's paywall design are presented to different segments of the user base. By analyzing user behavior and conversion rates, the app developers can determine which version performs better and adjust the paywall design accordingly. This process helps improve the conversion rate and revenue growth of the app. Infrastructure and Technical Details To conduct AB testing accurately, the required infrastructure must be in place. This infrastructure includes the ability to target specific segments of the user base and accurately measure the results of each test. By using user segmentation, app developers can present different versions of the paywall to specific groups of users based on their demographics, behavior, and preferences. Accurately measuring the results of each test is also critical to determine the effectiveness of each paywall design. The use of analytics tools, such as Google Analytics or Mixpanel is simply not enough to run and measure AB tests for subscription apps. , can help measure user behavior and conversion rates accurately. The most important metrics are hard to track without the analytics built for subscription AB testing. Metrics that Matter for Subscription Apps AB Testing When conducting AB testing for subscription-based apps, it is essential to focus on metrics that matter. The most crucial metrics for subscription apps include trial conversions, subscription renewals, and total revenue generated. These metrics help determine the success of the app's paywall design and pricing strategy. By focusing on these metrics, app developers can adjust their paywall design and pricing strategy to maximize revenue growth. Sometimes changing just a little detail in your paywall and pricing can lead to hundreds of percent of growth in a matter of months. Speed of Launching New Tests The speed of launching new AB tests is crucial for the success of subscription-based mobile apps. Speed of iteration is the most important skill for successful startups. As Mike Tyson once said, "Speed kills." Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator, also emphasized the importance of speed, stating, "The most successful startups are the ones that manage to iterate quickly." So in the context of mobile app AB testing, the velocity is determined by the infrastructure you have. It is essential to have tools that allow the app to conduct AB tests without releasing new app versions. This way, you can make quick iterations and adjust the paywall design and pricing strategy accordingly without days and weeks of going through app stores reviews for each new test. Qonversion AB testing Capabilities Qonversion.io, the platform I co-founded in 2019, is a subscription revenue growth platform specifically designed to provide the infrastructure and tools required for subscription-based mobile apps to conduct AB testing and improve their revenue growth. With Qonversion, app developers can segment their user base and target specific groups of users with different paywall designs and pricing strategies. Qonversion also provides the best subscription analytics to measure the results of each test accurately. Additionally, Qonversion offers in-app purchase validation, revenue tracking, and subscription renewal tracking to provide a complete view of the app's revenue performance. The Qonversion AB testing tool is like Firebase AB testing but specifically designed to run tests for subscription app paywalls and subscription pricing. You can do all the stuff you used to do with Firebase AB testing, but you get more tools to accurately target what you need. Plus, Qonversion gives you a no-code paywall builder. No-code paywall builder is a game-changing tool for mobile app product owners. This tool enables product owners to create new paywalls without involving engineers in the process, significantly reducing the time and resources required to launch new tests. You can customize the paywall design to match the app's branding and experiment with different layouts, messaging, calls-to-action, subscription prices, and duration. This tool, combined with Qonversion's precise analytics and AB testing capabilities, can help product owners quickly iterate and optimize their paywall design, resulting in increased subscription revenue growth for their mobile app. In conclusion, AB testing is crucial for subscription-based mobile apps to improve their revenue growth. The required infrastructure and tools must be in place to conduct these tests accurately, and focusing on the right metrics is critical for success. The speed of launching new tests is essential. By using AB testing and the right tools, app developers and marketers can quickly get to a growth trajectory.

Paywall AB Testing for Subscription-Based IOS and Android Apps

This is by (source: ). Levelsio is an indiepreneur. Twitter thread Levelsio @levelsio 02-22-2023 https://twitter.com/levelsio/status/1628340962136305664?s=46&t=cmto90R-A_PbWAD033otpg&embedable=true&thread=true Feature image generated via prompt of ‘A monster stopping you from leaving’ HackerNoon Stable Diffusion

How Difficult Is It to Cancel a Subscription From The Economist?

This is by (source: ). They’re a software developer and engineer. Twitter thread DieKoll @DieKoll 02-19-2023 https://twitter.com/DieKoll/status/1627411964308725760?s=20&t=t6Yal5L38KsjNmCRTjHItA&embedable=true&thread=true Feature image generated via prompt of ‘A robot using a cellphone to text his friend’ HackerNoon Stable Diffusion

Is WhatsApp Getting Ready to Introduce Subscriptions?

