I cancelled an online streaming service recently. Well, I tried to. My first attempt failed to navigate the repeated offers and “are you sure?” prompts in the process. My recipe box comes much less often. I’ve cancelled one beauty subscription and downgraded another. I decided against kitchen roll deliveries because, really, do I need another one of these things? I have been repeatedly annoyed by the friction involved in managing the various subscriptions that are part of our daily lives.I am a walking economic stereotype, and one increasingly in the sights of global regulators. The “subscription economy” is heading into its first serious downturn. The rash of businesses offering consumers services or products on subscription took off in about 2011, led by TV and music streaming services and quickly followed by boxes of beauty products, clothes, organic coffee, craft beer, pet food and much more.

For consumers, the appeal was convenience or the ability to try new things, research-free. For companies, entrepreneurs, and venture capital investors that piled into the space, the pitch was a stickier, more direct relationship with customers that were supposedly not just less price-sensitive but also easier to upsell.

That’s about to be tested. Appropriately for a category that got its start in digital media, Netflix is the canary for this squeeze. Its shares dropped 40 per cent last month when it warned that its subscriber growth had gone into reverse. Insipid content and cut-throat competition was one explanation. But data from Ampere Analysis suggested that belt-tightening played a significant role, with evidence that younger and lower-income subscribers were leaving Netflix in greater numbers.