Why does Apple buy membership more expensive than Android? How did membership become a universal charging model on the Internet?

 In the recent period, the issue of membership can be described as a lot of discussion. Many problems are caused by members. One of the most famous is undoubtedly the recent Shanghai user suing Apple for high fees for buying members.

However, have you ever wondered why we have entered the era of the Internet with full charges from the era of free for listening to music and watching movies? How did membership become the universal charging model of the Internet?

1. Why does Apple buy membership more expensive than Android?

According to the Metropolis Express report, due to dissatisfaction that it is more expensive to buy App memberships on Apple than on Android, an Apple user sued Apple for abusing its dominant market position and demanded that Apple pay 100,000 yuan and apologize publicly. On February 26, the reporter was informed that the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court had accepted the case. According to the complaint, the plaintiff, as an Apple mobile phone consumer, purchased the iQiyi App, Himalaya App, NetEase Cloud Music App and the membership service of the DaoQiu Di App and found that the transaction could only choose Apple Pay to pay, and it was not compatible with Alipay or WeChat. Means of payment, and at the same time, after purchase, it was discovered that the pricing of these digital products was higher in Apple channels than in Android channels.

Apple’s gameplay is:

If you want to download the App, Apple mobile phone consumers can only download it through the official Apple App Store;

If you want to purchase digital services in the developer's APP, Apple mobile phone consumers must pay through Apple's official payment service Apple Pay; 

Since App developers need to pay a commission of 30% of the transaction amount (ie, "Apple tax"), consumers often purchase the same digital products provided by the same App at a higher price than the Android channel.

The membership system is entering our lives quietly. Originally, whether we watched videos on the Internet, or went to download stations to download movies, or went to find MP3 to listen to music, most of the time, we did not pay. Free has almost become the former Internet. It is a common practice of the times. However, with the development of the times, membership has almost become a normal state. You want members to watch videos, you want members to listen to music, you want members to listen to novels and books, and you want members to watch live broadcasts. exist.

According to a report in the Nanguo Zaobao, nowadays, online resource platforms have generally entered the era of payment. The cost of member recharge has become the same as utility bills, property fees, and mobile phone bills, which have become a fixed monthly expenditure for many people. During the in-place Chinese New Year this year, many people recharged their annual memberships at once, but the consumer experience they got was hard to say. In the questionnaire about "paid members" recently launched by the Nanguo Zaobao, nearly 2,000 readers shared the ups and downs. In the survey questionnaire, 49% of netizens hold the view that they “do not like the paid membership system and feel that they are bundled with the platform for consumption”, while 39% of netizens said that it is “acceptable, but feels that the price is too high”.

How does membership invade our lives silently? Why do you need members for everything? What is the logic of membership economy?

2. How did membership become the most common charging model?

To answer the question of how the membership system has invaded our lives and become the most common charging model in our daily lives, Robbie Baxter, the founder of the famous Peninsula Consulting recently told a new book of his own "Member Economy" Based on our answers, let us explore how members became the most common charging model for the Internet in China based on the book "Member Economy"? How did the membership economy become ubiquitous from the original niche charging method?

First of all, the membership system is driven by powerful external forces.

In fact, in the early days of any business model, there were basically two systems. One was a paid system, with one-handed payment and one-handed delivery, and the other was a free system. The system represented by the early Internet, while the membership system was Promoted by the powerful external forces of the Internet, the membership system allows people to access the Internet through a variety of devices through the ubiquitous Internet, to obtain the latest content and services at any time, and to keep in touch with other members.

In addition, with data storage and processing costs significantly reduced, this allows companies to store data at a very low cost and does not provide members with online access services. Putting this logic up to now, it actually seems clear at a glance. In the early years, why the free model prevailed, because the entire Internet payment system was difficult to establish, and the Internet copying cost was close to zero. In this case, it is not that the enterprise does not want to charge. It is almost impossible to put it away. Now with the rapid development of the Internet, the Internet’s copyright protection system has been continuously established. A small number of high-quality resources are monopolized by a small number of platforms. Coupled with the gradually developed mobile payment system, membership fees have become Possibly, the so-called membership system is the powerful single service provision capability formed by the platform with the help of the high-quality resources it monopolizes. Consumers have to use the mobile payment system to pay for them. This is the core reason for the membership system.

Second, the evolution from the transfer of a single use right to the membership of a two-way community.

When members of one kind have become the most accommodating party content platform easy to make money the way after a single member appeared, this is the party platform to provide users with content, and users to obtain use rights by paying a membership of alienation , But with the development of the times, more and more people actually have their own desire to express. Under the manifestation of expressing desire, most people will start to change the work in their own way, so it forms our most common Two interactive modes: barrage and comment.

According to China Economic Net, in 2020, station B users sent a total of 2.2 billion barrages, of which 5,420,359 times were "Ye Qinghui". In addition, barrage words such as "Come on Wuhan", "There is an internal taste", "Two Chefs Ecstatic", and "No Matryoshka" were also selected as the top five barrage of the year. The commentary of the famous online music platform NetEase Cloud gives NetEase the nickname "Net Yiyun", which shows the power of comments.

In fact, today’s Chinese Internet platform is becoming a two-way membership market. On the one hand, the platform provides services to members. On the other hand, the social forms such as comments and barrage provided by members will continue to change the membership economy. The level of interest in the content continues to rise, resulting in stronger user stickiness.

Third, the strong marketing of the membership system is constantly being upgraded and optimized.

If membership payment is only the first step, then strong marketing is the second step of the membership system's continuous enhancement. For the membership platform, the goal of each marketer is to sow hundreds of seeds first. , And then through continuous content watering, through time to continuously promote the germination of seeds, this is the member's secondary consumption system.

Take the most common example of us Chinese, a more interesting video platform, because much exclusive content requires us to subscribe to members to be able to watch, so most people have purchased members, but this is only the first step, after which the platform will continue Introducing more interesting content, such as exclusive content, such as series with ups and downs, requires you to pay more to watch it at this time. So there are special on-demand after members, as well as advanced on-demand and so on.

These gameplays make members feel like they can’t stop, thus forming a strong user stickiness. Although they may regret paying more later, the attractiveness of high-quality content makes users pay more. For the simplest example, iQiyi last year The member’s paid price has been increased on a large scale, but we have seen the latest data from iQiyi. In November last year, the monthly price of iQiyi Gold VIP was raised from 19 yuan to 25 yuan. In addition, the prices of season cards and annual cards All of them have risen, but the latest member data of iQiyi is 101.7 million. Compared with the highest number, only a few users are reduced, which means that member prices have not caused iQiyi users to experience a cliff-like decline. The magic of the membership economy lies.

Of course, the popularization of the membership system is not an overnight effort, but a long-term process. After today's membership, I believe there will be an ever-increasing membership service through the membership acquisition funnel, such as silver membership-gold membership-platinum membership-diamond membership. And so on, advanced systems, these are the forces that make the membership system continue to spread. Just as Sima Qian said at the time, "The prosperity of the world is for profit, and the hustle and bustle of the world is for profit." Under the strong profit creation ability of the member economy, it is the most normal phenomenon that all major platforms choose the member economy in unison.

I have to say whether you accept that the membership system has been popularized nationwide, and the fact that Apple’s membership purchases are expensive reflects not only Apple’s monopoly, but also a manifestation of the full blossoming of the membership model. It’s just that everyone cares about whether it’s received or not. It's just more money.