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> huge competitive advantage I get the advantage of being more prepared to apply GDPR but that lasts 1-2 months max. The fact that people keep using facebook

> huge competitive advantage I get the advantage of being more prepared to apply GDPR but that lasts 1-2 months max. The fact that people keep using facebook mindlessly in and out of EU over the last year makes one wonder: Does it really matter to users?

jdietrich 8y ago
>I get the advantage of being more prepared to apply GDPR but that lasts 1-2 months max. The advantage is in having a sustainable business model that isn't based on exploiting user data. With GDPR-compliant privacy controls in place, it'll be a lot harder to target advertising or profit from user data by selling it to third parties. Companies that provide a "free" service based on these revenue streams will face a long battle of regulatory enforcement and dwindling ARPU. They might have no choice but to completely pivot their business model. If you just provide a service in exchange for money and take reasonable steps to protect your users' privacy, it's business as usual. This applies doubly to startups. If a service like Snapchat or Instagram were to launch next week, potential investors will be asking a lot of questions about how their revenue model will hold up against GDPR. The old approach of "grab a ton of users, harvest a ton of data and figure out how to monetise it later" doesn't really stack up when your ability to financially exploit personal information is severely curtailed. If you decide to fence off EU users and exploit everyone else's data, you're playing a risky game - the regulators will not react sympathetically if it turns out your geofencing technology is imperfect and you've been illegally harvesting EU user data.
- zerostar07 8y ago
  > The advantage is in having a sustainable business model that isn't based on exploiting user data. facebook can do that too (it's just less profitable), so there isnt really an advantage here.

jdietrich 8y ago

>I get the advantage of being more prepared to apply GDPR but that lasts 1-2 months max. The advantage is in having a sustainable business model that isn't based on exploiting user data. With GDPR-compliant privacy controls in place, it'll be a lot harder to target advertising or profit from user data by selling it to third parties. Companies that provide a "free" service based on these revenue streams will face a long battle of regulatory enforcement and dwindling ARPU. They might have no choice but to completely pivot their business model. If you just provide a service in exchange for money and take reasonable steps to protect your users' privacy, it's business as usual. This applies doubly to startups. If a service like Snapchat or Instagram were to launch next week, potential investors will be asking a lot of questions about how their revenue model will hold up against GDPR. The old approach of "grab a ton of users, harvest a ton of data and figure out how to monetise it later" doesn't really stack up when your ability to financially exploit personal information is severely curtailed. If you decide to fence off EU users and exploit everyone else's data, you're playing a risky game - the regulators will not react sympathetically if it turns out your geofencing technology is imperfect and you've been illegally harvesting EU user data.

zerostar07 8y ago
> The advantage is in having a sustainable business model that isn't based on exploiting user data. facebook can do that too (it's just less profitable), so there isnt really an advantage here.