Plex debuts 5-year membership pass for $250
Plex debuts 5-year membership pass for $250
Plex 推出 250 美元五年期会员通行证
When Plex launched in 2012, it sold lifetime access to its media server software for $75. In 2014, Plex raised the price to be more sustainable for the company, it said, and for years, Lifetime Plex Passes cost $120. Even the pricier $250 rate, which Plex offered from March 2025 until yesterday, was a steal compared to what $250 buys you at Plex now: a five-year subscription.
2012 年 Plex 刚推出时，其媒体服务器软件的终身使用权仅售 75 美元。Plex 表示，为了公司的可持续发展，他们在 2014 年提高了价格，此后多年里，Plex 终身通行证（Lifetime Plex Pass）的价格一直维持在 120 美元。即便是 Plex 从 2025 年 3 月起至昨天提供的 250 美元“高价”版本，与现在 250 美元仅能购买五年期订阅相比，也显得非常划算。
As first spotted by The Desk, Plex yesterday launched the five-year Plex Pass. It comes alongside Lifetime Pass prices increasing to $750 yesterday, a change that Plex announced in May and, in a blog post update this week, said: “reflects the real, ongoing value of the software and our commitment to building, improving, and supporting Plex for years to come.”
正如 The Desk 最先发现的那样，Plex 于昨天推出了五年期 Plex 通行证。与此同时，终身通行证的价格也在昨天上涨至 750 美元。Plex 在今年 5 月就宣布了这一调整，并在本周的博客更新中表示：“这反映了该软件的真实、持续价值，以及我们致力于在未来多年内构建、改进和支持 Plex 的承诺。”
The stark change in what $250 can get you at Plex is indicative of the company’s financial goals. Plex hasn’t yet announced profitability and has raised $87.6 million over nine rounds of funding, per CB Insights. The company is looking to squeeze more money out of its users and price its media server business higher.
250 美元在 Plex 所能购买的服务发生如此巨大的变化，折射出该公司的财务目标。据 CB Insights 数据显示，Plex 尚未宣布实现盈利，且已通过九轮融资筹集了 8760 万美元。该公司正寻求从用户身上挖掘更多收入，并提高其媒体服务器业务的定价。
The higher Lifetime Pass pricing and new five-year pass also appear aimed at pushing users toward subscriptions. More recurring revenue can help Plex extract greater value from its customers over their lifetimes, make cash flow more predictable, please investors, help fund new features, and reduce Plex’s dependence on the fickle advertising market. In May, Plex said it had “considered eliminating the Lifetime Plex Pass in the past, given that recurring subscriptions help us sustain long-term development.”
更高的终身通行证定价和新的五年期通行证，似乎也是为了推动用户转向订阅制。更多的经常性收入可以帮助 Plex 在用户生命周期内获取更大的价值，使现金流更具可预测性，取悦投资者，为新功能提供资金，并减少 Plex 对变幻莫测的广告市场的依赖。今年 5 月，Plex 曾表示：“考虑到经常性订阅有助于我们维持长期发展，我们过去曾考虑过取消终身 Plex 通行证。”
One can’t help but wonder if this five-year pass could someday be the longest-term pass available to Plex’s media server customers. The dramatic pricing shift is also an effect of Plex’s evolution from its original media server pitch. Today, Plex also sells licensed movie rentals and operates hundreds of free, ad-supported streaming TV channels.
人们不禁会想，这个五年期通行证未来是否会成为 Plex 媒体服务器用户能买到的最长期限的通行证。这种剧烈的定价调整，也是 Plex 从最初的媒体服务器定位演变而来的结果。如今，Plex 还销售授权电影租赁服务，并运营着数百个免费的广告支持流媒体电视频道。
It has been rolling out more social features over the past few years and has been monetizing user data, as Plex CEO Keith Valory told TechCrunch in 2024. Plex even dipped a toe into gaming (and quickly removed it from the competitive waters). The Silicon Valley-headquartered firm’s newer interests and prohibitively expensive long-term pricing for its legacy media server business illustrate the company that Plex thinks it needs to be to survive and make money.
正如 Plex 首席执行官 Keith Valory 在 2024 年接受 TechCrunch 采访时所言，过去几年里，Plex 一直在推出更多社交功能，并致力于用户数据的变现。Plex 甚至还尝试过游戏业务（但很快就退出了竞争激烈的市场）。这家总部位于硅谷的公司在业务上的新兴趣，以及对其传统媒体服务器业务设定的高昂长期定价，清晰地勾勒出 Plex 为了生存和盈利所认为自己必须成为的样子。
That business isn’t one that favors letting you pay one time to use media server capabilities forever. It’s not necessarily a media server-first business, either. Ad revenue has been a significant driver of revenue growth for Plex in recent years. In 2023, Plex said that since 2022, more people had used its online streaming service than its media server capabilities.
这种商业模式并不倾向于让你一次付费即可永久使用媒体服务器功能。它也不再仅仅是一家以媒体服务器为核心的企业。近年来，广告收入已成为 Plex 收入增长的重要驱动力。2023 年，Plex 表示自 2022 年以来，使用其在线流媒体服务的人数已经超过了使用其媒体服务器功能的人数。
Jason Chapnik, CEO at Intercap, one of Plex’s lead investors, described the type of company Plex is becoming in a 2021 chat with TechCrunch: “Content providers, creators, and consumers are all paying the price for the explosion of so many streaming media services, and the industry needs a trusted way for the experience to be as enjoyable as possible. Plex has always been at the forefront of solving new media challenges, and we believe they are primed to solve this problem—they are the cable company of the future.”
Plex 的主要投资者之一 Intercap 的首席执行官 Jason Chapnik 在 2021 年与 TechCrunch 的对话中描述了 Plex 正在转型的方向：“内容提供商、创作者和消费者都在为流媒体服务的爆发式增长付出代价，行业需要一种值得信赖的方式，让用户体验尽可能愉悦。Plex 一直处于解决新媒体挑战的最前沿，我们相信他们已经准备好解决这个问题——他们就是未来的有线电视公司。”