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As far as I can see, none. There was some discussion recently about Secret coming back into vogue, but that seems to have fizzled in the past fortnight. The sa
by abstractbeliefs 10y ago
As far as I can see, none. There was some discussion recently about Secret coming back into vogue, but that seems to have fizzled in the past fortnight.
The sad thing is, a lot of these apps are really successful in the outset, but then end up burned as the companies try, heavy handedly, to monetise.
As much as the startup world sees themselves as morally above the like of Google who will sell out customers, many startups seem to sell out both their customers and their product, making fundamentally incompatible changes with what they were built on in the pursuit of cash.
- minimaxir 10y agoSpeaking of Secret, the founder of Secret's subsequent startup just launched a side project which is definitely not a stealth attempt at revitalizing Secret: https://bold.io/about-io-2016-12-06 https://bold.io/about-io-2016-12-06
- fitshipit 10y agorelated https://vimeo.com/179079175 https://vimeo.com/179079175
- minimaxir 10y agoThat's the first time I've seen that, and it's certainly no surprise that the company he works for is never mentioned in the video.
- randycupertino 10y agoInteresting seeing him shilling for Infinity, I thought he was all about ferraris: http://www.businessinsider.com/secret-founder-sells-ferrari-2015-4 http://www.businessinsider.com/secret-founder-sells-ferrari-...
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- x0x0 10y agoYou say sell out, but the fundamental problem is (1) nothing is free, only who pays varies; and (2) landlords/intel + supermicro/aws take cash.
- abstractbeliefs 10y agoOh, I agree that ultimately, someone must pay - but how you do it is important. There are many dimensions in which to monetise, the simplest being getting users hooked and then charging a fee, and others that are more complex, and all of these vary in how much money they will bring in and how many users will reject them. What I don't understand is why startups so often choose monetisation strategies that have such huge drawbacks in the context of their "killer features". In this case, in order to sell out their users (and build profiles ripe for exploitation in the most honest, business sense), they also had to sell out the purpose of the app: anonymity. It's likely that in an alternate universe, YikYak tried something with a lower yield to what they saw with this strategy, but didn't headshot their customerbase.