MoviePass is now only charging $6.95 a month for their service, which is amazing since a lot of people don’t see how they could possibly profit from this. But the trick is that they’re selling the data of the subscribers so that they and other vendors can learn the preferences of the individuals. So far they’re being transparent about it, but this still seems like a poor business model since tailoring everything to a person’s desires seems like a way to not only be completely creepy about offering a service to anyone, but it also takes the fun out of making decisions if everything you want is right at your fingertips. A lot of people would no doubt disagree with this, as the general consensus of American’s these days seems to be that they want everything they want when they want it. But what happened to making an educated choice?
Those at MoviePass are also banking on the idea that fifty to sixty percent of their subscribers are going to be seeing one movie or less a month, so the rest will be seeing upwards of 3 or more movies per month. What this means is that since MoviePass buys the tickets to each movie at the regular price from vendors, having everyone see 3 or more movies per month would in fact cause them to lose money. But if they count on half to the majority of people being those that only go to see one movie per month or less then the model seems sound. Honestly it sounds like a very big gamble with a huge margin for error if things go wrong. Plus, the idea of them selling a person’s data, as far as their purchasing habits one would hope, is still disturbing. In an era where data can actually be used to harm a person in many ways this doesn’t seem optimal.
Yet a great many people still swear by MoviePass and have deemed it to be one of the greatest services ever conceived. Honestly though it seems like yet another way to privatize a business and take all the fun out of it by forcing the theaters out of their own buildings in a way. Just like anything else there are a wealth of pros and cons to this service and one of the obvious pros is that you pay a monthly fee and then get to watch as many movies as you want. A con however would be that you know that you’re giving permission for them to sell your data to other vendors, which may or may not be a good thing since those vendors would know what you want and would already be prepared to make you offers without the benefit of you ever having to look around for what you want. Obviously you’re not obligated to buy from the vendors that have your information, but it’s the simple fact that they have it that seems disturbing.
Some feel that this is an acceptable practice, but it still makes others uneasy.
Follow Us
