When Chris Ye was younger, he used to live with his roommates.
During that time, he subscribed to different streaming services and his roommates would ‘ride’ on his subscription plan and pay him back their share of the cost every month.
“It used to work well initially, but it gets complicated over time. One forgets to pay and it makes me uncomfortable to chase him for that, and the other pays on a random day of the month, making it hard to track,” lamented the 34-year-old.
This was what sparked the idea of ShareIt.sg, a platform that helps to manage subscription plans.
Adopting the same concept as “carpooling, but for subscription services”, Chris said that it is the first of its kind to be launched in Asia.
Subscription services have transformed how we consume media content. It was easily accessible and provided access to a large list of movies, TV shows, and songs. Nowadays, the landscape has changed with more competitors entering the market.
Content rights are scattered, pushing the users to subscribe to more and more services. ShareIt.sg is the solution to help users spend less and enjoy more.
– Chris Ye, founder of ShareIt.sg
How does it work?
ShareIt.sg brings together users who have subscribed to a platform and wish to share available slots offered by their subscription to divide the costs, while respecting the simultaneity of the screens or the listening provided by their subscription.
It allows users to save from their subscriptions by creating a “virtual family group”. The savings are based on how many co-subscribers you can share with.
“[The] more members you can share with, the more savings you get. You can expect cost savings from 50 per cent to an average of 70 per cent,” quipped Chris.
Moreover, the transactions are secured and automated — payment is directly credited to the owner’s bank account every month, so there is no reason for missed or late payments.
There are two types of sharing processes depending on the service.
One [is] via invitation, meaning the account owner would need to send an invitation link to the member. When members join the virtual family group, they can access a private group chat to arrange with the account owner.
The other is via access information sharing. Members joining the virtual family group will find the information (username/email address and password) to access the service.
– Chris Ye, founder of ShareIt.sg
Should the subscriber lose access to the account, he/she can reach out to the account owner via the group chat. If the issues can’t be resolved, the user can then turn to the support team for help.
Currently, ShareIt.sg supports 12 different services, from video and music streaming, productivity softwares, to VPN and gaming.
Here’s the full list of the plans and the maximum number of members/co-subscribers that it allows:
- Netflix Standard (2)
- Netflix Premium (4)
- Spotify Duo (2)
- Spotify Family (6)
- Disney Plus (4)
- Apple One (6)
- Apple TV+ (6)
- Apple Music (6)
- Microsoft 365 Family (6)
- Tidal HiFi Plus Family (6)
- Nintendo Online Family Membership (6)
- Nintendo Online Expansion Pack Family (6)
- YouTube Premium Family (6)
- NordVPN (6)
- Duolingo Family Plan (6)
According to Chris, they first started onboarding the “most popular” streaming services, and later added suggestions from the users themselves.
“From there, a team will review them to ensure that users are legally allowed to share the service before listing it on our platform,” he added.
Within the framework of its activity, ShareIt.sg stresses that it does not infringe copyright nor violate the platforms’ contractual terms.
When asked what other services they are looking to add next, Chris said that they are looking to add more security services such as VPN and anti-virus.
More than 10,000 users so far
So far, Chris said that ShareIt.sg has garnered more than 10,000 users. This is quite substantial, considering that ShareIt.sg recently launched in end June 2022.
Looking back on this short startup journey, Chris said that it indeed wasn’t easy and cited two key challenges.
The first is building his team. As he was from a marketing/consulting background, he needed to find the “right” tech lead to complement his skillsets.
The other challenge is building a scalable business.
He admits that the journey may be difficult now, but he trusts that it will become more manageable in the long run. In fact, he has grand ambitions to expand ShareIt.sg into another market by next year, and ultimately cover Asia Pacific region.
“The hardest part is to start [but] when you have one leg in, you’ll keep walking [and] overcome each issue [along] the way,” he summed up.
Featured Image Credit: ShareIt.sg
