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Wonder how much money & resources Shopify spent on all of their NFT features & integrations over the last months, how many people worked on it and how many of t

by lrae 4y ago

Wonder how much money & resources Shopify spent on all of their NFT features & integrations over the last months, how many people worked on it and how many of those are part of the lay-off now. I'd guess the support you'd need to provide for it and their tokengated commerce isn't little either. Tobi removed all the NFT stuff from his Twitter profile and didn't tweet much about it for months now, after being pretty vocal about it until earlier this year. Would love to hear his real thoughts on it and why he/they even (seemingly) invested so much into it. One of the few things I never got about Tobi / Shopify. Just seemed so late and weird to be so bullish there. Don't think he's the kind of person to push it just for personal gain, nor that he'd have to, but ...

shafyy 4y ago
I was also disgusted and surprised by the NFT shit Tobi and Shopify pulled (still pull?). But I'd be surprised (again, lol) if they had more then a dozen people working on that stuff.
- upupandup 4y ago
  wasn't NFT issue but it was a signal. Shopify has some questionable metrics and its marketcap was very iffy as well as its business practices with partners from what I read. spoiler: shopify isn't done yet with layoffs, it will go down as another Canadian failure (lots of those in this country)
  - pxue 4y ago
    SHOP has $8B cash on hand. is a profitable business. how is that anywhere close to the definition of a failed business??
    - upupandup 4y ago
      $6.85B net It's counterparts have far bigger amounts and most of its customer base are affiliate markters, drop shippers.
ryanSrich 4y ago
I’m honestly still in disbelief at how many very smart people fell for the NFT trap. If you’ve spent even a single bull cycle in the crypto community you could tell right away NFTs we’re ICO level scams. The mental gymnastics very smart and technical people performed to rationalize paying for a jpeg still makes me question reality. I participate in crypto because I take a calculated risk, and I’m comfortable gambling. People who actually think something like an NFT has any real value still messes with my head. I really can’t grasp how they actually believe this. And yes, I understand technically how NFTs work.
- MattGaiser 4y ago
  Did they fall for it or did they think they were in on it and applying greater fool theory?
  - ryanSrich 4y ago
    If they truly understood the scam they’d know it doesn’t end where they win. So yes, they actually fell for it because they publicly participated in it.
    - oblio 4y ago
      > If they truly understood the scam they’d know it doesn’t end where they win. Why?
      - ryanSrich 4y ago
        Because you don’t make money by selling access to NFTs. You make money by accumulating over hyped projects and then dumping them on bullish retail, knowing full well that in another 12-18 months that same jpeg will be worth nothing in the resale market. Transactions on a few thousand NFTs per day is meaningless (yes volumes that low). So there’s no other option than Shopify actually believing NFTs were a real viable, long term business.
        4y ago
bhouston 4y ago
We did some NFT stuff as well. Adding support for NFTs is not that hard to do. Some block chain contracts and some marketing. It definitely didn’t involve significant costs nor the reason for these layoffs. The issue is the market growth that Shopify saw at the beginning of the pandemic is pulling back. And also we are likely entering into a recession which will also hit them. I am surprised they didn’t cut deeper.
- pbowyer 4y ago
  > And also we are likely entering into a recession which will also hit them. This is a key insight. The Shopify powered shops I buy from are luxury expenditure. The small producers who make nice stuff at high prices. The last couple of months I've been buying significantly less from them as inflation has cut into disposable income and, where I need a product, buying a cheaper alternative from eBay or Amazon. If others have been cutting back extra expenditure like I have, that's going to compound the post-pandemic online shopping slump.
Entwickler 4y ago
Nowhere in the article does it mention NFTs being at the heart of the layoffs. The article later says, "The Ottawa-based company will cut jobs in all its divisions, though most of the layoffs will occur in recruiting, support and sales units, said Mr. Lütke". No mention of NFTs, though wouldn't be surprised if they scale back on that. I _would_ be surprised if they drop support and development for them completely.
- dehrmann 4y ago
  Some companies did work on NFTs because they believe in the space and think it's the next big thing. Some do it for marketing to say "look, we have an NFT story!" If you did it for marketing, there's no reason to advertise you spun down that initiative.

by lrae 4y ago

shafyy 4y ago

I was also disgusted and surprised by the NFT shit Tobi and Shopify pulled (still pull?). But I'd be surprised (again, lol) if they had more then a dozen people working on that stuff.

upupandup 4y ago
wasn't NFT issue but it was a signal. Shopify has some questionable metrics and its marketcap was very iffy as well as its business practices with partners from what I read. spoiler: shopify isn't done yet with layoffs, it will go down as another Canadian failure (lots of those in this country)
- pxue 4y ago
  SHOP has $8B cash on hand. is a profitable business. how is that anywhere close to the definition of a failed business??
  - upupandup 4y ago
    $6.85B net It's counterparts have far bigger amounts and most of its customer base are affiliate markters, drop shippers.

ryanSrich 4y ago

I’m honestly still in disbelief at how many very smart people fell for the NFT trap. If you’ve spent even a single bull cycle in the crypto community you could tell right away NFTs we’re ICO level scams. The mental gymnastics very smart and technical people performed to rationalize paying for a jpeg still makes me question reality. I participate in crypto because I take a calculated risk, and I’m comfortable gambling. People who actually think something like an NFT has any real value still messes with my head. I really can’t grasp how they actually believe this. And yes, I understand technically how NFTs work.

MattGaiser 4y ago
Did they fall for it or did they think they were in on it and applying greater fool theory?
- ryanSrich 4y ago
  If they truly understood the scam they’d know it doesn’t end where they win. So yes, they actually fell for it because they publicly participated in it.
  - oblio 4y ago
    > If they truly understood the scam they’d know it doesn’t end where they win. Why?
    - ryanSrich 4y ago
      Because you don’t make money by selling access to NFTs. You make money by accumulating over hyped projects and then dumping them on bullish retail, knowing full well that in another 12-18 months that same jpeg will be worth nothing in the resale market. Transactions on a few thousand NFTs per day is meaningless (yes volumes that low). So there’s no other option than Shopify actually believing NFTs were a real viable, long term business.
      - 4y ago

bhouston 4y ago

We did some NFT stuff as well. Adding support for NFTs is not that hard to do. Some block chain contracts and some marketing. It definitely didn’t involve significant costs nor the reason for these layoffs. The issue is the market growth that Shopify saw at the beginning of the pandemic is pulling back. And also we are likely entering into a recession which will also hit them. I am surprised they didn’t cut deeper.

pbowyer 4y ago
> And also we are likely entering into a recession which will also hit them. This is a key insight. The Shopify powered shops I buy from are luxury expenditure. The small producers who make nice stuff at high prices. The last couple of months I've been buying significantly less from them as inflation has cut into disposable income and, where I need a product, buying a cheaper alternative from eBay or Amazon. If others have been cutting back extra expenditure like I have, that's going to compound the post-pandemic online shopping slump.

Entwickler 4y ago

Nowhere in the article does it mention NFTs being at the heart of the layoffs. The article later says, "The Ottawa-based company will cut jobs in all its divisions, though most of the layoffs will occur in recruiting, support and sales units, said Mr. Lütke". No mention of NFTs, though wouldn't be surprised if they scale back on that. I _would_ be surprised if they drop support and development for them completely.

dehrmann 4y ago
Some companies did work on NFTs because they believe in the space and think it's the next big thing. Some do it for marketing to say "look, we have an NFT story!" If you did it for marketing, there's no reason to advertise you spun down that initiative.