There are some moments in the life of a geek like me that are truly inflection points. Like the first time back in 1993 that I saw the web browser Mosaic on the computer at the university I was working. Just like in the movies, I started daydreaming of all the possibilities that the web would open up. I just got my ChatGPT plus subscription today. They finally opened up here in Europe. In the previous days, it was only available in the US. My ChatGPT moment was very similar to the Mosaic web browser one. I have been using it for a few weeks now, and I feel, just like I felt back then, that this is going to change things in a big way. Yet, just like 30 years ago, I know the true changes will only be visible with time. Any predictions I might try to do now will actually not be right. Or they might be right, but the way they will work out would be through different ways. I remember reading a book around the year 2000 that an Englishman had written in 1900 about what he thought life will be like in 100 years. One of the points I remember is how obsessed he was with the weather and protecting himself from the rain. He was dreaming of these galleries that will cover passersby from the weather. He was right that the “getting soaking wet” problem would be solved, yet very wrong on how the solution would be. We now have these smart textiles, that dry fast, breathe, and basically allow anyone who wants to go out in bad weather to do it. So, with that in mind, I will try to focus on listing some of the use cases that these AI-based technologies will help solve. I know that my description of the possible solutions will be wrong, but I am still willing to take a shot at them. AI-generated Presentation Slides When trying to communicate ideas to a team, the most unfortunate yet helpful tool that we have is presentation slides. I know you are raising your eyebrows now and thinking: “ ” But hear me out. Great, AI-based death by PowerPoint Everyone in sales or management worth its pay has a set of slides that they use to convey their message. After all, life is all about stories. The caveman was painting the hoards of buffalo in the cave to show fellow cavemen how to hunt successfully. The middle ages priest had window stained glass and paintings depicting a given passage of the bible that he wanted to talk about. The PowerPoint slides are our modern-day cave-age paintings. There are, of course, horrible sets of slides. The good ones have a similar structure: A good title, an objective, an agenda, slides with a mix of visual and textual elements, guidance on where you are in the presentation, conclusions/next tasks, and final questions or summary slides. Experienced slide creators know that the secret to a killer set is experimenting with designs and testing them with audiences until they reach a level where you can explain most questions using them. Here is where an AI can help, by allowing you to produce as many different variations of the slides as you want until you are satisfied with the final product. I can imagine a conversational way to generate graphs soon. After all, Microsoft, a partner of Open AI, is the owner of the infamous PowerPoint, and it already has prompts to help you with the design. AI Customized Entertainment I’ve been experimenting with coauthoring with ChatGPT. I am using its answers to my prompts to put a story together. A story for which I had the plot sorted out a while ago. Coauthoring with ChatGPT allows me to experiment. I can prompt it to write a given situation in a funny, serious, or dramatic way. It can write as if it was Shakespeare, Nietzsche, a rapper, or the sacred scriptures. Right now, the format and the style of a book, a movie, a series, or a cartoon are defined by the author. It might fit your taste, or it might not. As I have been working on my book, I have realized that I could actually provide multiple versions of it. A geeky technical version, or a more simplified one. A version with lots of dialog, or one with lots of action. A very detailed one, or one that gets straight to the point. In a way, we already do these things. Shakespeare has been rewritten into modern English and even children's versions. In the words of GPT: “Ah, the tales spun by the bard, Shakespeare, Their retelling doth not cease to make air From modern tongue to child’s simpleness, They’ve been spun anew with artfulness. The stories, once told in Elizabethan rhyme, Now find voice in prose that’s most sublime, And even in form most puerile, Their essence doth remain most fertile. So, let the retelling of these tales not end, For in each adaptation, a new story doth bend. And though the words may differ from the first, The themes of love, life, and loss, doth still burst.” While ChatGPT can not yet create pictures, its cousin Dall-E can. And you can combine them by asking ChatGPT to describe characters and use that description to have Dall-E generate them. For example, I asked ChatGPT how would she (Yes, to me is a she) describe an advanced AI persona. This was her answer: Human face with augmented elements: A human face with added technology such as circuitry or digital elements, symbolizing the fusion of man and machine. Next to a Futuristic robot: A sleek, metallic robot with advanced technology and artificial intelligence capabilities. Which I pasted into Dall-E and got the following: It does not take a leap of imagination for a future movie director to use these prompts to create multiple versions of a movie to match the likes of the viewer. So in the future, your Netflix might show the same film to you and your daughter, but hers will be more girly and relationships focused while yours be more techie and facts based. Academic Papers and Academia In General I am currently collaborating on the writing of a paper for a conference. As with presentation slides, a paper also has a similar structure: A long exact title, a set of authors, an abstract, an introduction, a literature review section, the main body of the paper presenting the findings, and a set of conclusions and future work. Papers also need useful graphs and figures. Stats or flow diagrams could be generated using the techniques mentioned above. Interestingly, if you ask ChatGPT to generate a graph, it will give you the code to generate it yourself using Python. An interesting meta prank would be to use ChatGPT to cocreate and submit a paper to a conference on AI models, just to see if it gets accepted. Arxiv would probably accept it. Again, here the benefit of using an AI model is that results could be presented faster. Chat GPT will not yet want to write a paper on a given subject, this is the role of the researcher. Yet, it can help immensely in writing a draft of the findings that the authors can use to tweak and focus on the technical details of the solution they are trying to describe. Conclusion Seeing ChatGPT in action has felt to me like the first time I saw a web browser, or realized I could surf the Internet from the tiny screen of my Palm Treo device. It is a paradigm shift that will change the world as we know it in many ways. We can already see some of its effects like in academies, where they have to AI-safeguard exams by having to move away from “essay-based” grading. What other areas will be affected and how is still an open question. But after having used these technologies for a month in a myriad of situations, I can see how they can improve my productivity in unexpected ways. To conclude this article, I decided to ask GPT how it thinks it will impact the world. Her answer is: The advanced AI-based conversational models like myself have the potential to greatly change the world by improving human-computer interaction and enabling more natural and intuitive communication with technology. In various industries, they can assist with tasks such as customer service, improving accessibility for people with disabilities, and increasing efficiency in data analysis and decision making. These models can also be used to develop personalized and engaging educational and entertainment experiences. However, it’s important to note that with any new technology there are also potential challenges and ethical considerations that must be addressed. For example, there are concerns about job displacement and privacy issues that must be considered as AI-based conversational models become more widespread. Overall, the impact of advanced AI-based conversational models will depend on how they are developed, implemented, and regulated, and it is up to society as a whole to ensure that their use aligns with our values and benefits humanity as a whole. It is interesting to read the convolutions that the model is doing in the 3rd and 4th paragraphs. It feels like my friend GPT is not just an advanced AI conversationalist, it is also its own legal and ethical department, as well as apt at washing its hands for the havoc it can break in humanity. How has your experience with ChatGPT been? In which areas have you used it?

