5 ms·

Justin.tv for iPhone Racks Up 355,000 Downloads in First Week

28 points by evansolomon 17y ago

axod 17y ago
It's a free app? Seems like they could have charged $4.99 for it, and still sold about as many... Wonder what the decision went like to make it free.
- pavs 17y ago
  What makes you think they would have sold ~300k units if it was $4.99? Do you know what the average age group of justin.tv users are?
  - evansolomon 17y ago
    70% 18-49
- evansolomon 17y ago
  The difference between $0 and $5 is pretty huge. We would have sold some (maybe even lots) at $5, but about as many? I can't imagine that. The decision to make it free was a result of the market (how much other apps cost) and our goals (revenue, usage, branding, growth, etc).
  - btipling 17y ago
    Do you also plan to make an android app?
    - evansolomon 17y ago
      Yes, Android app is coming. It's already in development.
      - btipling 17y ago
        Awesome. :)
  - mattmaroon 17y ago
    I would guess you wouldn't even sell 5% as many at $5. You're in a land-grab now, it would be nuts to even think about charging. Even if you did sell that many for $5, $1.5 million will end up small potatoes when the final chapter on the live online streaming video book is written.
    - axod 17y ago
      You don't think people would pay cash to watch TV/Sports on their iPhone?
      - mattmaroon 17y ago
        I don't think justin.tv can legally stream pro sports. I think that'd be an awesome way to add in some fremium though.
    - pavs 17y ago
      While what justin.tv does is interesting, lets not get over our heads already. Youtube just needs to flick a switch to make most live video stream obsolete.
      - abstractbill 17y ago
        If by "flick a switch" you mean "re-architect their entire system to make low-latency highly-scaleable live video streaming cost effective", then I guess I agree with you. That's a pretty big switch though.
        pavs 17y ago
        In case you don't know youtube already provides live streaming for certain events in US politics. They also recently stated streaming live domestic cricket event with an estimated viewer ship of ~50 million people at any given time (http://www.youtube.com/user/IPL http://www.youtube.com/user/IPL YouTube don't show view counts on live events). About being cost effective. You highly underestimate Google/YouTube's ability to throw money around with no short-terms shavings or profit interest. The only legitimate reason thats preventing YouTube from rolling out streaming (that I can think of) is having an effective way of preventing adult and copyright material streaming, which is quite common at justin.tv (I would argue that it is the main source of their traffic). You can only do so much with software, you probably need manpower to continuously monitor and prevent illegal activity, which is happening live. The problem is not technical, the problem is legal and management. I predict YouTube Live stream for all will happen sometime before the end of this year.

28 points by evansolomon 17y ago

axod 17y ago

It's a free app? Seems like they could have charged $4.99 for it, and still sold about as many... Wonder what the decision went like to make it free.

pavs 17y ago
What makes you think they would have sold ~300k units if it was $4.99? Do you know what the average age group of justin.tv users are?
- evansolomon 17y ago
  70% 18-49
evansolomon 17y ago
The difference between $0 and $5 is pretty huge. We would have sold some (maybe even lots) at $5, but about as many? I can't imagine that. The decision to make it free was a result of the market (how much other apps cost) and our goals (revenue, usage, branding, growth, etc).
- btipling 17y ago
  Do you also plan to make an android app?
  - evansolomon 17y ago
    Yes, Android app is coming. It's already in development.
    - btipling 17y ago
      Awesome. :)
- mattmaroon 17y ago
  I would guess you wouldn't even sell 5% as many at $5. You're in a land-grab now, it would be nuts to even think about charging. Even if you did sell that many for $5, $1.5 million will end up small potatoes when the final chapter on the live online streaming video book is written.
  - axod 17y ago
    You don't think people would pay cash to watch TV/Sports on their iPhone?
    - mattmaroon 17y ago
      I don't think justin.tv can legally stream pro sports. I think that'd be an awesome way to add in some fremium though.
  - pavs 17y ago
    While what justin.tv does is interesting, lets not get over our heads already. Youtube just needs to flick a switch to make most live video stream obsolete.
    - abstractbill 17y ago
      If by "flick a switch" you mean "re-architect their entire system to make low-latency highly-scaleable live video streaming cost effective", then I guess I agree with you. That's a pretty big switch though.
      - pavs 17y ago
        In case you don't know youtube already provides live streaming for certain events in US politics. They also recently stated streaming live domestic cricket event with an estimated viewer ship of ~50 million people at any given time (http://www.youtube.com/user/IPL http://www.youtube.com/user/IPL YouTube don't show view counts on live events). About being cost effective. You highly underestimate Google/YouTube's ability to throw money around with no short-terms shavings or profit interest. The only legitimate reason thats preventing YouTube from rolling out streaming (that I can think of) is having an effective way of preventing adult and copyright material streaming, which is quite common at justin.tv (I would argue that it is the main source of their traffic). You can only do so much with software, you probably need manpower to continuously monitor and prevent illegal activity, which is happening live. The problem is not technical, the problem is legal and management. I predict YouTube Live stream for all will happen sometime before the end of this year.