Why we need to charge for radar upgrades
/One of our community members brought up the topic of economic discrimination regarding the in-app purchases on our free app and we wanted to share that discussion in case anyone else felt the same way and to bring clarity to their very valid concern. Please be kind with your comments. We want to keep this a safe place for those to share constructive criticism AKA kind-candor.
They commented:
“So charge those who wish to have ads removed, but don’t charge for radar upgrades and 15 minute interval radar reporting, which can save lives. The real story isn’t the potential for ad removal, it’s the buried story of economic discrimination.”
Our response:
“We would love to do that! Seriously, we tried. But once we ran the numbers of how much the additional, extremely expensive future-radar data that we purchase was vs how little revenue the tiny ad banner yielded that we place at the bottom of the app, we ended up losing quite a bit of money for every user. If we ended up launching the app that way, we’d be bankrupt by this point and we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
Currently, users that keep ads actually cost us a little bit each month and that’s with only 2 hours of radar data. It’s only because of those who subscribe that we’re able to afford to pay for those who don’t.
With premium future-radar, we have to pay for every single radar tile and there is multiple tiles per radar and multiple frames per animation. It adds up very quickly, especially with many users on the app. Having said this, we do have plans to build our own future radar product and that will happen within the next two years. Once we do, we’ll be able to offer more to free users!
I really hope you can appreciate that this isn’t economic discrimination. This is simply a very careful pricing strategy so that we don’t go out of business. On a related topic, we offer everything on our Facebook and social media accounts for free and that will never change. We also often share the full 5 hour 15-minute radar animations on our pages for free for everyone to see. So basically, everything we do is ultimately shared with the entire community for free and we plan to keep it that way.
I personally grew up in subsidized housing and we couldn’t afford much. However, I’m so grateful my parents did everything they could to provide us with the best life possible and I wouldn’t change my childhood for anything. I’m certainly not out here trying to economically discriminate against anyone and I certainly haven’t forgotten where I came from. I am also so grateful that we’re able to offer all that we do to everyone for free.
I really do appreciate you taking the time to discuss this and I sincerely hope I’ve shed some light on exactly why we need to charge users that are able to afford to upgrade to get slightly more than what we already offer everyone for free. - Adam”
