Tech’s broken promises: Streaming is now just as expensive and confusing as cable. Ubers cost as much as taxis. And the cloud is no longer cheap::Some tech is getting pricier and looking a lot like the older services it was supposed to beat. From video streaming to ride-hailing and cloud computing.

  • Savaran@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    But I can binge streaming services and then cancel without multiple hundred dollar fees. And I can use the same app for Uber no matter what city I’m in.

    So… I get things aren’t paradise but let’s be clear they’re still largely covering a lot of folks needs.

    • ConstipatedWatson@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Moreover, not to take sides with Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Dropbox, Box, etc, but storing files costs money to maintain (there needs to be redundancy, every once in a while drives need to be replaced, they need to be cooled, etc), so we’d like it to be cheap, but doing all these things cannot be free for the hosting company.

      This is not to say they are jacking up prices, but that it cannot stay super cheap forever.

      Still, these services have been very handy so far, though I’m looking to see if the plan I have is still convenient compared to the competition

      • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Seems to me like it would be more sustainable if it was super cheap for a large common library so a large userbase would maintain a continuous subscription, supporting a large continuous revenue, rather than signing-up and quitting intermittently.

        The media companies are ruining it for themselves by trying to squeeze more out of the users, which leads them not to stick with any of them.

        • _wintermute@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Seems to me like it would be more sustainable if it was super cheap for a large common library so a large userbase would maintain a continuous subscription, supporting a large continuous revenue, rather than signing-up and quitting intermittently.

          Excuse me, but how would a tiny percentage of people profit off of this?! What is even the point if there are no shareholders to demand record profits year after year? /s