Getting My ChatGPT Plus Subscription Is an Inflection Point

You may already understand how important a good VPN can be for maintaining the security and privacy of your mobile communications. Whether you need to use your phone for banking over a public airport or coffee shop WiFi connection, or you’re worried about the wrong people listening in on your online interactions, the tunneled encryption a good VPN gives you can be invaluable. The trick, however, is finding a VPN that really is “good” – and one that’s both convenient and affordable. There are plenty of commercial VPN services out there, and configuring one of those for your phone or laptop is usually simple enough. But such services come with two potential down-sides: they’re often expensive, with payments averaging around $10 monthly, and you can never be quite 100% sure that they aren’t (accidentally or on purpose) leaking or misusing your data. Also, cheaper VPNs often limit your data use and the number of devices you can connect. If you like watching video versions of tutorials to supplement your learning, feel free to follow along here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxj8GMvnASE?embedable=true What WireGuard Delivers But if you happen to have a cloud-based Linux server running anyway, building a WireGuard VPN can be a simple and free way to add some serious, compromise-free security and privacy to your life. If you plan to limit the VPN to just devices owned by you and a few friends, you’ll probably never even notice any extra resource load on your server. Even if you had to fire up and pay for a dedicated AWS EC2 t2.micro reserved instance, the annual costs should still come out significantly cheaper than most commercial VPNs. And, as a bonus, you’ll get complete control over your data. Right now I’m going to show you how all that would work using the open source WireGuard software on an Ubuntu Linux server. Why WireGuard? Because it’s really easy to use, is designed to be particularly attack resistant, and it’s so good at what it does that it was recently incorporated into the Linux kernel itself. The actual work to make this happen take only five minutes – or less. Having said that, planning things out, troubleshooting for unexpected problems and, if necessary, launching a new server might add significant time to the project. really will How to Set Up Your Environment First off, you’ll need to open the UDP port 51820 in whatever firewall you’re using. Here’s how that would look for the security group associated with an AWS EC2 instance: Now, on the Linux server, using a sudo shell, we’ll begin by installing the WireGuard and resolvconf packages. Technically, we probably won’t need resolvconf here, but since that’s what you’d need if you wanted to set up a Linux machine as a WireGuard I thought I’d throw that in here, too. client apt install wireguard resolvconf How to Generate Encryption Keys The command generates a new private encryption key and saves it as a file in the /etc/wireguard directory. This directory was automatically created when we installed WireGuard. wg genkey The command sets the appropriate restrictive permissions for that private key file. chmod Like everything in Linux, there are other ways to get this done, but just make sure you do it right. wg genkey | sudo tee /etc/wireguard/private.key
chmod go= /etc/wireguard/private.key Next, we’ll use the value of our private key to generate a matching public key – which will also be saved to the /etc/wireguard directory. The goal is to add the server’s key to the WireGuard configuration on all the client devices we’ll be using, and then to add those clients’ public keys to the server configuration here. public Private keys should never leave the machines for which they’re created – and should always be carefully protected. cat /etc/wireguard/private.key | wg pubkey | sudo tee How to Configure the WireGuard Server We’re now ready to create a server configuration file. Following convention, I’ll name the file wg0.conf, but you can give it any name you’d like. You can also have multiple configurations (with different filenames) existing at the same time. Here’s what our configuration will look like: [Interface]
Address = 10.5.5.1/24
ListenPort = 51820
# Use your own private key, from /etc/wireguard/privatekey
PrivateKey = your_key

[Peer]
# Workstation public key
PublicKey = your_key
# VPN client's IP address in the VPN
AllowedIPs = 10.5.5.2/32

[Peer]
# laptop public key
PublicKey = your_key
# VPN client's IP address in the VPN
AllowedIPs = 10.5.5.3/32 Notice that this file has three sections: an Interface, and two peers. The Interface section defines the private NAT network address that our server will use. That’s the private address the clients will connect to – after first requesting access through the server’s public IP address, of course. You don’t have to follow my addressing, as long as you use a valid private IP range that doesn’t overlap on any network blocks being used by either your server or client. Matching the UDP security group rule I set up earlier in AWS, I’m defining the ListenPort as 51820. But I could choose a different address to add a tiny bit more security if I want. Finally, I would paste the server’s Private Key as the value of so WireGuard will be able to authenticate incoming client requests. PrivateKey The first section contains nothing more than the key and assigned private IP address of one client. The second section does the same for a second client machine. peer public peer Getting those public keys from the client is the most manual task involved in this whole setup. But, since this is your own VPN, you can usually find a way to copy and paste directly into your server configuration so you don’t need to painfully type the whole thing in. That should be everything. I’ll use the command to bring the VPN to life. tells WireGuard to read the wg0.conf configuration we just made and use it to build a new VPN interface. wg-quick up wg-quick up wg0 Running will show us that it worked. Finally, I’ll run to tell Linux to load this WireGuard interface automatically each time the server reboots. wg systemctl enable systemctl enable wg-quick@wg0 How to Configure WireGuard Clients That’s all we’ll need from the server end of things. Getting your client device set up with WireGuard is either going to be much easier or more or less the same. What does mean? Well, if you’re working with Windows, macOS, Android or iOS, then there are links to GUI apps available from . Those apps will generate key pairs you. You’ll only need to enter the server’s IP address or domain and its public key. You’ll then take the client’s public key and add it to the server wg0.conf file the way I showed you earlier. that this wireguard.com/install page for However, if it’s a Linux PC or laptop client you want to add, then it’s a bit more complicated. You’ll basically follow all the steps you saw for the server configuration, including the key generation. You’ll even create a configuration file named wg0-conf (if that’s the name you like). But here’s how that config file should look: [Interface]
# The address your computer will use on the VPN
Address = 10.5.5.2/32
DNS = 8.8.8.8
# Load your privatekey from file
PostUp = wg set %i private-key /etc/wireguard/privatekey
# Also ping the vpn server to ensure the tunnel is initialized
PostUp = ping -c1 10.47.47.1
[Peer]
# VPN server's wireguard public key
PublicKey = your_key
# Public IP address of your VPN server (USE YOURS!)
Endpoint = 54.160.21.183:51820
# 10.0.0.0/24 is the VPN subnet
AllowedIPs = 10.47.47.0/24
# PersistentKeepalive = 25 The section represents the client machine this time, while the section down below refers to the server. Let’s begin with . The private IP address should match the address you give this particular client in the configuration on the server. Interface Peer Interface If you need your client to by-pass a local DNS server, you can specify a custom DNS server here. This one is the one provided by Google. Instead of hard-coding your local private key into your configuration file the way we did on the server, you could tell WireGuard to read the privatekey file whenever it loads. This is probably a bit of a security best-practice – and we could just as easily have done it on the server, too. Finally, the configuration script will test our connection with the ping command. PostUp The – or server – configuration requires the server’s key, which is added here. Peer public The is where you tell WireGuard where to find the server. Nothing will work without this one! That would require the server’s public IP – or it’s domain name – followed by the port you’ve chosen. Again, 51820 is the WireGuard default. Endpoint Finally, the setting defines the network address range you’ll be using, and the optional value can prevent dropped connections. AllowedIPs PersistentKeepalive You launch WireGuard on the client exactly the same why you did on the server, using . Again, though, all those steps will only be necessary for Linux clients. You can use the apps for other platforms. wg-quick up wg0 Wrapping Up So that’s that. Just as I said, a working VPN in around five minute’s work. You’ve now got one less excuse for protecting your online privacy and securing your communications. For more technology goodness, please do subscribe to and, when you’ve got a moment, check out the many Linux, security, data analytics, and AWS books and courses available through . my YouTube channel my bootstrap-it.com website Also published . here

