A golden age of consumer convenience is passing
&quot;The money thrown into the convenience economy has also created a crowded marketplace. Couch potatoes can choose between Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus and others, and a glut of ultrafast delivery and takeout services; ride-seekers can switch between Uber, Lyft and Bolt. &quot;<p>Home video and taxi-cab service are <i>very</i> different sectors.<p>Uber has engaged in some pretty &quot;creative&quot; (i.e. unethical) business tactics to muscle their way into the taxi industry while avoiding both regulations and the payment of decent wages.  They moved fast, but it was only a matter of time before government regulators (and their own reputation) caught up to them.  Transportation is, indeed, something that&#x27;s going to go back up in price in the short-term, if only because Uber and the Uber-wannabe&#x27;s were using a business model that was <i>never</i> sustainable.  I&#x27;d expect considerable contraction of this market as multiple companies fight each other for dwindling profits.<p>Home streaming, on the other hand, is simply coming off of a pandemic boom.  When people were stuck at home, surprise surprise, they watched a lot of TV.  Demand will correct to no less than what it was a couple years ago.  The problems streaming providers face are entirely self inflicted. e.g. Fragmentation. It&#x27;s going to remain hard for any single streamer to make as much as Netflix did when Netflix was pretty much the <i>only</i> streamer.  Expecting consumers to pay five different companies on a monthly basis for what basically amounts to &quot;channels&quot; is not a delusion likely to persist much longer.  We might see cable-TV style aggregation of streaming services take over, enabling users to pay a single monthly bill for all their streaming needs.  Unlike transportation, there are free alternatives to streaming (i.e. piracy) that consumers will turn to in increasing numbers if streaming providers stay on their current course.  This alone dictates that streaming <i>must</i> become more convenient in the near future, not less so.  Showing ads on a service that isn&#x27;t free is outright suicidal.