Confluent Cloud Growth Becomes All Consuming

The business model that perhaps best reflects ‘Merica consumerism is the all-you-can-eat buffet. For a flat fee, one can gorge on everything from E coli-tainted salad bars to pizzas with crusts made from reconstituted sawdust to Indian curries swimming in more oil than the Exxon Valdez spilled. The economic theory behind this bacchanalian business is that these so-called restaurants can maximize profit by carefully managing food costs (feature loads of breads, rice, and other cheap fillers), customer psychology (offer the illusion of abundance and variety), and operational efficiency (fewer employees who require minimal training). Sure, a few customers might eat their weight in profit, but most will actually under consume compared to costs.

Unless, of course, we’re talking about an all-you-can-eat shrimp buffet. The restaurant chain Red Lobster famously lost $11 million in Q4-2023 alone when it launched its endless shrimp deal that allowed customers to consume as many crustaceans as they wanted with no limits. The debacle accelerated the company’s financial meltdown, leading the seafood chain to file for bankruptcy last year.

The Consumption Model 

So, what does soggy shrimp have to do with emerging technologies? Many software-as-a–service (SaaS) firms traditionally operated on a similar all-you-can-eat business model. Salesforce (CRM), for example, was a pioneer of this approach, offering per-user licenses for everything on the menu – charging a fixed, recurring fee to customers to use their software and services. However, not every customer wanted the stale breadsticks or soft-serve ice cream, and it was difficult for companies to monetize their most gluttonous users. Over time, the paradigm shifted to tiered pricing