Minal Bopaiah

Subscription Site Central’s Top 10 Stories of 2013

By Minal Bopaiah So it’s that time of year, when the staff at Subscription Site Central disappears into the analog world to do analog things. (There’s no proof, but some of us have been known to moonlight as Santa’s elves or masquerade as those people who actually buy printed books.) We’ll be returning on January 2, 2014, but  in the meantime, we want to leave you with the top 10 most-clicked-on posts of 2013: #10. TheStreet Makes $10.4 Million…

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ALERT! Target’s Credit Card Breach May Threaten Subscription Sites

By Minal Bopaiah If you haven’t heard, Target had an extensive breach of its customers’ credit and debit card numbers over the Black Friday weekend, and details are still surfacing. According to The Wall Street Journal, the breach was national in scope and took place through brick-and-mortar stores, not through an online portal. But because customers’ credit and debit card numbers were stolen (presumably by tampering with machines that read the magnetic strip on the back of…

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ALERT! Target’s Credit Card Breach May Threaten Subscription Sites

If you haven’t heard, Target had an extensive breach of its customers’ credit and debit card numbers over the Black Friday weekend, and details are still surfacing. According to The Wall Street Journal, the breach was national in scope and took place through brick-and-mortar stores, not through an online portal. But because customers’ credit and debit card numbers were stolen (presumably by tampering with machines that read the magnetic strip on the back of a card), online…

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Music Streaming Services Get Higher-than-Average Conversion Rates, But Still Struggling with Profitability

By Minal Bopaiah A new article in The New York Times bemoaning the poor revenue models of streaming music services fails to acknowledge a startling fact: subscription music services are getting higher-than-average conversion rates for registered users to paid subscribers. The article makes mention that Spotify has 6 million paying subscribers of its 24 million users. That’s a 25% conversion rate! Pandora, on the other hand, has only 3 million paying subscribers out of 70 million registered users.…

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Music Streaming Services Get Higher-than-Average Conversion Rates, But Still Struggling with Profitability

A new article in The New York Times bemoaning the poor revenue models of streaming music services fails to acknowledge a startling fact: subscription music services are getting higher-than-average conversion rates for registered users to paid subscribers. The article makes mention that Spotify has 6 million paying subscribers of its 24 million users. That’s a 25% conversion rate! Pandora, on the other hand, has only 3 million paying subscribers out of 70 million registered users. But nevertheless, that’s a…

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Hulu Ends 2013 With 5 Million Paying Subscribers, $1 Billion in Revenues

Hulu, the streaming video on-demand (SVOD) subscription service, is ending 2013 with 5 million paying subscribers to its Hulu Plus service, and $1 billion in revenues, reports BloombergBusinessweek. Hulu charges $7.99 a month for its monthly subscriptions, and assuming the 5 million subscribers stay for a year, Hulu is poised to make $479 million in subscription revenues alone. The $1 billion revenue estimate includes advertising, and represents a 44% increase since last year. Unlike its main competitor Netflix, Hulu…

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Hulu Ends 2013 With 5 Million Paying Subscribers, $1 Billion in Revenues

By Minal Bopaiah Hulu, the streaming video on-demand (SVOD) subscription service, is ending 2013 with 5 million paying subscribers to its Hulu Plus service, and $1 billion in revenues, reports BloombergBusinessweek. Hulu charges $7.99 a month for its monthly subscriptions, and assuming the 5 million subscribers stay for a year, Hulu is poised to make $479 million in subscription revenues alone. The $1 billion revenue estimate includes advertising, and represents a 44% increase since last year. Unlike its main…

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Kindle Owners Read More eBooks than iPad Owners, Says New Report

Apparently, access to a tablet device does not necessarily translate into eBook sales, according to a new report by Simba Information. The report finds that only half of iPad owners read eBooks on their device, compared with 75.2% of Kindle Fire owners, This is an important device statistic for subscription sites, especially those offering eBook subscriptions. PRevious research has found that iPad owners tend to be more affluent and willing to spend money on content. The Simba report upholds that…

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Kindle Owners Read More eBooks than iPad Owners, Says New Report

By Minal Bopaiah Apparently, access to a tablet device does not necessarily translate into eBook sales, according to a new report by Simba Information. The report finds that only half of iPad owners read eBooks on their device, compared with 75.2% of Kindle Fire owners, This is an important device statistic for subscription sites, especially those offering eBook subscriptions. PRevious research has found that iPad owners tend to be more affluent and willing to spend money on content. The Simba…

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Another eBook Subscription Service Launches, But This Time with Ownership in Mind

E-Book subscriptions services seem to be all the rage. Last week, I wrote about Audiobooks, Scribd and Oyester and their holiday gift subscription offerings. And this week saw the quite launch of Entitle, a subscription eBook service with a twist. While most eBook subscriptions are attempting to re-jigger the Netflix model for readers with streaming, unlimited access, Entitle seems to have picked up on the consumer desire for ownership when it comes to books. So while offering more than 100,000…

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