Ditch the Subscription — Here's How to Build Your Own VPN in Five Minutes 

As an in-app subscription analytics tool, was born with a mission to help App developers grow their in-app subscription revenue. After launching the Beta version in April, we now want to work with more App developers to test our product and make sure it is of great value to grow their subscription revenue. Appflow.ai Program Overview Our Beta Program offers Beta users a During this period, beta users can track their in-app subscription revenue, automate analytics, do paywall A/B testing, and push notifications to their users for free. While at the same time, beta users are expected to provide feedback on fixes and improvements. free trial of our Ultimate Plan for 12 months. Benefits of Appflow.ai Beta Program **==12 months of free trial of our Ultimate Plan, with all features available in Appflow.ai, ==**including: to show you up-to-date subscription metrics, like MRR, LTV, and Top SKUs by revenue… Subscription Analytics to help you understand your user behaviors and demographics; App Cohort Analysis for pricing & paywall design with flexible user segmentation; A/B Testing on push notification and paywalls; Remote Configuration with third-party attribution & mobile analytics tools (Adjust, Webhooks…); Integrations Revenue Growth Suggestions Funnel Analysis Besides, you could get early access to upcoming advanced features and have an opportunity to work with our development team and deliver a perfect subscription analytics tool. Who are We Looking for? If you have a subscription-based iOS or Android App; If you will use our product for your business and provide your feedback on bugs or improvements; If you would like to schedule a call with our team every 3 months about your user experience, it would be great! How to Join the Program? 👉👉 to sign up as our Beta users. Click here The Story of Appflow.ai Appflow.ai was born in April 2022, with a mission to help App developers grow their in-app subscription revenue. It was developed by a global team with professional experience and knowledge about App monetization. Before developing Appflow.ai, our team had 6-years of experience in in-app advertising and helped a lot of developers grow their revenue for App monetization. From our experience as mobile developers, we noticed the need to have one place where we could analyze data from user acquisition to subscriptions and this leads us to the start of appflow.ai. So, What Exactly Can Appflow.ai Do? Appflow.ai is an in-app subscription analytic tool that can help you gain a big picture and insight into your app and grow your in-app subscription revenue. Here are the major functionalities of Appflow.ai: 1. Show real-time in-app subscription data Appflow.ai seamlessly retrieves all real-time subscription data from your Android and iOS Apps, from trials, installs, payments to refunds. Without the effort of switching back and forth between different platforms and normalizing data manually, users can funnel their users to have an intuitive picture of their app subscription performance on one interface on Dashboard or Analytics where they get to understand their users and take effective actions to improve their app’s ROI. 2. Test out the best paywall and push notification with no code needed Appflow.ai facilitates users to do on paywalls and push notifications with remote configuration with no code needed, saving time and reducing reliance on engineers. Just a few clicks can help you make the decision on which version of paywalls and notifications you should choose. What’s more, appflow.ai also supports integrating different platforms, such as , , , , etc. to help you understand users’ behavior and connect directly with them. A/B testing AppsFlyer Facebook Adjust Apple search ads 3. Provide reliable and realistic improvement suggestions （upcoming） Appflow.ai free its users from data jungles by offering actionable suggestions from machine learning of all the presented data. Get used of these marketing suggestions and take immediate action to attract more people to sign up, encourage users to subscribe, prevent users from unsubscription and reduce the churn rate. Following are some Suggestion Examples: example1: Your churn rate from the trial period is incredibly high. You lost 2345 clients in the last 30 days. Change your trial period terms. example2: Your LTV was the best in March 2022, check the history of your features. How did it happen? Check out our tips to grow your LTV. Join us. ! Let’s grow together

