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> Today it’s the fashion to make web services in a very “lightweight” way, to offer minimally viable web products free, and to iterate rapidly as experience is
by smjburton 1y ago
> Today it’s the fashion to make web services in a very “lightweight” way, to offer minimally viable web products free, and to iterate rapidly as experience is gained with initial web users.
> I really envy people doing software with the web. One could do much better these days. But we didn’t have it, and so we were forced to do many things that wouldn’t be sensible today.
It's true there's a lot less cost and overhead to build and ship software today, but this is a double-edged sword: the perceived value of the software is also lower, and so people are less willing to pay and even expect the product to be free. I would argue it's much more difficult to build a software business these days because of this. If you can't sell your product, it's impossible to build a sustainable business.
- giancarlostoro 1y ago> even expect the product to be free I struggle with some of my ideas because of this. How do I compete in spaces where people can get applications for free due to ads, with a paid service with no ads.
- smjburton 1y agoIf you find out, please let me know... :)
- giancarlostoro 1y agoHN would be the first place I'd comment about it yeah, I think my only option is to do something more directly profitable and subsidize the cost of a social media apparatus off of it.
- HeyLaughingBoy 1y agoThe fact that many people use adblockers should tell you something.
- pipes 1y agoI think this is happening with games, especially in the non triple A category. It is way easier to make games but the value of each game feels way lower to me now. This is multiplied by the fact that I can play thousands of games for free via emulation or flash carts for old systems.