It looks like the main reason the ads price for therapy went up is the extra competition - that COVID making the therapy market from in-person to virtual creates the supply to be not constrained by distance, which means suppliers have to compete across greater pool of suppliers, including therapists from cheaper cost of living areas. This naturally creates a downward pressure for the average price, and of course firms like BetterHelp show up to take advantage of this price differential - i.e. they are doing an arbitrage.
So this comes down to therapists living in expensive areas complaining about competition from therapists from cheaper areas. Given there are still people who need/want local therapy, there will be a new price equilibrium but most likely it will be lower than before. No amount of complaining about Google or ads or arbitrage like BetterHelp will make the price stay as before. Nothing much to see here - this looks mostly like a market adapting to a new changed market condition.
Also VC backed online therapy providers are mentioned. Are these sustainable businesses (no one knows) and, crucially, if they fail will they do so before they wipe out independent therapists having used their purchasing power to raise ad prices beyond reach?
In the 90s part of the promise of the web was that it would disintermediate service provision, these economics would seem to act against that possibility. With large aggregator middle men best positioned to profit with large scale small margin offerings.
It is not Google's job to ensure private practice of shrinks is sustainable. Large scale small margin offerings clearly better serve the patients and if Google does not help them they will be in a better position to seek other alternatives like national TV. I do not think small shrinks can even enter those spaces today.
One possibility I see is for many shrinks to come together form a co-operative and compete with vc backed alternatives.
> if they fail will they do so before they wipe out independent therapists
I suspect that this would be at least somewhat balanced by therapists who work for said online therapy providers suddenly needing to work directly with clients again... but I could see that leading to less therapists per capita in areas of high cost of living, like major cities.
But I hadn't really thought about the potential human harm that could be caused by their failure, which is scary to think about.
Kind of like non-profits in 3rd world countries who warp the local economy by providing some things for free, destroying the market for those, and then pulling out of the country after businesses previously filling that role have closed.
Ad prices going up means that more money is being siphoned off by Google from the mental health care service industry.
It's unclear that this is ACTUALLY competition for the service or just competition for the ads. I personally would not do therapy remote unless I had to so any therapist I would be looking for would be local even if I have to do therapy remote in the short term.
Teletherapy is regulated by state... it’ll be interesting to see if there’s a crackdown by states on apps and orgs operating outside their jurisdictions so to speak.
So this comes down to therapists living in expensive areas complaining about competition from therapists from cheaper areas. Given there are still people who need/want local therapy, there will be a new price equilibrium but most likely it will be lower than before. No amount of complaining about Google or ads or arbitrage like BetterHelp will make the price stay as before. Nothing much to see here - this looks mostly like a market adapting to a new changed market condition.