Chicken and Egg Problem for NZ Subscription Marketplace - Feedback Please!!!!

Lgunnbot123 on 26/07/2026 - 18:23

Hey fellow Cheapies~

Over the past few years, as a broke student, I've always wanted a way to split subscriptions, such as Spotify Premium, with people who wanted to do the same. Unfortunately, none of my friends or family were interested because they either didn't use Spotify or already had their own subscription arrangements. Following my journey to lower my subscription costs, I eventually found a few platforms that offered exactly what I was looking for. Unfortunately, they were all based in the US or Europe, meaning they either didn't support New Zealand properly. (We're too small haha)

I ended up building KiwiSubs, a marketplace where people can share subscription plans and save money. KiwiSubs homepage

At this moment, I'm looking for a small group of people who'd like to lower their Spotify Premium costs and are willing to give the platform a try. The first two months will be absolutely free, and I'll happily subsidize the family plan cost; you can decide if you want to continue with the plan for $8.99, no pressure at all :)
2 months of free Spotify Premium offer

The biggest challenge I'm facing is the classic chicken and egg problem

  1. Hosts don't want to list their spare spots if there are no joiners.
  2. Joiners don't want to sign up if there aren't any available spots.
  3. No reviews/testimonials yet, so both hosts and joiners have no reason to trust the platform.

I've built a waitlist for anyone interested, so anyone interested, please feel free to join!
Any feedback, suggestions, or advice would be greatly appreciated

Thank you guys!!

Free Software/Websites

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  • sigma on 26/07/2026 - 19:20

    i see the issue you are trying to resolve but is that allowed in their t&c's? may want to check to prevent a lawyers letter arriving one day. those platforms can get pretty intense with legal demands

    • 2
    • gunnbot123 on 26/07/2026 - 19:49

      Yes, good point and I've looked into this as well. This is exactly why KiwiSubs isn't positioned or marketed as a platform that provides or sells subscriptions, but rather as a marketplace where people with available spots can connect with people looking to join shared plans.

      • 0
  • doubledowndan on 26/07/2026 - 19:44

    You're making a fair mark up on this. Spotify Premium costs 33.99 a month. You're selling 6 spots for 8.99ea ($53.94). I can understand a small fee but that's more than 50%. All you need is 4 people total to split the cost

    • 1
    • gunnbot123 on 26/07/2026 - 20:05

      I completely agree if someone already has 3–5 friends or family members who want to split a plan, then organising it privately would definitely be cheaper. The problem KiwiSubs is trying to solve is for people who don't already have that network and want an easier way to find others interested in sharing a plan.

      The biggest factor behind the pricing was to incentivise more hosts to join the platform! So this means hosts will only pay 33.99/6 = $5.67/month (apologies for not mentioning it in the post). Hosts don't pay any commission at all, and the additional fee is only applied to joiners. Another factor is covering the platform costs involved, such as Stripe transaction fees and Stripe Connect fees (as host payouts use Stripe Express). One more factor I considered was keeping the price below the existing Spotify Student plan, which is currently $10.50/month.

      I'm still testing the pricing model. It's definitely something I'm open to adjusting based on early user feedback. lmk what you think :)

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