> Hipstamatic chose the revenue-first approach (they apparently made plenty of money) and Instagram chose the adoption-first approach. Which one is more valuabl

> Hipstamatic chose the revenue-first approach (they apparently made plenty of money) and Instagram chose the adoption-first approach. Which one is more valuable (and you must include strategic value in this evaluation!) right now? Clearly Instagram. Not necessarily. You're assuming that had Hipstamatic chosen the adoption-first approach they would have been a more valuable business. That assumes that both products are basically identical and the successes and failures turn only on whether the app is paid. Conversely, you're assuming that the only reason Instagram got such widespread adoption is because it was a free app. > Yep! That's what people are doing. Um, no they aren't. Most companies in the social space are valued based on how much hype they can generate, not how much money. A lot of people assume that an app like Path must be worth at least a billion. Is that based on money-making potential? I'm not buying it.