3 ms·

The author does not say how much does maintaining the service cost and what is the long term plan. As others have referred to already, a similar existed before

The author does not say how much does maintaining the service cost and what is the long term plan. As others have referred to already, a similar existed before and ended for a simple reason – no point in maintaining it with constant loss and no clear revenue plan. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11010856 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11010856

coderholic 9y ago
Oh it generates revenue, and we have a lot of big customers! See https://ipinfo.io/about https://ipinfo.io/about https://ipinfo.io/customers https://ipinfo.io/customers and https://ipinfo.io/pricing https://ipinfo.io/pricing
- sscarduzio 9y ago
  Yes but what's your revenue? Please consider going transparent (i.e. http://www.transparentstartups.com/ http://www.transparentstartups.com/) and making an interview with one of my fav websites indiehackers.com
  - packetslave 9y ago
    I'm confused why you think you're entitled to this information?
    - scalablenotions 9y ago
      Why do you hear "Please consider" as "I demand/expect"?
      - rgrieselhuber 9y ago
        "Yes but what's your revenue?" sounds rather demanding.
    - blackoil 9y ago
      Providing revenue and financial metrics are really get eyeballs as this info is rarely available for early stage companies. Balasmiq used this very well, they released early on monthly financial status blogs, which almost all managed to reach front page/top of HN. So, take it as another guerilla marketing channel.
      - always_good 9y ago
        Though the difference between Balsamiq and an IP address lookup service is that HNers don't think they can make Balsamiq in a weekend.
- thedonkeycometh 9y ago
  I think the piece would have benefited from a section just going into how you identified the channels for profitability
superasn 9y ago
I think the most common business model for a website such as this is to offer premium services like: 1) more accurate details 2) fraud protection, if the ip is known for fraud or spamming 3) increased rate limits, etc Just the top of my head s.. I'm sure you i can think of many more..
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
imron 9y ago
Actually, in that post the OP only ended the free, unlimited version of their API. Since the OP in this case only has a limited free version, I don't think it's going to be an issue.

coderholic 9y ago

Oh it generates revenue, and we have a lot of big customers! See https://ipinfo.io/about https://ipinfo.io/about https://ipinfo.io/customers https://ipinfo.io/customers and https://ipinfo.io/pricing https://ipinfo.io/pricing

sscarduzio 9y ago
Yes but what's your revenue? Please consider going transparent (i.e. http://www.transparentstartups.com/ http://www.transparentstartups.com/) and making an interview with one of my fav websites indiehackers.com
- packetslave 9y ago
  I'm confused why you think you're entitled to this information?
  - scalablenotions 9y ago
    Why do you hear "Please consider" as "I demand/expect"?
    - rgrieselhuber 9y ago
      "Yes but what's your revenue?" sounds rather demanding.
  - blackoil 9y ago
    Providing revenue and financial metrics are really get eyeballs as this info is rarely available for early stage companies. Balasmiq used this very well, they released early on monthly financial status blogs, which almost all managed to reach front page/top of HN. So, take it as another guerilla marketing channel.
    - always_good 9y ago
      Though the difference between Balsamiq and an IP address lookup service is that HNers don't think they can make Balsamiq in a weekend.
thedonkeycometh 9y ago
I think the piece would have benefited from a section just going into how you identified the channels for profitability

superasn 9y ago

I think the most common business model for a website such as this is to offer premium services like: 1) more accurate details 2) fraud protection, if the ip is known for fraud or spamming 3) increased rate limits, etc Just the top of my head s.. I'm sure you i can think of many more..

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

imron 9y ago

Actually, in that post the OP only ended the free, unlimited version of their API. Since the OP in this case only has a limited free version, I don't think it's going to be an issue.