I think its interesting that they killed it because it was a "cost center" and never even tried to monetize it. I wonder how much it would actually cost if you measured the contractors to the minute and only charged for the tasks that humans needed to perform?
I have only played around with Magic. Really like the idea of it but never got any real use of it. They executed all tasks I threw at them so slowly which in turn costed me too much money (asking them to warn me each morning if it is going to rain.. well, that cost me 40 minutes the first day, then I canceled that task).
Since then I got a credit card with concierge service, which I pay around 10 USD/month for. Solves all my easy tasks for a much better price.
I used Magic recently but I had never heard of the other three so thanks for that info! I asked them to cancel a gym membership and it took them 70 minutes. Ugh. After that happened I am hesitant to ask them to do anything else. What credit card are you using for concierge service and what kind of tasks do you use it for? I assume theres limits to the kinds of tasks that Magic could do but your concierge can't.
There are certainly tasks that a virtual assistant can handle and not a concierge-service, but in my personal case those did not deserve the extra cost.
I use the concierge service over email, and they usually take a few hours to respond. Magic started to work on my tasks within a few minutes, often faster, which already here changes what you can use it for. It is possible to call the concierge over phone when you need it faster, but email has served my need.
Here is a few things I have used them for the last month or so:
* I traveled away two weeks recently, wanted to leave my car at a car service the day before and have them fix it and store it until I was back home. Had the concierge call around and book that for me. Booked change of winter tires this way as well.
* Wanted a get a haircut a certain time on a holiday day. Had them book that as I did not no anyone that was open.
* Called them 30 minutes ahead of a full-booked train and they managed to get my a ticket (still not sure how they did this).
* Tried to buy outsold tickets to a concerts, which they did not manage to do. Wrote back that they were sorry.
* Investigate the ability to book a meeting room within a 500 meters-area.
All this costed me around 10 USD/month, and no premium when you purchase things. I have just started, possible I find a better use for it in the future.
I live in Sweden and use https://www.supremecard.se. Most credit cards buy the same service from the same third party concierge service, so I just got the cheapest credit card as the service is the same.
It seemed obvious that it was and would remain a cost-center, but I figured it would be the kind of loss-leader that would eventually turn into a service that would be scalable and profitable. It sounds like the scope of M's service was too ambitious, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it couldn't eventually provide insights as to the optimal (and profitable) balance between AI and human intervention. Given Facebook's overall profit margins and ability to throw money at moonshots, maybe M's losses were extreme to the point that a monetization effort was seen as unlikely?
