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Sure, but no one used them -- just like Repl.it, pretty much all of their monthly active users were only there for the free plan, and they left as soon as the c

Sure, but no one used them -- just like Repl.it, pretty much all of their monthly active users were only there for the free plan, and they left as soon as the companies tried to monetize. Koding, in particular, went through pretty much exactly the same cycle as Repl.it a few years ago. They started out getting tons of users by giving cloud servers away for free, targeted mainly at children/education market. Then they started selling premium plans for beefier servers, but no one bought them. Then, they tried to become a cloud infrastructure company[1] and created a distributed filesystem product[2], which seems to be exactly your plan as well! As it turns out, the educational users were only there because going on a free website is easier than installing Python on your computer, so when Koding started trying to charge for stuff, no one bought it. [1]: https://blog.koding.com/koding-is-not-an-online-ide-e2693f740ce8 https://blog.koding.com/koding-is-not-an-online-ide-e2693f74... [2]: https://www.koding.com/docs/kd https://www.koding.com/docs/kd

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nodesocket 8y ago
while I agree with your analysis, why the throwaway accounts? It seems a bit suspicious.
- deleted 8y ago
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amasad 8y ago
1. We've been arond longer than most in this space (since 2011) 2. We've been profitable and bootstrapping for a long time. We have paying users like Facebook, Google, and Stripe, Hackreactor, HCT (biggest college in the UAE) and so many more: https://repl.it/pricing https://repl.it/pricing 3. We're probably like 5-10x Koding users base. 4. You keep creating accounts to spread misinformation. Go find something better to do.
- mistersolomon 8y ago
  1. Koding was launched in January 2012. 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18278979 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18278979 seems to say you aren't profitable at the moment 3. In other words, you're giving away like 5-10x the amount of free servers Koding did. If burning money didn't work for them then how would burning it five times faster help you? Are you trying to make it up in volume or something? 4. Alright, just for you I'll stop using throwaway usernames. i don't post on HN super often and I usually forget my password, so I usually just make a new account whenever I want to post something. (fyi this is only my fourth post in this thread) Look I like Repl.it and have used it in the past. You did a good job making the interface work well. I just don't see how free cloud computers can be sustainable as a business in the long term.
  - amasad 8y ago
    > 3. In other words, you're giving away like 5-10x the amount of free servers Koding did. If burning money didn't work for them, then how would burning it five times faster help you? Are you trying to make it up in volume or something? In Sep we spent $15k for all of our infrastructure cost and we made all of it back and then some with subscriptions. It's serverless, we only spend resources when people actually execute code (most of the time they're just typing the code) or when servers are responding to traffic (most of the time they're idle). Unlike C9/Koding/etc which were all VMs :-)
    - nodesocket 8y ago
      Thanks for the reply and transparency. I am actually a little surprised and refreshed that you were able to post infrastructure costs ($15k in Sept). I'm assuming this is on AWS Lambda? > Then they started selling premium plans for beefier servers, but no one bought them.. I still think this has validity, especially with high-tech products that have a free plan. How do you know how big the business can grow in terms of revenue when the vast majority of your users are free? In my experience developers are a VERY hard crowd to get to pay for things while being enthusiastic early adopters.

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nodesocket 8y ago

while I agree with your analysis, why the throwaway accounts? It seems a bit suspicious.

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amasad 8y ago

1. We've been arond longer than most in this space (since 2011) 2. We've been profitable and bootstrapping for a long time. We have paying users like Facebook, Google, and Stripe, Hackreactor, HCT (biggest college in the UAE) and so many more: https://repl.it/pricing https://repl.it/pricing 3. We're probably like 5-10x Koding users base. 4. You keep creating accounts to spread misinformation. Go find something better to do.

mistersolomon 8y ago
1. Koding was launched in January 2012. 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18278979 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18278979 seems to say you aren't profitable at the moment 3. In other words, you're giving away like 5-10x the amount of free servers Koding did. If burning money didn't work for them then how would burning it five times faster help you? Are you trying to make it up in volume or something? 4. Alright, just for you I'll stop using throwaway usernames. i don't post on HN super often and I usually forget my password, so I usually just make a new account whenever I want to post something. (fyi this is only my fourth post in this thread) Look I like Repl.it and have used it in the past. You did a good job making the interface work well. I just don't see how free cloud computers can be sustainable as a business in the long term.
- amasad 8y ago
  > 3. In other words, you're giving away like 5-10x the amount of free servers Koding did. If burning money didn't work for them, then how would burning it five times faster help you? Are you trying to make it up in volume or something? In Sep we spent $15k for all of our infrastructure cost and we made all of it back and then some with subscriptions. It's serverless, we only spend resources when people actually execute code (most of the time they're just typing the code) or when servers are responding to traffic (most of the time they're idle). Unlike C9/Koding/etc which were all VMs :-)
  - nodesocket 8y ago
    Thanks for the reply and transparency. I am actually a little surprised and refreshed that you were able to post infrastructure costs ($15k in Sept). I'm assuming this is on AWS Lambda? > Then they started selling premium plans for beefier servers, but no one bought them.. I still think this has validity, especially with high-tech products that have a free plan. How do you know how big the business can grow in terms of revenue when the vast majority of your users are free? In my experience developers are a VERY hard crowd to get to pay for things while being enthusiastic early adopters.