We are Looking for 100 Beta Users for Subscription Analytics

What is a GraphQL Subscription? GraphQL Subscriptions allow a client to subscribe to changes. Instead of polling for changes, the client can receive updates in real-time. Here's a simple example from our : GraphQL Federation Demo subscription {
    updatedPrice: federated_updatedPrice {
        upc
        name
        price
        reviews {
            id
            body
            author {
                id
                name
            }
        }
    }
} This is based on Apollo Federation. Once the "product" microservice has a price update, WunderGraph joins the data with the reviews from the "review" microservice, does an additional join with some user information from the "user" microservice and sends the data back to the client. The client gets this as a stream of data. This way, the user interface can be updated in real-time. Traditional ways of implementing GraphQL Subscriptions The most widely adopted way of implementing GraphQL Subscriptions is to use WebSockets.
The WebSocket API is an HTTP 1.1 standard that's usually supported by all modern browsers. (According to , ) caniuse.com 94.22% of all browsers support the WebSockets API First, the client sends an HTTP Upgrade request, asking the server to upgrade the connection to a WebSocket. Once the server upgrades the connection, both the client and the server can send and receive data by passing messages over the WebSocket. Let's now discuss the Problems with WebSockets The WebSocket API is an HTTP 1.1 standard Most websites nowadays use HTTP/2 or even HTTP/3 to speed up the web.
HTTP/2 allows for multiplexing multiple requests over a single TCP connection.
This means that the client can send multiple requests at the same time.
HTTP/3 improves this even further, but that's not the point of this post. What's problematic is that if your website is mixing both HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2, the client will have to open multiple TCP connections to the server. Clients can easily multiplex up to 100 HTTP/2 requests over a single TCP connection, whereas with WebSockets, you're forced to open a new TCP connection for each WebSocket. If a user opens multiple tabs to your website, each tab will open a new TCP connection to the server. Using HTTP/2, multiple tabs can share the same TCP connection. So, the first problem with WebSockets is that it's using an outdated and unmaintained protocol that causes extra TCP connections. WebSockets are stateful Another problem with WebSockets is that the client and the server have to keep track of the state of the connection. If we look at the principles of REST, one of them states that . Stateless in this context means that each request should contain all the required information to be able to process it. Let's look at a few scenarios how you could use GraphQL Subscriptions with WebSockets: requests should be stateless 1. Send an Authorization header with the Upgrade Request As we've learned above, each WebSocket connection starts with an HTTP Upgrade request. What if we send an Authorization header with the Upgrade Request? It's possible, but it also means that when we "subscribe" using a WebSocket message, that "subscription" is no longer stateless, as it relies on the Authorization header that we've previously sent. What if the user logged out in the meantime, but we forgot to close the WebSocket connection? Another problem with this approach is that the WebSocket Browser API doesn't allow us to set Headers on the Upgrade Request. This is only possible using custom WebSocket clients. So, in reality, this way of implementing GraphQL Subscriptions is not very practical. 2. Send an Auth Token with the "connection_init" WebSocket Message Another approach is to send an Auth Token with the "connection_init" WebSocket Message. This is the way it's done by Reddit. If you go to , open Chrome DevTools, click on the network tab and filter for "ws". You'll see a WebSocket connection where the client sends a Bearer token with the "connection_init" message. This approach is also stateful. You can copy this token and use any other WebSocket client to subscribe to the GraphQL Subscription. You can then log out on the website without the WebSocket connection being closed. Subsequent subscribe messages will also rely on the context that was set by the initial "connection_init" message, just to underscore the fact that it's still stateful. That said, there's a much bigger problem with this approach. reddit.com As you saw, the client sent a Bearer token with the "connection_init" message. This means that at some point in time, the client had access to said token. So, the JavaScript that's running in the browser has access to the token. We've had numerous issues in the past where widely used npm packages were polluted with malicious code. Granting the JavaScript part of your web application access to a Bearer token might lead to a security problem. A better solution is to always keep such tokens in a secure location, we'll come to this later. 3. Send an Auth Token with the "subscribe" WebSocket Message Another approach would be to send an Auth Token with the "subscribe" WebSocket Message. This would make our GraphQL Subscription stateless again, as all information to process the request is contained in the "subscribe" message. However, this approach creates a bunch of other problems. First, it would mean that we have to allow clients to anonymously open WebSocket connections without checking who they are. As we want to keep our GraphQL Subscription stateless, the first time we'd send an Authorization token would be when we send the "subscribe" message. What happens if millions of clients open WebSocket connections to your GraphQL server without ever sending a "subscribe" message? Upgrading WebSocket connections can be quite expensive, and you also have to have CPU and Memory to keep the connections around. When should you cut off a "malicious" WebSocket connection? What if you have false positives? Another issue with this approach is that you're more or less re-inventing HTTP over WebSockets. If you're sending "Authorization Metadata" with the "subscribe" message, you're essentially re-implementing HTTP Headers. Why not just use HTTP instead? We'll discuss a better approach (SSE/Fetch) later. WebSockets allow for bidirectional communication The next issue with WebSockets is that they allow for bidirectional communication. Clients can send arbitrary messages to the server. If we revisit the GraphQL specification, we'll see that no bidirectional communication is required to implement Subscriptions. Clients subscribe once. After that, it's only the server who sends messages to the client. If you use a protocol (WebSockets) that allows clients to send arbitrary messages to the server, you have to somehow throttle the amount of that the client can send. What if a malicious client sends a lot of messages to the server? The server will usually spend CPU time and memory while parsing and dismissing the messages. Wouldn't it be better to use a protocol that denies clients from sending arbitrary messages to the server? WebSockets are not ideal for SSR (server-side-rendering) Another issue we faced is the usability of WebSockets when doing SSR (server-side-rendering). One of the problems we've recently solved is to allow "Universal Rendering" (SSR) with GraphQL Subscriptions. We were looking for a nice way to be able to render a GraphQL Subscription on the server as well as in the browser. Why would you want to do this? Imagine, you build a website that should always show the latest price for a stock or an article. You definitely want the website to be (near) real-time, but you also want to render the content on the server for SEO and usability reasons. Here's an example from our : GraphQL Federation demo const UniversalSubscriptions = () => {
    const priceUpdate = useSubscription.PriceUpdates();
    return (
        <div>
            <h1>Price Updates</h1>
            <ul>
                {priceUpdate.map(price => (
                    <li key={price.id}>
                        {price.product} - {price.price}
                    </li>
                ))}
            </ul>
        </div>
    )
}

export default withWunderGraph(UniversalSubscriptions); This (NextJS) page is first rendered on the server, and then re-hydrated on the client, which continues with the Subscription. We'll talk about this in more detail in a bit, let's focus on the challenge with WebSockets first. If the server had to render this page, it would have to first start a WebSocket connection to the GraphQL Subscription server. It'll then have to wait until the first message is received from the server. Only then, it could continue rendering the page. While technically possible, there's no simple "async await" API to solve this problem,
hence nobody is really doing this as it's way too expensive, not robust, and complicated to implement. Summary of the Problems with GraphQL Subscriptions over WebSockets WebSockets make your GraphQL Subscriptions stateful WebSockets cause the browser to fall back to HTTP/1.1 WebSockets cause security problems by exposing Auth Tokens to the client WebSockets allow for bidirectional communication WebSockets are not ideal for SSR (server-side-rendering) To sum up the previous section, GraphQL Subscriptions over WebSockets cause a few problems with performance, security and usability. If we're building tools for the modern web, we should consider better solutions. Why we chose SSE (Server-Sent Events) / Fetch to implement GraphQL Subscriptions Let's go through the problems one by one and discuss how we've solved them. Keep in mind that the approach we've chosen is only possible if you use a "GraphQL Operation Compiler". By default, GraphQL clients have to send all the information to the server to be able to initiate a GraphQL Subscription. Thanks to our GraphQL Operation Compiler, we're in a unique position that allows us to only send the "Operation Name" as well as the "Variables" to the server. This approach makes our GraphQL API much more secure as it hides it behind a JSON-RPC API. You can , and we're also open sourcing the solution soon. So, why did we choose SSE (Server-Sent Events) / Fetch to implement GraphQL Subscriptions? check out an example here SSE (Server-Sent Events) / Fetch is stateless Both SSE and Fetch are stateless APIs and very easy to use. Simply make a GET request with the name of the Operation and the Variables as query parameters. Each request contains all the information required to initiate the Subscription. When the browser talks to the server, it can use the SSE API or fall back to the Fetch API if the browser doesn't support SSE. Here's an example request (fetch): curl http://localhost:9991/api/main/operations/PriceUpdates The response looks like this: {"data":{"updatedPrice":{"upc":"1","name":"Table","price":916,"reviews":[{"id":"1","body":"Love it!","author":{"id":"1","name":"Ada Lovelace"}},{"id":"4","body":"Prefer something else.","author":{"id":"2","name":"Alan Turing"}}]}}}

