Surely the days of being able to “bring your own subscription” to a third party platform are also numbered?

On one hand, yes, it doesn't make sense to give out subsidized tokens forever.

On the other hand, subscriptions create lock-in in a way that API pricing doesn't.

I think a more likely end is that subscription value decreases over time because API pricing gets more reasonable, but subscriptions stay because they are a good way of getting money out of people consistently.

	▲	landl0rd a day ago \| parent [-]
		Right, subscriptions are not only cheaper because they "create lock-in". They also let you do things like forecast demand and plan your capacity for it, borrow against it sometimes if you need to, and keep somewhat less around because your cashflows are predictable. It is also valuable because it keeps customers around but that's by no means the only reason recurring revenue gets a higher multiple. This is why "subsidized tokens" is possibly a misnomer. Money at lower variance is worth more than the same money at higher variance. Not "subsidy" so much as reducing risk and passing some of that to a consumer.

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nab a day ago | parent | prev [-]

I’m not so sure… Claude backtracked on this when they tried it

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DANmode a day ago | parent [-]

They played pigeon on discless videogame consoles a time or two, too.

How long have you been in tech, outta curiosity?

Edit: great answer.

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Dylan16807 a day ago | parent [-]

> Edit: great answer.

What do you mean by that? If you're being sassy about a downvote then I'll remind you that when you reply to a comment, that person can't downvote your reply. Also this is an account with barely any comments or points, I'm pretty sure they can't downvote at all.

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DANmode 20 hours ago | parent [-]

I’ll remind the reader if they downvote without mentioning why, there’s no opinion really being conveyed.

Just a stub of a conversation.

I don’t care about the points. Just the chat, which seems finished.

	▲	Dylan16807 16 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Sure, no opinion really being conveyed. But it didn't come from the person you were talking to, so editing on a sarcastic "great answer" doesn't really work. The person you were talking to just hadn't responded within the first hour. They still might.