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Ask HN: Is it possible to monitize chat?
I live and work in a a European SF wanna be city. There is a fair amount of devs living around working here but almost no sense of community.
I want to start a chat application that targets specifically people working/living here, as a side project. And I'm wondering if there has been already proven harmonization strategy for "targeted chat" applications.
- sharemywin 9y agoYou're best bet would be tech job ads. Find some big local companies to sponsor them.
- newChatBuilder 9y agoI would think so, but that requires a large user-base to get the first ad. Also maybe local bars that want to promote their events or happy hours
- ocdtrekkie 9y agoThere are a lot of chat apps, I can't think of many with successful business models attached. Things like Skype and Hangouts are huge, userbase-wise, but dubiously valuable to the companies which bankroll them with profits elsewhere. I guess Skype has banner ads? I can't imagine Discord makes money yet, their subscription plan doesn't seem like a good value, I don't know why anyone would pay it. There are too many chat apps already, also. Most of us want less chat apps to talk to all our friends, not more.
- newChatBuilder 9y agoI think the target is mostly lonely people that just can't break into social circles.
- kleer001 9y agoYou'll probably need to get up your user base before any monetization.
- mattbgates 9y agoThere are some dominant chat apps already existing, so you will certainly have competition. Just know there is absolutely nothing wrong with developing an alternative web app at all. Most people like to have a few options or alternatives.
- helen842000 9y agoBefore you build anything, see if you can pull a Slack community together. All you need is a landing page to test this out. If you can't find 20 people to start with, then building additional tech isn't going make up for that.
- askafriend 9y agoThis is very smart advice. I'd take it.