{"data":{"updatedPrice":{"upc":"1","name":"Table","price":423,"reviews":[{"id":"1","body":"Love it!","author":{"id":"1","name":"Ada Lovelace"}},{"id":"4","body":"Prefer something else.","author":{"id":"2","name":"Alan Turing"}}]}}} It's a stream of JSON objects, delimited by two newline characters. Alternatively, we could also use the SSE API: curl http://localhost:9991/api/main/operations/PriceUpdates?wg_sse=true The response looks very similar to the Fetch response, just prefixed with "data": data: {"data":{"updatedPrice":{"upc":"2","name":"Couch","price":1000,"reviews":[{"id":"2","body":"Too expensive.","author":{"id":"1","name":"Ada Lovelace"}}]}}}

data: {"data":{"updatedPrice":{"upc":"1","name":"Table","price":351,"reviews":[{"id":"1","body":"Love it!","author":{"id":"1","name":"Ada Lovelace"}},{"id":"4","body":"Prefer something else.","author":{"id":"2","name":"Alan Turing"}}]}}} SSE (Server-Sent Events) / Fetch can leverage HTTP/2 Both SSE and Fetch can leverage HTTP/2. Actually, you should avoid using SSE/Fetch for GraphQL Subscriptions when HTTP/2 is not available, as using it with HTTP 1.1 will cause the browser to create a lot of TCP connections, quickly exhausting the maximum number of concurrent TCP connections that a browser can open to the same origin. Using SSE/Fetch with HTTP/2 means that you get a modern, easy to use API, that's also very fast. In rare cases where you have to fall back to HTTP 1.1, you can still use SSE/Fetch thought. SSE (Server-Sent Events) / Fetch can easily be secured We've implemented the "Token Handler Pattern" to make our API secure. The Token Handler Pattern is a way of handling Auth Tokens on the server, not on the client. First, you redirect the user to an identity provider, e.g. Keycloak. Once the login is complete, the user is redirected back to the "WunderGraph Server" with an auth code. This auth code is then exchanged for a token. Exchanging the auth code for a token is happening on the back channel, the browser has no way to know about it. Once the code is exchanged successfully, we create a secure, encrypted http only cookie. What this means is that the contents of the cookie can only be read by the server (encrypted). The cookie cannot be accessed or changed by the JavaScript code of the browser (http only). This cookie is only accessible from first party domains (secure), so it can only be accessed on or but not on . Once this cookie is set, each SSE/Fetch request is automatically authenticated. If the user signs out, the cookie is deleted and no further subscriptions are possible. Each subscription request always contains all the information required to initiate the Subscription (stateless). Contrary to the approach by Reddit, no Auth token is accessible by the JavaScript code of the browser. api.example.com example.com foobar.com SSE (Server-Sent Events) / Fetch disallow the client to send arbitrary data Server-Sent Events (SSE), as the name indicates, is an API to send events from the server to the client. Once initiated, the client can receive events from the server, but this channel cannot be used to communicate back. Combined with the "Token Handler Pattern", this means that we can shut down requests immediately after reading the HTTP headers. The same goes for the Fetch API as it's very similar to SSE. Fetch can easily be used to implement SSR (Server-Side Rendering) for GraphQL Subscriptions Core part of our Implementation of Subscriptions over SSE/Fetch is the "HTTP Flusher". After each event is written to the response buffer, we have to "flush" the connection to send the data to the client. In order to support Server-Side Rendering (SSR), we've added a very simple trick. When using the "PriceUpdates" API on the server, we append a query parameter to the URL: curl http://localhost:9991/api/main/operations/PriceUpdates?wg_sse=true&wg_subscribe_once=true The flag "wg_subscribe_once" tells the server to only send one event to the client and then close the connection. So, instead of flushing the connection and then waiting for the next event, we simply close it. Additionally, we only send the following headers if the flag is not set: Content-Type: text/event-stream
Cache-Control: no-cache
Connection: keep-alive In case of "wg_subscribe_once", we simply omit those headers and set the content type to "application/json". This way, node-fetch can easily deal with this API when doing server-side rendering. Summary Implementing GraphQL Subscriptions over SSE/Fetch gives us a modern, easy to use API with great usability. It's performant, secure, and allows us to also implement SSR (Server-Side Rendering) for GraphQL Subscriptions. It's so simple that you can even consume it using curl. WebSockets on the other hand come with a lot of problems regarding security and performance. According to , . . . caniuse.com 93.76% of all browsers support HTTP/2 94.65% of all browser support the EventSource API (SSE) 93.62% support the Fetch I think it's about time to migrate over from WebSocket to SSE/Fetch for GraphQL Subscriptions. If you'd like to get some inspiration, here's a demo that you can run locally: https://github.com/wundergraph/wundergraph-demo We're also going to open source our implementation very soon. Sign up with your Email if you'd like to be notified when it's ready. What do you think about this approach? How do you implement GraphQL Subscriptions yourself? and share your thoughts! Join us on Discord Also Published Here

