3 ms·

Who are Flightrarad24 clients? Why do they care about planes in the middle of nowhere :) ?

train_robber 10y ago
A lot of enthusiasts are a big part of that I guess. I've been a paying user for quite some time now and I primarily use it as a few minutes of distraction every day.
clebio 10y ago
see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12441989 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12441989 > The problem is that there are large blind spots when aircraft go over oceans due to the lack of receivers, so this is intended to increase coverage.
w32stuxnet 10y ago
My company pays to license their feeds for our own use. I think that their business model is fairly solid.
- anotheryou 10y ago
  what does your company do?
  - MrBuddyCasino 10y ago
    If I had to guess, something with finance. Observing meatspace logistics allows one to draw certain conclusions earlier than the rest of the market. Right now, there are people observing chinese factories, reporting number of shifts etc. to some guy in a remote office.
    - anotheryou 10y ago
      haha, the stock market is such a funny game. thanks
    - dingaling 10y ago
      That's a big one but FR24 isn't as useful for that nowadays as they mask private aircraft on request of the owners. Private tracking networks are more relevant now.[0] Conversely, many aviation enthusiasts are more interested in hyperlocal tracking where FR24 again loses-out to tightly-focused private networks. So it's really aiming to position itself as a (1) business solution for fleet management and (2) for general travellers who aren't concerned with watching 'special' traffic but want to see where is their delayed United flight. [0] However many of the same operators who have their aircraft publically hidden or masked also use FR24 for managing their own fleets as it's much cheaper than subscribing to datalinking through SITA or whatever.
    - seanp2k2 10y ago
      They do it with satellites too, e.g. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Bella https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Bella Indeed what a way to spend your short life, chasing currency by watching parking lots empty and fill while clicking buttons to move sums of digital funds around.
      - digi_owl 10y ago
        Supposedly one early use of radio telegraphs were to mount them on speedboats and race out to meet freighters. This to give the stock traders a early insight into the cargo coming.
      - CPLX 10y ago
        As opposed to making the world a better place by optimizing remote databases to speed the distribution of semi-nude selfie photographs or something? Don't know how to break it to you, but I am pretty sure we're all just on a very brief stint scurrying around pointlessly on a rock near an unregarded yellow sun located at the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy.
        hueving 10y ago
        >As opposed to making the world a better place by optimizing remote databases to speed the distribution of semi-nude selfie photographs or something? Yes, that's not the same thing if you believe that people should generally work towards improving social utility[1]. It takes some significant mental gymnastics to convince yourself that getting a market edge over other funds to improve your hedge fund's performance at the expense of theirs is improving social utility. It's just concentrating wealth from some rich people (one fund's shareholders) to other rich people (your fund's shareholders). Maybe if you're lucky you'll even be taking money from retirement accounts. Even if you argue that someone else would take the money if you didn't, that's not enough to offset the loss of so many people doing something so wasteful from an intelligence perspective. The current incentives draw significant portions of intelligent people away from doing something constructive for society (science, medicine, engineering, math) to competing in an information game for rich people. 1. https://www.quora.com/What-is-social-utility https://www.quora.com/What-is-social-utility
  - w32stuxnet 10y ago
    One of these potential users of this data: * Air safety authorities * Aircraft companies * Travel data companies * Insurance companies
  - BlickSilly 10y ago
    some of Flightradar24 and FlightAware clients include: Airlines, other aircraft operations, Freight services using aircraft. Airport Flight status display boards, Airport services, Tax officials etc.

A lot of enthusiasts are a big part of that I guess. I've been a paying user for quite some time now and I primarily use it as a few minutes of distraction every day.

clebio 10y ago

see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12441989 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12441989 > The problem is that there are large blind spots when aircraft go over oceans due to the lack of receivers, so this is intended to increase coverage.

w32stuxnet 10y ago

My company pays to license their feeds for our own use. I think that their business model is fairly solid.

anotheryou 10y ago
what does your company do?
- MrBuddyCasino 10y ago
  If I had to guess, something with finance. Observing meatspace logistics allows one to draw certain conclusions earlier than the rest of the market. Right now, there are people observing chinese factories, reporting number of shifts etc. to some guy in a remote office.
  - anotheryou 10y ago
    haha, the stock market is such a funny game. thanks
  - dingaling 10y ago
    That's a big one but FR24 isn't as useful for that nowadays as they mask private aircraft on request of the owners. Private tracking networks are more relevant now.[0] Conversely, many aviation enthusiasts are more interested in hyperlocal tracking where FR24 again loses-out to tightly-focused private networks. So it's really aiming to position itself as a (1) business solution for fleet management and (2) for general travellers who aren't concerned with watching 'special' traffic but want to see where is their delayed United flight. [0] However many of the same operators who have their aircraft publically hidden or masked also use FR24 for managing their own fleets as it's much cheaper than subscribing to datalinking through SITA or whatever.
  - seanp2k2 10y ago
    They do it with satellites too, e.g. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Bella https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Bella Indeed what a way to spend your short life, chasing currency by watching parking lots empty and fill while clicking buttons to move sums of digital funds around.
    - digi_owl 10y ago
      Supposedly one early use of radio telegraphs were to mount them on speedboats and race out to meet freighters. This to give the stock traders a early insight into the cargo coming.
    - CPLX 10y ago
      As opposed to making the world a better place by optimizing remote databases to speed the distribution of semi-nude selfie photographs or something? Don't know how to break it to you, but I am pretty sure we're all just on a very brief stint scurrying around pointlessly on a rock near an unregarded yellow sun located at the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy.
      - hueving 10y ago
        >As opposed to making the world a better place by optimizing remote databases to speed the distribution of semi-nude selfie photographs or something? Yes, that's not the same thing if you believe that people should generally work towards improving social utility[1]. It takes some significant mental gymnastics to convince yourself that getting a market edge over other funds to improve your hedge fund's performance at the expense of theirs is improving social utility. It's just concentrating wealth from some rich people (one fund's shareholders) to other rich people (your fund's shareholders). Maybe if you're lucky you'll even be taking money from retirement accounts. Even if you argue that someone else would take the money if you didn't, that's not enough to offset the loss of so many people doing something so wasteful from an intelligence perspective. The current incentives draw significant portions of intelligent people away from doing something constructive for society (science, medicine, engineering, math) to competing in an information game for rich people. 1. https://www.quora.com/What-is-social-utility https://www.quora.com/What-is-social-utility
- w32stuxnet 10y ago
  One of these potential users of this data: * Air safety authorities * Aircraft companies * Travel data companies * Insurance companies
- BlickSilly 10y ago
  some of Flightradar24 and FlightAware clients include: Airlines, other aircraft operations, Freight services using aircraft. Airport Flight status display boards, Airport services, Tax officials etc.