Unit Economics and Break-even Analysis
Context
You are evaluating a subscription product’s unit economics. Assume all costs and revenues are monthly. Unless otherwise noted, fixed cost = 400/monthandvariable(service)costperuser=5/month. In the base plan, users pay per-GB. In the alternative plan, users fall into either a free tier or a paid tier.
Questions
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Base per-GB plan
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Given: 20 subscribers,
1per−GBprice,15GBaverageusage/user,fixedcost
400, variable cost $5 per user.
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Task: Compute monthly profit.
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Scale scenario
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If subscribers double to 40 (same usage and costs), does the firm break even?
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Alternative two-tier plan
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Free tier: costs $1 per free user to serve (no revenue).
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Paid tier: fee
54perpaiduser;cost
5 per paid user.
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Task: What paid-user percentage is required to break even? Provide the formula in terms of total users N. Also evaluate for N = 20 (same as part 1) for a concrete number.
Hint: Set up revenue and cost equations, then profit = revenue − total cost. For break-even, set profit = 0 and solve for the unknown.