HAMPSHIRE: The subscription economy is heading for $1.2 trillion by 2030, up 67 per cent from $722 billion this year, according to Juniper Research. But consumers are growing weary of endless monthly bills, and providers face a reckoning: deliver distinctive value or watch customers bail.
Digital video services will dominate, accounting for over a third of global subscription spending by 2030. But the fastest-growing category is mobility-as-a-service, where users subscribe to access multimodal transport. That market will explode by 540 per cent between 2025 and 2030.
The growth masks a brewing crisis. Simply mixing adverts with subscription fees whilst raising prices is not a long-term solution, warns Juniper Research fintech research vice-president Nick Maynard. “As consumers grow increasingly weary of endless subscriptions, providers must deliver distinctive value to maintain growth. Simply relying on hybrid models risks alienating already fatigued customers.”
The fix, according to Juniper, is bundling and flexible management. Combining subscriptions into bundles allows users to make informed decisions with a single view. Add flexible management options and users feel more empowered—which increases satisfaction and reduces churn.
“Managing subscriptions can be a challenge for consumers, particularly as the number of subscriptions increases,” said Maynard. “We have seen many bank and fintech apps focus on subscription management as a key issue for users. Therefore, subscription providers must look at bundling and flexible management to ease the user experience, or they will lose control of subscription management to third parties.”
The warning comes as banks and fintech firms increasingly position themselves as subscription gatekeepers, offering tools that let users track, manage and cancel services from a single dashboard. If subscription providers don’t simplify the experience themselves, they risk ceding control to intermediaries.
Juniper’s study analysed over 71,500 datapoints across 61 countries over five years, making it the most comprehensive assessment of the subscription economy to date. The research includes a competitor leaderboard and examination of future market opportunities.