For a lot of people, the price is not the problem, being able to get the money to where it needs to be is.
This is almost never a problem in Silicon Valley and rarely a problem in the US, but most definitely a thing in other countries.
For example, in Poland where I live, we have some really advanced online payments systems that we use locally, but none of them are supported by either App Store or Google Play. Because those systems exist, paying on line with a debit card (credit cards are much less of a thing here) just seems strange, especially if you're 30+, non tech savvy and don't speak English. A lot of people refuse to give their credit card number to anyone because they fear it might be stolen.
There was a survey by one of our audiobook streaming companies (Storytel), and this is indeed a big problem. If I remember correctly, about 90% of users who signed up for an account but churned at the "choose your payment method" step cited "won't pay with a payment card online" as the reason. Since our payment systems aren't compatible with subscriptions, they needed to add a way to subscribe through your phone carrier.
This is probably the reason why What's App never got much traction here. Instead, people went with Messenger, which was always free. It also doesn't require giving out your phone number, something we seem to have more issues with, as compared to Americans for example. What's App is usually known as the app you use to talk to family members abroad, Messenger is the thing you use for everything else.
There are, of course, other reasons why you might not be able to get apps / subscriptions. Being underage is probably the most common one, once again, you probably do have money, but it's probably in cash.
This is almost never a problem in Silicon Valley and rarely a problem in the US, but most definitely a thing in other countries.
For example, in Poland where I live, we have some really advanced online payments systems that we use locally, but none of them are supported by either App Store or Google Play. Because those systems exist, paying on line with a debit card (credit cards are much less of a thing here) just seems strange, especially if you're 30+, non tech savvy and don't speak English. A lot of people refuse to give their credit card number to anyone because they fear it might be stolen.
There was a survey by one of our audiobook streaming companies (Storytel), and this is indeed a big problem. If I remember correctly, about 90% of users who signed up for an account but churned at the "choose your payment method" step cited "won't pay with a payment card online" as the reason. Since our payment systems aren't compatible with subscriptions, they needed to add a way to subscribe through your phone carrier.
This is probably the reason why What's App never got much traction here. Instead, people went with Messenger, which was always free. It also doesn't require giving out your phone number, something we seem to have more issues with, as compared to Americans for example. What's App is usually known as the app you use to talk to family members abroad, Messenger is the thing you use for everything else.
There are, of course, other reasons why you might not be able to get apps / subscriptions. Being underage is probably the most common one, once again, you probably do have money, but it's probably in cash.