Hey all,
I’ve had a chat with the team. Here are some more information I can share:
Infrastructure
What we mean when we say infrastructure is mainly our databases. This is by far the biggest line on our cost sheet.
Price Increase
In 2022, Trakt’s was down due to a database crash. One of the actions the team took was to add redundancy to those databases to avoid data loss in the future and improve the general availability of the service. This had the effect of basically doubling that (already big) line on the bill.
Then there’s also salaries: Trakt has been getting new people on board across all disciplines. From support and moderation to design and UX going through engineering with web/infra to Android specifically. Trakt was reaching a size that just couldn’t be sustained by just Justin and Sean, even with the help of some contractors here and there. As mentioned in this thread, we are a rather small team for the size of the service. Removing people is not the answer here.
Pricing, Tiering & Grandfathering
I’m going to refer to this post by Justin (in Feb):
VIP Pricing
Why was the decision needed?
In 2015, we introduced two VIP pricing tiers: $30 and $60 per year. It is expensive to run Trakt, servers aren't cheap :sweat_smile:. We retired the lower cost plan because it just wasn't sustainable anymore.
You can go through the whole post, it explains a lot of things (imo). Maybe with the additional context I’m giving here it will better explain things.
The API Partner Program
The Partner Program is based on a referral link system and the Public API:
- Partners will get another level of access to the Public API,
- Users of those apps will get a better level of service,
- Partners will get a share ONLY of the VIP subscription of the new users going through the link,
- Existing VIP will get a bonus in the Partner app. This could be a free access or a promo — in Rippple I choose to give something my Premium for free, but it’s my choice as an independent developer and I’m sustaining that loss in revenue,
- Existing VIP (using or not the app) subscriptions are not shared with Partners
The Partner Program will be expended to include other third-party apps, including Android apps.
Younify and other Integrations
I’m going to talk about Younify as an example here because there was a focus on this thread about it but it applies to more core integrations.
I just wanted to clarify, after verification with the team, the following:
As for the API Partner Program, Trakt’s costs with Younify are usage based.
What it means is: as a user that does not use Younify, your VIP subscription is not used to fund Younify, in any way.
And to go back on some of the first points: this doesn’t mean we could easily have 2 paid tiers (we had that!): one with Younify, one without. The main part any VIP subscription covers is not Younify, regardless of usage, it is and will remain infrastructure.
I hope this clarifies and/or gives a better level of context on the issues at hand in this thread.
If you still have a specific question not answered, please 
and I’ll be happy to add the missing information if I can.