Blog 1 min read
Why the price rises
Stated coldly: we make more money the harder your day is going. Here is why the ladder exists anyway, and the two rules that keep it honest.
The first unlock of the day costs $0.50. The second costs $1.00. The third, and every one after it, costs $2.50. At midnight the ladder resets.
Stated coldly: we make more money the harder your day is going. We wrote that sentence about ourselves before anyone else could, and it does not stop being true here. So this post is about why the ladder exists anyway, and the two rules that keep it honest.
The climb is the mechanic. A flat price turns into a subscription to going over — you pay it once, note the cost, and it stops being information. A rising price means every unlock is a new decision at a new number. The second time you are asked, the answer costs more than it did an hour ago, and that difference is exactly the thing worth noticing at exactly the moment you are least inclined to notice anything.
It is also simply true about the world. Miss the last boat and the way home costs money — more, the later it gets. A surge-priced cab at two in the morning is not making a judgement about your character. Neither is the ladder. The price is a fact, printed in advance, of what the next crossing costs.
Rule one: the ladder never resets on payment. Top up while you are three rungs up and you resume three rungs up. If money could reset the ladder, the ladder would be theatre.
Rule two: ten dollars buys ten dollars, for everyone. Bonus credit for subscribers was considered and declined — a discount on scrolling wearing a hat, and it collects fastest with the people the product is failing hardest.
One number tells us whether this stays honest: the percentage of users who bought zero top-ups this month, tracked as a success metric, on the same dashboard as revenue. Most days the right outcome is that we make nothing. That is the app working.