
Amazon Launches Self-Service Marketplace for Subscription Providers - jamessun
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2264001
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hackcrafter
My first thought is are they adding enough value to take a 30% cut off a
digital subscription service?

But then I flipped the question to whether as a consumer, I would be more
likely to be a digital subscription with a "Subscribe with Amazon" button.

Hell yes!

I just logged into my Economist account to try and cancel my subscription and
failed to find any way to do that. Emailed support, they said "we would be
happy to help you, call us during business hours...".

I would love all my subscriptions to be managed by Amazon under a single
interface.

I would also be more likely to "try out a subscription" knowing I could easily
get out of it without dancing through hoops.

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adrr
Subscription providers shoot themselves in the foot when they do unethical
practices like forcing people to call in and sit on hold to cancel. Its even a
violation of Visa's rules to not provide digital way to unsubscribe.

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andylynchnz
Thanks! That explains why the Economist here is so keen on signing up people
via direct debit.

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pgroves
I know someone who is about to launch a very niche "box of the month" type
service, where a box of items are mailed out each month. This would have been
great as she could just have an amazon subscriptions page and a static website
that links to it.

But no, it's for "digital app, website, or software" only.

Why would I go to amazon.com to sign up for dropbox? I'm not getting it.

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runako
> Why would I go to amazon.com to sign up for dropbox?

Because you, like a few hundred other million people, were already on
amazon.com and it was recommended to you.

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20years
So just an FYI for those here who sign up or if anyone from Amazon reads this.

The phone number field gives you a "this field is required" error if you type
dashes or any other non numeric characters in the field. Remove all non
numeric to get past that error.

Also, the confirmation email that you receive after you sign up comes in with
the word "Subject" on the email subject line. This threw me off a bit and I
almost deleted it.

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thecosas
[https://www.subscribewithamazon.com/](https://www.subscribewithamazon.com/)

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azdle
Customer Side:
[https://smile.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/?node=14498690011](https://smile.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/?node=14498690011)

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jakozaur
Quote: "How to Make Money

For a customer’s first year as a subscriber, you receive 70% of each
transactional amount.

After a subscriber’s first year, your revenue increases to 85% of each
transactional amount. "

That's a bit more than Stripe or Braintree.

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givehimagun
I don't think they are equal comparisons because Amazon is offering a
marketplace where your service can be discovered...theoretically they are
bringing you more customers. Stripe and Braintree only offer payment
processing.

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forgottenacc57
Amazon always fails to make their payments services sufficiently international
to be any use outside the US.

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20years
I can see this doing well for paid online training programs such as Treehouse
and similar. Especially if Amazon does give you exposure and you end up being
featured.

I don't see why you can't utilize this for the exposure in addition to a
payment provider such as Stripe for the people that come directly to your
site/app outside of Amazon.

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yodon
If I integrate this into my app/saas product, is their support for one-off in-
app purchases or can I only sell subscriptions without being able to sell
digital goods as well?

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RichardHeart
Amazon through audible.com is an unethical rebiller, billing you every month
for literally nothing once you hit 6 credits. You keep getting billed, yet you
never accrue more than 6 credits max. This scam is why they can pay $50 a
signup.

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xtracerx
you could... use your credits?

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tamimator
Brilliant.

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newsat13
What is brilliant?

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brilliantcode
Amazon is basically creating an ecosystem for subscription based businesses
where they hold all the customers hostage in return for a piece of your
action.

