[_bkyr]

A/B testing of pricing isn't new but I wonder if you ever question if this is an ethical business to be in? I know capitalism is about extracting the maximum value out of everything but do you think it's a worthwhile pursuit to make this an even easier thing for companies to do?

[abelr]

So I am super interested in your comment and I think you will be a bit surprised by my response. I am not a strong believer in capitalism. On the contrary. Neither is Andrej. We both grew up in leftist families and I must have been the only portfolio manager that reads Das Kapital at night. We actually came at the problem from a very very different direction. We thought pricing everything from a US perspective was problematic. The price levels in India are about a 10th of the US. So we thought "Ok but that doesn't even make sense for a SaaS to price the same way everywhere. Because they lose out on poorer markets". We built Corrily with the thought that more personalized pricing based on an individual's willingness to pay also reflected an individual's capacity to pay.

We think it's pretty cool to align a business incentive (reach more markets) with an economic one (poorer nations and richer nations paying different amounts).

I actually wonder a lot what other people think about this because I think it is an important point. Is it fairer to price differently according to willingness to pay given not everyone has the same purchasing power, or to give the same price to everyone?

[lancesells]

Thanks for the response. It's definitely a tough question on what is fair.

[fastball]

If something isn't more valuable to you than its price, why would you buy it?

If $Y > $X and $Y < $VALUE_TO_YOU, how would it be unethical to optimize prices to find $Y?

[lancesells]

That's a good question and I'm not sure I'll have an answer for you but I'll try and explain my thought process. I look at technology similar to this (this seems more benign than some) as extracting as much value from people as possible. It's not a question of "what can I charge to live comfortably and have a great life" but how can I extract as much revenue as possible from my customers.

The big companies are masters of this and continue to get better as computing gets faster. It worries me a great deal that everything is or has become a monthly payment in perpetuity.

[neophocion]

Kyle Poyar [1] has a great article [2] on why usage-based (i.e. having that monthly payment change with usage) is more optimal (and arguably more fair).

In some deeper sense though, I commiserate with your point on technology being alienating through its strive to over-optimize everything. Except, I think much of this friction will inevitably have to be solved by further application of technology itself -- it's always a double edged sword..

In our case, as Abel explained, one of the things we're trying to solve are very apparent international mispricings.

Growing up in post-communist E Europe in the 90s I remember buying pirated games from street vendors. An unawareness of international pricing can easily price out many a potential client! :)

[1]: https://twitter.com/poyark [2]: https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/29/subscription-based-pricing...