5 Reasons Why I Pay for Digital

I don't live in the US, nor am I a US citizen. I'm from Poland, and I live in Taiwan, that means the Internet content, free or paid, is very different for me, compared the "average" Internet user we seen often described on social media. Among my circles, paying for digital services and content is still considered stupid. It's ridiculous, but when I talk to my friends, I'm actually a little ashamed to admit I buy apps, or pay to download music, because my friends think that's waste of money (and they voice it out loud). Yet, I'm willing to pay, more and more.

In the past, I was on the "Internet should be free" side of the story. Generally, no private person (or even not many businesses) was paying for software in Poland in 2000s. I haven't been living in Europe for a while, and I do think some things are slowly changing, but generally, there is this strong thinking, we should be able to download things for free. Of course, there's plenty cool free stuff, but I must say… less and less as the companies are realizing how to monetize the "e-".

So here are my reasons, why I'm moving from free to paid:

1. Because I can.

I've started using the Internet when I was 16, and that was considered early for Eastern Europe standards. I know what modem is, I had one. Social media? The first I've used was mIRC. At that time, as long as you had the PC and the modem, things were free mostly. No one even considered if it was legal or not, because it was considered a nature of the Internet that its content was free. With time, the pirating issue grew, especially for downloading movies and music, with some spectacular cases of arresting the pirates. At that time, I could not buy anything on-line, even if I wanted, simply because I was still a student, I had no money really, and surely I had no credit card.  

Now I'm an adult, I have a debit card (credit is not necessary anymore to pay on-line), and spending 10 USD is not such a big deal anymore. I easily spend $10 for a coffee (very overpriced coffee) or for lunch, so why not spend $2.99 on an app that I will enjoy using much longer? Yet, I see around me, many of my peers did not make the leap, and stubbornly cling to the idea of "everything should be free". 

2. Convenience.

Obviously, as most of the apps is really just selling you convenience as a product. Obviously, I can still download almost any album or e-book, but sometimes I want them right now, without the hassle of going to shady websites, converting files, without waiting. Even though I have a pack of 1000+ e-books somewhere there on some DVD disc (LOL! I mean, disc! My new netbook doesn't even have optical reader), I prefer to purchase through Amazon, so that I can read the same book on my netbook, phone, and Kindle (I love how it syncs to the last page read).

3. Because there's no other option anymore.

In the past downloading "free" Windows or MS Office was not complicated, or there was always someone who could give a copy to you. Not anymore. Companies have learned how to protect their software, and it is not easy to pirate, unless you have some decent hacking skills.

4. Cloud subscriptions.

You can't pirate that. It's somehow interlaced with the convenience, but even deeper. Having your files, photos, books, music, contacts on the cloud changed the way we do and plan things. As I mentioned, I'm an expat, and cloud helps me so much with handling my matters between my home country and the place where I live, especially when I travel.

5. Quality.

Seriously, the quality of free stuff is getting worse. "You pay for what you get" is very true with digital.

Saying all that, there are still some barriers that are too high for me to cross, and often really annoy me and influence the way I feel about brands. This is what still needs to be done:

1. Geographical barriers!

 

Taiwan is beautiful, but not everything is available here
(Photo by 28andstillcounting)

I.HATE.IT.SO.MUCH! Yes, that much. Around five years ago I wanted to buy a movie soundtrack in mp3 form. I was in Taiwan, with Polish credit card, and Polish iTunes account. I literally have spent a day looking for a website that would sell this album to me. I found none! It's getting better in 2010s, I can buy on iTunes and Amazon now (not everything though), but still I feel discriminated. Even when things are restricted to Poland only, based on my IP address, I am blocked out anyway! I wrote more about payment problems in my previous post, but I am continuously frustrated every now and then. Brands are marketing things so well, creating needs in me, and then won't let me buy because of my location or nationality, or both.  I know there are legal issues here, but please, we need to solve this ASAP so companies can make more money and users can get the products they want. I would love to have Netflix, I really want to buy Kindle Fire, but I'm not allowed.

2. Prices.

I say I can pay, but you need to be reasonable. I know you've invested a lot of money and time in your service, but unless the price goes down I will not consider it. I mentioned MS Office above. Last year I've bought new netbook, and it came with Windows 8 built in, however no MS Office. I was thinking of buying it (I think Microsoft's cloud is actually really well-done and would work great with the Office), but for my private light use, the price is not adequate. Instead I'm paying for more space on my Google Drive and use Google Docs. Also, I was delighted to get e-mail from Google, about a month ago, informing me that monthly fees will be cheaper now. If your app costs below $10, I will not think that long before hitting "buy", but if it costs more, you will need to really use some convincing.

3. Free Trial.

That convincing is a free way to try your services. Fortunatelly, most companies already offer this option, but not all of them. Headspace is not cheap at all (really, I'm still shocked that I've actually subscribed, and I'm scared that my friends will find out about it!), but the 10 days free program got me so hooked, that 3 weeks after ending it, trying other similar apps, I just knew I couldn't live without it. I don't really regret, because I love it and use it daily. However, it was not an easy decision for me, and the free trial was the best hook.

So these are the reasons to buy or not, from my perspective. I think it's different than, for example, perspective of people from the US or the UK. When I talk to them, they tend to see less of a problem with the price levels than me ($100 a year? no problem for them). But I hope my parts of the world won't be overlooked by tech companies anymore. Otherwise, don't be surprised that "we" find other ways to access your products. One of the biggest reasons why I like Amazon and continue to buy from there is because they are quite open to international clients (I think they were one of the firsts to accept foreign debit cards as payment), even though their newest products are US-only. I hope they will continue pushing on the geographical barriers and truly make the Internet a global platform.