GraphQL Subscriptions: Using SSE/Fetch over Websockets

Video game ownership has been a surprisingly fluid concept over the course of the industry’s history. From the rise and fall of arcades to the proliferation of gaming consoles, developers have experimented with different ownership models. But if the course of the music and film industries over the past decade is any indication, there can be no doubt that the future of gaming is subscription-based access. Major industry players like , , and have embraced subscription-based models. On the other hand, giant tech newcomers to the scene, and , have come out with their own competing gaming subscription services. But when the dust settles, who will be left standing at the top of the pile? Sony Microsoft Nintendo Google Amazon To predict the future, we must look to the past. A brief look at the history of subscription-based access shows that Microsoft was an early adopter; first offering on the , and then taking the idea to the next level with . EA Access Xbox One Game Pass in 2017 Microsoft offered a service with unlimited access to over 100 Xbox One and Backward Compatible Xbox 360 games for $9.99 per month. The gaming giant credits with the success of many of its titles. Titles like “ ” and “ ” reportedly have around , while “ ” had 2 million people online in the first week and over 7 million in total. In April 2020, Microsoft reported over Xbox Game Pass subscribers. By January 2022, that number had jumped to . Game Pass Sea of Thieves State of Decay 2 5 million players Forza Horizon 4 10 million over 25 million followed suit with its own version, , which uses cloud-based streaming to deliver content. Instead of running on the player’s console, the game is run on remote servers and streamed directly to the player’s device. Sony PlayStation Now To compete with Game Pass’s substantive catalogue, Sony is working on a new service that merges its two subscription-based services set for release this spring. reportedly Even the hipster gaming company, Nintendo, fittingly cashed in on subscription-based access through an appeal to nostalgia. The acts as an emulator of older consoles, giving players access to classic titles on , , and the (the latter is accessed through an add-on expansion pack). But the limited scope of the subscription service reflects the company’s carefully curated brand identity, focused on the quality and draw of individual games. Furthermore, unlike Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo is only a game company. As such, it does not provide a multimedia ecosystem that benefits from a subscription model like its tech giant competitors. Nintendo Switch Online NES SNES Nintendo 64 Having seen which way the winds are blowing, Amazon and Google joined in on the action with and . Announced in 2020, Luna is a subscription service that lets users sign up for one or several themed “channels,” allowing players to somewhat curate their subscriptions based on their interests and needs. Games are playable via web browser, Fire TV, tablets, and other supported mobile devices. Amazon Luna Google Play Pass Focusing more on mobile gaming, the Google Play Pass launched in 2020, giving Android users unlimited access to hundreds of titles on Google Play. At the forefront of the videogame industry, some blockchain-based games are also incorporating subscription-based access models. For example, the game Cradles eschews the prevailing model of Play-to-Earn gaming by introducing the first subscription service in a crypto game. Whereas in most games in this space, players have to buy their way in with an expensive NFT, Cradles players can access the game through a monthly game card. The adoption of this model shows supreme confidence by the developers in the draw, quality, and playability of their game. The focus on long-term viability is emblematic of the rise of Play-to-Enjoy games in the blockchain gaming space after the frenzy of last year’s Play-to-Earn craze. Where does this leave gamers standing? The synopsis above shows that companies that provide a multimedia ecosystem stand to gain the most from subscription gaming. Where Microsoft and Sony have room to grow, Nintendo is limited in this space due to its narrow scope. But that is not the whole picture – Google and Amazon, while tech/media giants in their own right, are somewhat limited in the quality of their catalogues since they are not primarily gaming companies. Those services can benefit by partnering up with more developers and expanding their catalogues. For games in the blockchain sphere, those that focus on quality and have a view toward the long term when it comes to playability have the best chance of success.

The Future of Subscription-based Gaming

The third ever annual Noonies have concluded! For 3 months, netizens have cast over 105k votes for 4,961 nominees across 586 awards from 6 different categories! Now that (congrats!), we would like to share more about the prizes that they all win, and a bit more about HackerNoon’s stance on web3, privacy and the internet! This series is sponsored by our partners and . all winners have been announced Get.Tech Avast For many of us, Avast was THE antivirus we grew up using. The McAfees and the Norton’s were too resource-intensive and the Kasperskys were…well… Kasperskys. ** ** Today, Avast is more than just an antivirus software. It has a secure browser, a VPN, a breach-guard, an anti-tracker, and so much more! ** ** Via Avast’s sponsorship of the Noonies2021, winners shall receive a 2-yr subscription for Avast’s Secure Browser Pro on 5 devices OR a 1-year subscription to Avast Premium Security. Please check your email for more instructions and unique tokens to claim :) ** **

