> No, I was referring to the whole Marriott thing. If you book a Marriott hotel with an aggregator (like Kayak), Marriott has to pay for that booking. If you do it the next week again, Marriott has to pay again.
> Substack fees work the same, you pay a fee to Substack whenever a person renews (transaction).
> So to make the loop back, no the Kayak example works the same way as Substack does.
Replying here since HN doesn't let me reply to the comment directly (probably reached the max number of nested replies).
I now understand your example but I disagree with it. A newsletter, unlike a hotel, relies on a small number of paying users who are likely to renew their membership. Many even pay for annual membership. The main cost is finding a new paying user. Once the user is subscribed it's the newsletter's job to keep that user paying. Marriott pays Kayak only for new users. Next time the user can book a room via the Marriott site. It doesn't need to keep paying Kayak for life every-time that user books a room.
