Ooops
Launch dates slip sometimes. It happens. Sometimes its difficult to say, “Ok, we’re done. Let’s put it out there.” We’re busy wrapping up development and some procedural details for subscription transfers, but in a week or two, we’ll be ready for testing. See you all then.
The Future of News
While UM is developing a market to allow consumers to get value out of their formerly useful subscriptions, we’re interested in making sure that the subscriptions they do have are valuable. I came across this video from Bonnier for where they want to take the future of newspapers. It’s a very cool concept, and certainly in the realm of where things are going. It almost makes me this of FlipBoard, except that Bonnier is a publisher – and they’re innovating!
News+ concept live from Bonnier from Bonnier on Vimeo.
What’s Happening?
So a couple of you have asked what’s going on at UserMover. We’re full on in development mode for the new beta site. It’s going to be a big improvement from the previous alpha (RIP). You’ll be able to submit your subscriptions and pick up something else immediately, instead of waiting for a swap.
I know what you’re thinking. Wow, this is a big undertaking during the holiday season. I know, but we’re hoping to bring you some holiday joy.
Look out for the re-launch. Coming January 2010
UserMover’s solution for the paywall dilemma
The combination of the current economic climate with waffling monetization efforts by the publishing industry have made subscriptions for online content a financial commitment not readily embraced by today’s consumer. Point and case: the London Times’ implementation of a £1/day or £2/week pay wall cost the publication 99.5% of its 20 million readership base over the course of the last four months.
Are readers hesitant to pay for news they can essentially read elsewhere for free? Are they concerned about plausible auto-renewals and the absent minded financial commitment that might ensue?
Nobody entirely knows yet. What we do know is that along with such an overwhelming percentage of your readership, advertisers will imminently follow—as would a publication’s journalists, you’d imagine, as long as their salaries get thinner and their work’s not being read.
Enter UserMover.com, which could provide a possible solution to engaging readers with a pay wall by way of letting them avoid long-term commitment and the inherent depreciating value of subscriptions. Customers can list subscriptions, to publications or most anything else, on the UserMover marketplace and exchange them for subscriptions that others have listed on the website.
In this way your £2/week investment in the London Times, should you find equally well-produced content elsewhere for free or simply lose interest, remains anchor free—enabling you to get out there and subscribe to whatever else might peak your interest.
Buyer’s Remorse: Why you (and they) need a secondary marketplace for subscriptions.
The idea behind UserMover is simple. It’s going to help you get rid of a subscription you no longer want and replace it with one that you do want.
We all know what it’s like to buy into a subscription on an impulse…an article we absolutely must read, a song we desperately need to have, a new collaboration app that we’re sure will finally get our product launched. On any given day, we may hit four to five walls that we think justify the purchase of a low, but recurring, monthly charge.
But, unfortunately, we’re not fortune tellers. You might fall out of contention in your fantasy league, making ESPN insider useless, or have a couple awful dates and give up on the online dating scene. Maybe you get lucky and find a friend with a great music collection and generous spirit and no longer need that Rhapsody subscription. Or perhaps, you’re assigned to research a new industry at work, making that previous trade publication non-essential.
In all these situations, UserMover can help. Unlike classifieds sites such as Craigslist (and even Twitter), or general marketplaces like Ebay, subscription holders who list their subscriptions on our marketplace will receive immediate value, in the form of UserMover credits, regardless of whether a buyer surfaces.* Those users can then use those credits to buy into subscriptions that others have listed for sale on our marketplace. And, because the exchange of subscriptions can often be a murky process, we take the lead on that as well, unlike current offerings. As a result, we not only facilitate, but also standardize, the transfer of memberships between owners and prospective buyers. In doing so, UserMover will both help consumers unload, and receive value for, unwanted subscriptions, and enable them to pursue new interests in a variety of content and services, without fear of regret. Our hope is to relieve even the ficklest of buyers of their remorse and permit them to continue, if not increase, their experimenting ways.
Usermover will be an online marketplace devoted to exchanging subscriptions and contracts…and it’ll be the first to do it in some key and exciting consumer-facing verticals, as exemplified by the on and offline content and consumer service providers sampled above. Our initial focus will be on these nominal-value subscriptions, which are generally structured as paid-in-full memberships**, and where there is the potential for a high volume of transactions. And with recent trends in the news and publishing industry suggesting that more content will be made available only with subscriptions, we think consumers will increasingly appreciate the kind of flexibility our secondary marketplace can provide.
If you’re one of the 60 million Americans currently experiencing buyer’s remorse for previous purchases of online and offline subscriptions, we look forward to working with you.
* Subscription values, which depreciate over time, are valued on our marketplace according to our patent-pending (but very intuitive) algorithm.
** As opposed to, for example, a hosting contract where your subscription binds you to make payments in the future.
Hey there
Hey all,
This is where we hope to keep you updated about our progress and general musings about our business. We’re super excited about our forthcoming beta launch and really look forward to working with all of you to maximize the value you receive from spending on subscriptions and memberships!
Cheers,
Ajay, Founder/CEO/Empathetic Consumer