How to Claim your Free Avast Subscriptions: For Noonies Winners with Love

Everything you need to consider before you’re ready to make the Build vs Buy decision for your subscription analytics platform. At ChartMogul, we are lucky to talk to many companies in the SaaS space and see the spectrum of challenges each faces at each phase of their growth. Depending on where these companies find themselves along that spectrum, we can find ourselves in conversations with teams that are comparing our Subscription Data Platform against a tool they are planning to build internally. Naturally, we want to get as many customers for ChartMogul as possible but are also very aware that for some teams, only an in-house tool can provide the level of insight they need. Our experience has helped us develop a good understanding of what characteristics make a team a good fit for build vs buy. In this post, we want to share some of that knowledge in order to help companies that are trying to decide whether they should build or buy their subscription analytics software. Further reading Some additional interesting takes on the “build vs. buy” conundrum: by Will Larson Build versus buy. by Shar Darafsheh SaaS billing build vs. buy Both Build and Buy involve tradeoffs Many teams choose to “buy” because they want to start using their data to their advantage as quickly as possible. Similarly, quite a few teams choose to “build” their solution in-house because they believe their use case is so unique that nothing in the market comes close to fulfilling their requirements. No matter which approach you choose to go with at the end, it is important to understand you will always gain and lose something (speed vs. customization, etc.) To make that decision for your company, it’s not enough just to be aware of the advantages and challenges of each approach. You also have to develop a high level of understanding of both the business and technical requirements you have to fulfill to decide which approach would work best for your company. What does a solution need to do, and how will it be managed and iterated on over time? Who are the user groups that will interact with the solution, and how will they use that solution? If your CFO needs to use the solution to build EOM and EOQ investor reports, they will need the solution to be reliable and consistent. Let’s compare the two approaches and see how they stack against each other. Building your own analytics tool Building from scratch may appear to be a good option because it allows you to create a tool that is the perfect fit for your specific business model. However, you also need to consider that it is improbable that you will get the resources to build this vision of the perfect tool. One of the reasons is that investing in something that is not part of your core differentiator is probably not a great use of your resources in the first place. Especially in the beginning — you’re much more likely to start with something that looks a lot like a proof of concept than the complete platform you envisioned during the planning stage. Here are some of the other pros and cons building subscription analytics internally comes with: Positives: Complete control over how metrics are calculated; Fits your use case 100%, you can create any charts/features you want; You can integrate with any of the other tools you’re using. Negatives: There are significant costs associated with setting up your infrastructure and developing the software you will need; Building the initial version is relatively easy, but generating proper charts, maintaining them, and making sure they are accurate gets increasingly complex and challenging; proof-of-concept Any additional functionalities and integrations need to be built on a custom basis by your team. Over time, the volume and complexity of the data your solution needs to account for compounds and your business and technical requirements change. So when planning for your solution, you need to anticipate that you may change billing systems later on and to be prepared to build support for that if and when the time comes. Now, let’s look at what this looks like when you decide to buy a pre-made subscription analytics product. Buying a third-party analytics product Two distinct motives usually drive teams that choose to buy an analytics platform. The apparent reason is, of course, to save time, money, and engineering resources. The equally-important-yet-less-prominent motivation is that an external vendor — especially in the case where they are developing analytics for a specific niche — also brings deep domain knowledge about the area you’re interested in. So, whether it’s revenue, marketing, or product analytics, companies like Mixpanel, Heap, and others spend a lot of time thinking about the underlying discipline. I know we do. Besides, buying from an external vendor means you are (almost) guaranteed that the company will continue to develop the tool, so you’re using something that is always following the latest trends in the industry. Just as with building, buying an analytics platform requires a set of tradeoffs. Positives: You can get started right away with minimal time investment, and your engineers can focus on your core product. Metrics calculations are based on deep domain knowledge, and they are thoroughly vetted and trusted by leadership teams and investors the world over; Most integrations are built by the vendor and work out of the box; The product is improved continuously by a dedicated development team focused on implementing the latest thinking and trends in the field. Negatives: The vendor might be unwilling to consider and customize the product for your specific use case if it doesn’t apply to a larger share of customers; Most tools focus on a specific niche/type of analytics, so you can’t perform every kind of analysis in one place; Sometimes, you will still need to dedicate some developer resources (for example, when trying to import data that lives in a legacy system). Now that you have a good understanding of the tradeoffs each approach involves, you should also consider the resources building internally would require. What does it take (and how much does it cost) to build your own analytics? If you’re thinking about building a subscription analytics capability internally, it’s important to consider the requirements and costs of such a project. First, in terms of technology, you will need to provide solutions for the following three layers: Data warehouse: As the name implies, this is where you will store all your data. Essentially, this is a database optimized for the types of analytics queries you will be performing. Typical examples of this include , , and . Amazon Redshift Snowflake Google BigQuery Extract, transform, load (ETL): This piece of your setup will be responsible for extracting your data from your primary database, transforming it into a pre-defined format, and loading it into your data warehouse, so it can be used to perform analyses. Examples of this layer include and . ○ Even if you are only going to analyze data stored in SaaS/cloud services, you will still need to write (and run) your own scripts to extract, transform, and load the required data into your data warehouse. Fivetran Stitch Business intelligence/Data visualization: The final piece is the solution you’ll use to perform queries and display the data you get from them. Typical tools in this category include , , , . Looker Tableau Power BI Google Data Studio In terms of costs, it can be challenging to estimate the exact amount to build internally. Many of these tools cater to larger organizations and, as a result, don’t have available. public pricing Based on some of the information we’ve been able to unearth, building a best-in-class solution can easily require northward of $100,000 per year (excluding headcount costs!) to build and operate: Data warehouse: Pricing depends on a range of factors such as the number of nodes and cluster sizes you will require, but our estimates suggest that using Redshift/Snowflake would start at between $5,000-8,000/year; ETL: Adding FiveTran would add to the bill; around $20,000 Data visualization: Looker is the priciest piece, with some reports putting it at over $50,000. Of course, you will also have to consider a full-time data engineer’s salary that you will need to build the solution in the beginning and a data scientist that will be the primary person who will be using it. The average salary for both those . is over $100,000 per year, according to Glassdoor As you can see, the costs to build a “best in class” solution can quickly escalate into six figures, so it is essential to keep that in mind when choosing which approach to take. Some teams choose to build using cheaper and/or open-source products, but that introduces a whole different set of challenges and usually, it ends up requiring even more data engineering effort, which makes the end result just as expensive. With that, we do not want to imply that you should also choose to “buy” over “build”. In fact, we believe there are circumstances in which either can be the better option. How to choose between Build vs Buy We believe that your decision to build your own solution or buy from a third-party vendor should be driven by what end goals you want to achieve. Suppose you’re looking to implement analytics and start using the insight from them in well-defined areas such as marketing, product, or revenue. In that case, it makes sense to buy from a vendor who already has built a dedicated product based on the expertise they have in the field. However, suppose you are more interested in , precisely in cases where you can combine different types of data (e.g., specific types of in-product usage and revenue/subscription movements). In that case, it makes sense to invest in building your own stack and hiring a (team of) data scientist(s) to run this for you. exploratory data analysis We also increasingly see a trend of what we call Reverse ETL. Companies with a high level of maturity in their data operations connect their data warehouses to tools like ChartMogul to take advantage of pre-built integrations, metric computations, and other features. This preserves their control over data and gives them the ability to do any type of consolidation and analysis on their end. Some ChartMogul customers also use our to pull their metrics and present them in their preferred reporting solution/stack. Metrics API Pick a side, make a move No matter which route you choose to go, we believe making a move is inherently better compared to pondering the decision too long. A lot is at stake when it comes to your data and how you use it. There’s a lot in it that can help you understand the potential of your business and grow it sustainably. If you’re currently facing some of these issues and would like to get a second opinion from an expert (it will be only slightly biased, we promise), our team can help you define your business and technical requirements and avoid any serious pitfalls.

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