MoviePass, the all-you-can-watch style movie subscription service, allows users to go to the movies every day, at participating theaters, for a low monthly fee, between $8-10 per month.
And at the end of last year, they had just managed to pass the 1 million subscriber milestone.
MoviePass has been around for several years, but it wasn't until they dramatically lowered their monthly price that it started attracting a growing number of people to the app. The service allegedly used to be offered several years ago for around $50 per month.
Whenever someone wants to see a movie using MoviePass, they'll need to use their smartphone app to check into the theater. And what many users might have been unaware of up until recently, was the spying capabilities of the app; it's broad data collection.
The MoviePass CEO, Mitch Lowe, recently spoke quite candidly about the reality that the company is tracking more than just the movie choices of those who use the app.
And this is something that many users might have been unaware of, the tracking of their whereabouts, because it allegedly wasn't readily and clearly disclosed within the privacy policy.
Lowe admitted that the company collects an enormous amount of data, things like your address, the number of people living in your household, how many kids you have, the age groups of your kids and or those living in the home, income information, and more.
They can monitor how the user drivers to the movies and what locations they visit afterward etc.
At the moment, many wonder how MoviePass is going to continue operating for long, seeing as it provides an opportunity for movie-goers to see a movie every day for less than the average cost of one movie per month. Some have suggested that this model will never be able to make any money; or perhaps MoviePass will need to increase the prices.
But the value that many might not have yet considered, is the data that the company is going to collect on its users. And they allegedly plan to monetize this data by selling it to studio marketers.
MoviePass says in the long-term they eventually want to create a pipeline of discounts involving a myriad of business partnerships.
There might be a growing number of movie theaters that we see in the future make the turn to sign-up to be included in the program, or perhaps we will see them coming out with their own subscription service for their customers. The company has already partnered successfully with a variety of independent theater chains, hoping to bring on bigger players down the road.
Will users mind about their data being collected? Or will they consider it a good trade-off for the low movie price and other discounts they are offered by the app? As far as who is interested in using the app, it's estimated that at least 75 percent of the users of the app are millennials. And after recently surpassing the 1 million subscriber mark, they hope that 2018 will bring them close to 3 million users or more.
Pics:
via screenrant.com
via poppykulture.com
pixabay
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/27/business/media/moviepass-theaters-tickets.html
https://www.cnet.com/news/movie-pass-says-it-wont-sell-location-data-on-users/
https://lifehacker.com/moviepass-is-tracking-your-location-before-and-after-mo-1823549979
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/05/moviepass-ceo-proudly-says-the-app-tracks-your-location-before-and-after-movies/
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/5/17083280/moviepass-location-based-user-tracking-data-privacy-app-policy-changes
https://mashable.com/2018/03/06/moviepass-data-collection-response/#Hxecw6ZVemql
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