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> Then increase the fee. Then nobody will use it, and you've set up a massive support infra in 100's of languages for ~0 paying users. > You seem to be assumi

> Then increase the fee. Then nobody will use it, and you've set up a massive support infra in 100's of languages for ~0 paying users. > You seem to be assuming that Google (or any other company) does everything right, so if they're not doing it, it's a bad idea. That's not true. Companies make mistakes all the time. I'm assuming that people making those decisions are as smart as me, and if I can think about it, I'm sure they thought about it. I never base my arguments solely on "other people are making mistakes". That's before we get into the issue of trying to serve both a mass market and a niche at the same time. It doesn't work. Google should not try to serve the several thousands or few million users who want a fully-featured, paid product for personal use.

kartickv 9y ago
You don't need "massive support infra in 100's of languages". Start with English and see if it works. Then expand slowly, making sure the service remains profitable each step. An add-on of the kind I'm suggesting is exactly the way to serve both a mass market and a niche at the same time. Everyone uses Gmail, but the few who want support for personal use pay. That's much less effort than building another product with paid support. It's also no different from freemium mobile apps where 2-5% of users pay. Google decision-makers are smart, but not infallible.