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I know its frowned upon in HN to talk monetization early, but if I am not the product, how do you plan to sustain and grow this? I believe social media inherent

I know its frowned upon in HN to talk monetization early, but if I am not the product, how do you plan to sustain and grow this? I believe social media inherently has only one product, social interactions. If you users are not being charged, they are the product. Do you plan to charge content creators? Do you plan to charge for premium features? I ask because otherwise it might just go the way of Google+ and disappear in a few years. One idea might be to go the Pateron way but with a free tier. But then its something akin to youtube/tiktok not really a social network.

mywacaday 5y ago
I came to ask the same question. I like the concept but if its going to disappear after 12 months its not worth the effort.
spyke112 5y ago
Same for me. I think it would be wise to think about monetization of these sort of apps before even writing code, and be up front about it towards potential customers (not users).
jstrafy 5y ago
Thanks for the comment. Having an FAQ would have been a nice way to cover this as it seems you're not the only one! We plan to monetise through paid premium features, none of which have been included in the first public version of the product. So previously didn't think it was relevant to talk monetisation!
- newswasboring 5y ago
  I swear I am not trying to be a jerk, but I have heard this way too many times but have never seen this succeed in a way which adds to the service. Most of the times the paid premium feature is "no ads" or less wait times etc. Especially for a social networks, I can't even imagine what feature you can build which will make me pay you to be in touch with my friends. One point against my argument might be reddit gold kind of stuff. They are more of a status signal. You can monetize status signals.
  - jstrafy 5y ago
    That's a solid point and hence why we've been reluctant to set out a future monetisation strategy. However... In terms of monetising utility, Beeper/Texts.com seem to be getting a lot of attention, where they charge 10$ a month for their interoperable chat service. People seem to be happy to pay to have a centralised client for all their chats. Otherwise as you've mentioned you have status signals, which is the case for Twitter Blue too. There's also the dating apps.
stazz1 5y ago
> frowned upon in HN to talk monetization early, it is? Would you pay for a subscription to a social network without ads? Doesn't seem too far from an actuality
- newswasboring 5y ago
  This depends directly on whether my friends will pay to be on that network. Game servers are a great example. I will pay if my friends are also on the same server. The problem is, there are way too many free options for us to organize. And this doesn't bring anything to the table which is spectacular.
  - stazz1 5y ago
    Great points.
  - nnoitra 5y ago
    What would you consider spectacular? Social network app that delivers crack cocaine by a drone? The grail of immortality?
    - sexy_panda 5y ago
      I think you're on to something
    - newswasboring 5y ago
      Great question. I feel like we have two kinds of social networks right now parasocial (tiktok/instagram/etc.) and social (facebook/reddit/etc.). And there is a huge lack of good second ones. A spectacular social network for me would focus on social relationships and do something to facilitate making new ones online.
      - jstrafy 5y ago
        I would agree with your categories there. Circles is clearly in the second category & although it's early days our aim with the product is to build a great utility for your social life, rather than yet another media saturated app. For the desires you've stated above, is there any product that comes close?

mywacaday 5y ago

I came to ask the same question. I like the concept but if its going to disappear after 12 months its not worth the effort.

spyke112 5y ago

Same for me. I think it would be wise to think about monetization of these sort of apps before even writing code, and be up front about it towards potential customers (not users).

jstrafy 5y ago

Thanks for the comment. Having an FAQ would have been a nice way to cover this as it seems you're not the only one! We plan to monetise through paid premium features, none of which have been included in the first public version of the product. So previously didn't think it was relevant to talk monetisation!

newswasboring 5y ago
I swear I am not trying to be a jerk, but I have heard this way too many times but have never seen this succeed in a way which adds to the service. Most of the times the paid premium feature is "no ads" or less wait times etc. Especially for a social networks, I can't even imagine what feature you can build which will make me pay you to be in touch with my friends. One point against my argument might be reddit gold kind of stuff. They are more of a status signal. You can monetize status signals.
- jstrafy 5y ago
  That's a solid point and hence why we've been reluctant to set out a future monetisation strategy. However... In terms of monetising utility, Beeper/Texts.com seem to be getting a lot of attention, where they charge 10$ a month for their interoperable chat service. People seem to be happy to pay to have a centralised client for all their chats. Otherwise as you've mentioned you have status signals, which is the case for Twitter Blue too. There's also the dating apps.

stazz1 5y ago

> frowned upon in HN to talk monetization early, it is? Would you pay for a subscription to a social network without ads? Doesn't seem too far from an actuality

newswasboring 5y ago
This depends directly on whether my friends will pay to be on that network. Game servers are a great example. I will pay if my friends are also on the same server. The problem is, there are way too many free options for us to organize. And this doesn't bring anything to the table which is spectacular.
- stazz1 5y ago
  Great points.
- nnoitra 5y ago
  What would you consider spectacular? Social network app that delivers crack cocaine by a drone? The grail of immortality?
  - sexy_panda 5y ago
    I think you're on to something
  - newswasboring 5y ago
    Great question. I feel like we have two kinds of social networks right now parasocial (tiktok/instagram/etc.) and social (facebook/reddit/etc.). And there is a huge lack of good second ones. A spectacular social network for me would focus on social relationships and do something to facilitate making new ones online.
    - jstrafy 5y ago
      I would agree with your categories there. Circles is clearly in the second category & although it's early days our aim with the product is to build a great utility for your social life, rather than yet another media saturated app. For the desires you've stated above, is there any product that comes close?