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Then how do they make money? If they are going public then they will need to satisfy their investors, not their users.
by snug 10y ago
Then how do they make money? If they are going public then they will need to satisfy their investors, not their users.
- ReverseCold 10y agoThey sell sponsored filters, iirc Snapchat is already profitable.
- monkmartinez 10y agoHeck yeah, The wave of the future is filters of selfies! Ranks right up there with Insulin, Oil extraction, Bridge construction, Mining, and more! Who would've thought?
- shostack 10y agoYou'd be surprised then to learn that Line makes $270M/yr on stickers. Think of these as fashion items. Trend-driven, fleeting, and a way for people to make statements about themselves. Many here might not have much interest in fashion, but there's no denying it is a massive industry. As augmented reality becomes big and wearables become mainstream, filters like Snapchat offers will clearly grow in demand and value as virtual fashion goods. The interesting thing is the business model because right now advertisers foot the bill, not the consumer.
- pbhjpbhj 10y agoIf like me you've never heard of Line, it seems to be a series of apps around standard comms (like WhatsApp, etc.) and device theming. https://line.me/en/family-apps https://line.me/en/family-apps
- monkmartinez 10y ago> As augmented reality becomes big and wearables become mainstream, filters like Snapchat offers will clearly grow in demand and value as virtual fashion goods. This version of the future sounds pretty horrible. One could conceivably put a nudity/porn filter on everyone... or much, much worse. The hacks are going to be epic... can you imagine your fresh new filter getting a ddos attack? Or someone sending out grotesque filters as malware...
- shostack 10y agoPossibly horrible in some ways, awesome in others. I'd hope for an ecosystem where users have some semblance of secure(ish) control in terms of what is overlaid in their device's viewport, and what others see for them. But as a user, like with browsers, I'd always want the ability to trump what settings others might be projecting unless it is part of say, an app experience where I'm agreeing to it under the ToS. That way if someone is being offensive with something I don't like, I can decide to switch it off. And I could of course just turn off the AR experience altogether if needed. But nudity/porn filters will almost certainly be a thing, as will something that cross-references LinkedIn data with other websites to tell you everything you wanted to know about someone including their estimated salary, where they live, how much they paid for their home, etc. The fascinating part of the next 10-20 years will be observing how the AR ecosystem evolves, how open it will be (hah...), and how society responds. I imagine that like most major shifts in communication and technology, young people will adopt this stuff instantly, and old people will push back because it is offensive, or they can't control it and enforce their viewpoints. History tends to repeat itself in that regard.
- nihonde 10y agoActually I will go further. I live in Japan and use Line to communicate with everyone except really old people. Stickers are as basic as language. It is an evolution of our current mode of communication and is quite expressive. Like all languages, it occurs somewhat spontaneously, but I can tell you for sure that Line has the lightning in a bottle right now whereas Apple, Facebook, Snap, etc. just don't get it. Like with the original emoji, Japan is a ripe environment for this pictographic language evolution stuff. By the time it becomes cool in Los Angeles, Japan will have leveled up a few times. Related Aside: I'm posting this comment from the Nozomi Shinkansen at 300km/hr...the future is a beautiful place.
- monkmartinez 10y agoIt's fleeting. There are lots of social phenomena in Japan that have never taken off in the States and vice-versa. Remember when Zynga and Farmville were the best thing since sliced bread? Remember the dotcom days when companies were worth millions(Billions) based on potential? That is what is happening here. There is no hook to keep these users for the next 5 to 10 years. Something "cooler/hipper/awesomer/badasser" is being coded right now...
- nihonde 10y agoYour takeaway from my comment was that I think everything Japan does will later be popular in America? I didn't say that. I do see plenty of examples of stuff that pops in the west years after it was a hit in Japan. However, the point of my earlier comment is that Japan (and many other parts of Asia) have been adapting their language to new media, and stickers are an important extension of that, and thus are tied to quite a fundamental aspect of human life.