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I thought that. Then, I remembered PayPal straight up paying people to use their platform. We saw how that worked out. So, the question is whether they should
by nickpsecurity 1y ago
I thought that. Then, I remembered PayPal straight up paying people to use their platform. We saw how that worked out.
So, the question is whether they should pay to generate demand in a new market. Then, who to pay and how much?
I'll also note that OpenAI took the market by offering an expensive service for free (ChatGPT). Then, they offered a monthly plan that may or may not have been profitable. One could argue that OpenAI has been paying people to use its service for a long time.
I also wonder if xAI gets something out of it. For instance, they might get all the conversations with the AI. I believe ChatGPT similarly put free, user conversations to use internally in ways that boosted their paid apps. xAI might have some plays like that.
- rchaud 1y agoWhen was PayPal doing that? I remember having to create an account 20 years ago because they were the only payment processor option on Ebay, that seemed to be their moat. These days, I use Paypal as a "wallet" that's connected to my CC, to pay for stuff on sites where I don't want to put in my CC information.
- akurtzhs 1y agoPaypal paid people to open an account or to refer new accounts early on. Inspired Dropbox to do the same thing with free storage.
- edent 1y agoPayPal still regularly send out offers which pay new users. https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/invite/terms https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/invite/terms It is a common way for businesses to acquire customers.
- bag_boy 1y agoHow do you PayPal straight up paying people to use their platform worked out?
- nickpsecurity 1y agoIt's market cap was recently $69.51 billion. I'll add the eBay partnership to the reasons for its long-term success.