[HN Gopher] Canva says its new AI features justify raising subsc...
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       Canva says its new AI features justify raising subscription prices
       by 300%
        
       Author : doener
       Score  : 24 points
       Date   : 2024-09-04 15:02 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (fortune.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (fortune.com)
        
       | fsndz wrote:
       | I wish them good luck with it haha, especially given the
       | reliability issues. why would anyone want to 300% given the
       | current reliability challenges ? (https://www.lycee.ai/blog/ai-
       | reliability-challenge)
        
         | lagniappe wrote:
         | I'm not saying it's right, but... The people making spending
         | decisions are vastly disconnected in most cases from the people
         | who content with reliability issues.
        
       | darby_nine wrote:
       | I really hate how disconnected subscription prices are from
       | actual value delivered. Imagine a world where you're billed
       | proportional to usage! What a halcyon dream.
        
         | addicted wrote:
         | Metering in software is usually terrible.
         | 
         | It discourages experimentation and use. It also adds
         | significant mental overhead when it comes to using something.
         | One can imagine this mental overhead when using Canva or
         | Photoshop. But if evrry app was like that the complexity would
         | rise exponentially.
         | 
         | Metering leads to reaching local optimal states at best, and
         | makes it very difficult to reach a global optimal state.
         | 
         | There is very little marginal cost when software is concerned
         | so metering isn't even reflective of the costs of using a
         | product.
         | 
         | However, this isn't currently true of AI. AI has significant
         | marginal costs so metering probably better aligns with the
         | expenses, but metering is so bad for other reasons that most
         | companies are choosing to forgo the "reflective of costs"
         | benefit and just charge flat prices anyways.
        
           | darby_nine wrote:
           | > There is very little marginal cost when software is
           | concerned so metering isn't even reflective of the costs of
           | using a product.
           | 
           | Well that's my point, isn't it? Neither are subscriptions.
           | The transaction is presented as for a service, but you're
           | really paying for a workforce that might not be providing any
           | marginal value to you at all.
           | 
           | > Metering leads to reaching local optimal states at best,
           | and makes it very difficult to reach a global optimal state.
           | 
           | I don't see how subscriptions are more likely to get us
           | there. Certainly closed-source software (or paying for access
           | to a closed-source service) makes it much harder to find
           | globally optimal states--we're reinventing the wheel over and
           | over and over again, which is tremendously inefficient and
           | presumably would be a problem you'd expect market
           | forces/technological progression to correct.
        
           | atoav wrote:
           | Welcome to The Hammer(tm) OS(r)! Your privacy is valuable to
           | us. The Hammer(tm) is billed for every use -- the amount we
           | bill you depends on your class within The Hammer(tm) Club
           | membership system (ask our sales experts for more
           | information). Welcome to the future of tools with The
           | Hammer(tm)!
        
         | latexr wrote:
         | > Imagine a world where you're billed proportional to usage!
         | 
         | I see a world of even more surveillance. One where people
         | frequently install uBlock-like tools to stop the counting and
         | apps install invasive "cheat prevention" DRM mechanisms like
         | some AAA games. A world where someone is billed astronomical
         | amounts because they forgot to close an app, where people are
         | constantly nervous the whole time they use a tool, and
         | unscrupulous companies make programs run just a bit slower to
         | rake in more money.
         | 
         | I don't like subscriptions either, but that doesn't sound like
         | the solution to me.
        
       | yieldcrv wrote:
       | No moat
        
         | pedalpete wrote:
         | Tell that to all the companies that have tried to compete with
         | Canva and failed.
         | 
         | Canva's game it to get all your company assets managed on
         | Canva. Then try shifting away.
        
       | lancewiggs wrote:
       | If that's the case then (and this is for any company) give
       | customers the option of a lower price than today's without the
       | (generally invasive and poor) AI experiences.
        
       | stevenicr wrote:
       | Article is block-subscribe-walled for me.. so not reading.
       | 
       | However I have avoided signing up for the pro version of canva
       | mainly because it's a subscription, this at $10 / mth
       | 
       | I use it, and I recommend it, I like it.
       | 
       | I've watched videos showing some of the power of some of the AI
       | things, I have told others of some of the use cases like smart
       | object replace.
       | 
       | However if they go to $30 / mth I'll never go to the pro version.
       | 
       | As much as I hate 'credits' and 'token usage limits' because it's
       | like trying to figure how many games you can play at a
       | davenBusters with $40..
       | 
       | I would prefer a plan that gave a limit of usage and stayed at
       | $10 / month.
       | 
       | I've even been looking at ways of doing some automated things
       | with canva, but can't imagine paying $30 a month or more as a
       | subscription service for canva or adobe or anything similar.
       | 
       | Hearing this increase possibility makes me appreciate the options
       | that cyberlink and https://skylum.com/luminar/pricing have - as
       | much as I dislike limited use addons and such, it's better than
       | everyone being forced into a bigger data pie they don't need, and
       | will likely get stuck into a never-to-end subscription for many
       | people and businesses.
       | 
       | Stuff like this makes me glad that, gulp, 'rocket money app' is
       | doing a find and auto remove your wasted subscriptions thing.
       | 
       | when the friends you like make you gravitate to liking your
       | enemies because they are more friendly to your lifestyle ways.
       | meh.
        
       | joenot443 wrote:
       | https://archive.is/9V4Bh
        
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       (page generated 2024-09-04 23:02 UTC)