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I'm not a huge Snapchat fanboy, but some of this doesn't make much sense. >their ads seem to be even more noxious I don't think I've ever seen an ad in Snapch

I'm not a huge Snapchat fanboy, but some of this doesn't make much sense. >their ads seem to be even more noxious I don't think I've ever seen an ad in Snapchat. It's all buried in the Discover page that nobody uses anyway. As opposed to, ahem, Insta which injects an ad into every story you view. >They are extremely hostile to third-party developers with significant obfuscation efforts around their private API. That's kinda, you know, the entire point of their app. It's all geared around ensuring the user's privacy -- ensuring snaps are ephemeral, not stealthily recorded or captured. Of course they're jumping through hoops to defend their private API. >a risky position with regards to profitability Is it? https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/us/snap_inc/SEC/sec-show.aspx?Type=page&FilingId=13887415-236005-251545&CIK=0001564408&Index=12200 https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/us/snap_inc/SEC/sec-s...

ladberg 6y ago
When viewing people's stories all at once I feel like I get semi-NSFW ads in between every person's story, which makes me want to just leave the app.
- parliament32 6y ago
  Maybe it's a UI thing. I only watch individual stories, from the left pane, because I really don't care about watching someone's story who I haven't talked to in six months -- if they're scrolled out of that view I probably don't care about them that much.
  - ladberg 6y ago
    Yeah that makes sense. I don't use Snapchat much so when I go on every few days I just like to see everyone's stories in a row then exit.
Nextgrid 6y ago
> I don't think I've ever seen an ad in Snapchat. It's all buried in the Discover page that nobody uses anyway (emphasis mine) But isn’t that a bit of a problem when it comes to ads where you want people to see them if you want to get paid? So they’re bound to increase their ad intrusiveness at some point and with the quality of ads in there I’m not sure people will put up with it. > It's all geared around ensuring the user's privacy Security by obscurity doesn’t really work though, it’s always going to be a game of cat & mouse and leaks are bound to happen. On the other hand, their current approach of obfuscation prevents a lot of valid & non-malicious use-cases like desktop clients, scheduled posts, etc. > Is it? Instagram still seems to be crushing them when it comes to active users, plus Facebook has the ability to run it at a loss for an insane amount of time if they wanted to, letting the competition (such as Snap) starve to death.
- Misdicorl 6y ago
  > Security by obscurity doesn’t really work though Obscurity is a completely cromulent, and actually decently effective (as clearly evidenced by Snap), stage to a defense in depth architecture.

ladberg 6y ago

When viewing people's stories all at once I feel like I get semi-NSFW ads in between every person's story, which makes me want to just leave the app.

parliament32 6y ago
Maybe it's a UI thing. I only watch individual stories, from the left pane, because I really don't care about watching someone's story who I haven't talked to in six months -- if they're scrolled out of that view I probably don't care about them that much.
- ladberg 6y ago
  Yeah that makes sense. I don't use Snapchat much so when I go on every few days I just like to see everyone's stories in a row then exit.

Nextgrid 6y ago

> I don't think I've ever seen an ad in Snapchat. It's all buried in the Discover page that nobody uses anyway (emphasis mine) But isn’t that a bit of a problem when it comes to ads where you want people to see them if you want to get paid? So they’re bound to increase their ad intrusiveness at some point and with the quality of ads in there I’m not sure people will put up with it. > It's all geared around ensuring the user's privacy Security by obscurity doesn’t really work though, it’s always going to be a game of cat & mouse and leaks are bound to happen. On the other hand, their current approach of obfuscation prevents a lot of valid & non-malicious use-cases like desktop clients, scheduled posts, etc. > Is it? Instagram still seems to be crushing them when it comes to active users, plus Facebook has the ability to run it at a loss for an insane amount of time if they wanted to, letting the competition (such as Snap) starve to death.

Misdicorl 6y ago
> Security by obscurity doesn’t really work though Obscurity is a completely cromulent, and actually decently effective (as clearly evidenced by Snap), stage to a defense in depth architecture.