A subscription is like a gate that gives you admission to certain content. As a general rule, the gate that gives you admission to the MOST content wins. Illustrative examples include:
-- Search engines clobbering "portals".
-- The huge subscription market for Bloomberg, et al. (In its early years, Bloomberg consistently offered more information than its competitors.)
-- ASCAP.
-- Netflix.
-- Kindle Unlimited.
More limited subscriptions can of course succeed if their value propositions are sufficiently simple and compelling. For example:
-- Pre-internet, business newsletters and almanacs had a good market, especially if they had valuable and unique raw information.
-- Pre-internet, the only categories of consumer newsletter that had good markets were in investments and health. In both those cases, the value proposition is pretty clear.
-- Our household subscribes to HBO almost solely for Game of Thrones.
-- Search engines clobbering "portals". -- The huge subscription market for Bloomberg, et al. (In its early years, Bloomberg consistently offered more information than its competitors.) -- ASCAP. -- Netflix. -- Kindle Unlimited.
More limited subscriptions can of course succeed if their value propositions are sufficiently simple and compelling. For example: -- Pre-internet, business newsletters and almanacs had a good market, especially if they had valuable and unique raw information. -- Pre-internet, the only categories of consumer newsletter that had good markets were in investments and health. In both those cases, the value proposition is pretty clear. -- Our household subscribes to HBO almost solely for Game of Thrones.