tinder gold worked because the human mind can't handle blurred-out people who liked you

when tinder launched tinder gold (one of the most successful subscriptions of all time cuz it was pretty much ~100% margin) there was one psychological trick that worked incredibly well… you just show ppl who liked you but blur them out.

in order to reveal them, you need to subscribe. the human mind cannot handle this type emotional uncertainty, so the subscription which was expensive af to boot became more lucrative than netflix cuz they had zero supply side costs.

instagram plus is now effectively trying to create the same psychological dynamics, including private story views, & pushing your story up etc. incredibly interesting.