4 ms·

This article is saying the equivalent of, "the primary thing people use Starbucks for is to go to the bathroom. So we tested how hard it is for random people of

by pud 14y ago

This article is saying the equivalent of, "the primary thing people use Starbucks for is to go to the bathroom. So we tested how hard it is for random people off the street to find the bathroom. Our conclusion is that Starbucks should put the bathroom next to the front door with large signs pointing to it as people walk in." It seems Bitly doesn't want to be just a link-shortening service anymore. They're pivoting and want to draw you into the new service a little. At the risk of alienating bathroom-seekers, Bitly hopes you'll buy a cup of coffee while you're looking around. Which seems reasonable.

mistercow 14y ago
But Starbucks did not start out as a bathroom provider before transitioning into making coffee. If you were a company that provided restrooms open to the public, it would be crazy for you to try to then "pivot" that into a profitable business by making the bathrooms harder to find and trying to sell customers coffee while they danced in place, straining not to pee on your floor as they looked desperately around the shop for your facilities.
- unreal37 14y ago
  pud's Starbucks analogy is still apt though. Bitly is making a conscious change to their business model, and they have to insert a speed bump in the link-shortening process to start making money. There's no way they can continue providing seamless 1-click link-shortening for free. There's no such thing as a free lunch, if you forgive the cliche.
  - mistercow 14y ago
    >There's no such thing as a free lunch, if you forgive the cliche. Yes, but that doesn't turn everything non-free into a lunch. Try to force your change to happen too quickly, and you're simply going to watch your customers boil away to nothing. In the end, your customer base will be little more than the kind of people that make cybersquatters money because they think that the best way to search for bullets is to type "bullet.com" into the URL bar.

by pud 14y ago

mistercow 14y ago

But Starbucks did not start out as a bathroom provider before transitioning into making coffee. If you were a company that provided restrooms open to the public, it would be crazy for you to try to then "pivot" that into a profitable business by making the bathrooms harder to find and trying to sell customers coffee while they danced in place, straining not to pee on your floor as they looked desperately around the shop for your facilities.

unreal37 14y ago
pud's Starbucks analogy is still apt though. Bitly is making a conscious change to their business model, and they have to insert a speed bump in the link-shortening process to start making money. There's no way they can continue providing seamless 1-click link-shortening for free. There's no such thing as a free lunch, if you forgive the cliche.
- mistercow 14y ago
  >There's no such thing as a free lunch, if you forgive the cliche. Yes, but that doesn't turn everything non-free into a lunch. Try to force your change to happen too quickly, and you're simply going to watch your customers boil away to nothing. In the end, your customer base will be little more than the kind of people that make cybersquatters money because they think that the best way to search for bullets is to type "bullet.com" into the URL bar.