Comment on PlayStation Store Dynamic Pricing Is Real
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Gotta love everything being “stock-market-ized”. Where did it start at the consumer level? I wanna say solidly with entertainment industry. The one that simultaneously sells tickets to events and also operates the resale business. Sell a shitload of tickets to scalpers, then people have to pay extra to buy the “market” price for the ticket. Uber and Lyft certainly had to contribute with their “surge” pricing methods. PC parts were a big one with the shortages of everything from GPUs to HDDs over the last decade plus, but those didn’t affect the general public.
tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
What it’s all about is “market segregation”
The purpose being to chop up your product differently to get different groups of consumers to pay more based on what they can afford, or the urgency of the purchase.
This is something that business has known about forever, with things like dividing travel tickets up into first class, business, economy, early-bird tickets etc.
What tech has done is enable not only segregating by service and time, but to segregate down to the individual person and find the maximum you’re willing to pay.
And they can look at every factor. In a rush, pay more. Used the service twice last week? You must be in the habit now, so pay more. Using an iPhone not Android? You must be better off, pay more.
It’s hell, and it should be illegal.
paultimate14@lemmy.world 3 days ago
It’s also known as Price Discrimination, and depending on the details and jurisdiction sometimes it IS illegal.
Laws need to be updated to keep up with tech, and ENFORCED.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Yeah, I get what it is. But I’m wondering who the culprit is that really opened the door for it.