2 ms·

It is like musical one hit wonders, but for software. Some dumb idea which just hits at the right moment and makes a bunch of money.

by RajT88 8mo ago

fantasizr 8mo ago
it's the AI wave of the original viral app store apps like "Yo" and "I am Rich".
- songshu 8mo ago
  To this day I swear I want Yo. I’d use it daily.
tartoran 8mo ago
Does anyone remember the Iphone IFart app that was sold for $1 million?
- zooweemama 8mo ago
  Probably not because it never happened. They did try to sell it though.
  - matsemann 8mo ago
    The person that got the top spot for "flashlight" in the app store back in the days made about $600k on it before apple made it a built in function. Just copied existing apps and got lucky. https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/92ybl/erik-ble-app-millionaer-det-ble-litt-sloesing https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/92ybl/erik-ble-app-millionaer-de...
shadowgovt 8mo ago
In this case in particular it looks like an acquihire. Meta just saw two engineers actually execute on the joke about "building Facebook in a weekend" except that it then really took off in its target niche and generated a ton of press. I don't doubt that they're interested in the AI aspect, but I suspect that a significant contributor was that they demonstrated competence right in the middle of Meta's wheelhouse so why not just grab these guys?
- entropicdrifter 8mo ago
  It's also part of their longer-term trend of buying or burying any company that starts to get any press as a social media site of note outside of major players where that hasn't been an option.
  - Marsymars 8mo ago
    This is really it. At Meta's scale, even if it's an long-shot for a competitor to hurt them, it's worth turning those low odds into zero odds.
    - alex1138 8mo ago
      Yet Zuck can somehow argue with a straight face FB has competition (apparently they straight up used to delete links to competitors like Google+ at the time, and also the constant copying of Snapchat) and Hacker News can split hairs over trivial definitions like "wdym fb no competition? email exists" or whatever
ohyoutravel 8mo ago
Those “early” ai generated avatars created from you sending in a handful of your own photos. Absolutely printed money, hit right as mildly technical people could use the tech + the tech was developed enough, but before normal people could easily do it.
pocksuppet 8mo ago
It's not even one hit software. The software is horrible. It's a one hit PR website.

It is like musical one hit wonders, but for software. Some dumb idea which just hits at the right moment and makes a bunch of money.

by RajT88 8mo ago

It is like musical one hit wonders, but for software. Some dumb idea which just hits at the right moment and makes a bunch of money.

fantasizr 8mo ago

it's the AI wave of the original viral app store apps like "Yo" and "I am Rich".

songshu 8mo ago
To this day I swear I want Yo. I’d use it daily.

tartoran 8mo ago

Does anyone remember the Iphone IFart app that was sold for $1 million?

zooweemama 8mo ago
Probably not because it never happened. They did try to sell it though.
- matsemann 8mo ago
  The person that got the top spot for "flashlight" in the app store back in the days made about $600k on it before apple made it a built in function. Just copied existing apps and got lucky. https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/92ybl/erik-ble-app-millionaer-det-ble-litt-sloesing https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/92ybl/erik-ble-app-millionaer-de...

shadowgovt 8mo ago

In this case in particular it looks like an acquihire. Meta just saw two engineers actually execute on the joke about "building Facebook in a weekend" except that it then really took off in its target niche and generated a ton of press. I don't doubt that they're interested in the AI aspect, but I suspect that a significant contributor was that they demonstrated competence right in the middle of Meta's wheelhouse so why not just grab these guys?

entropicdrifter 8mo ago
It's also part of their longer-term trend of buying or burying any company that starts to get any press as a social media site of note outside of major players where that hasn't been an option.
- Marsymars 8mo ago
  This is really it. At Meta's scale, even if it's an long-shot for a competitor to hurt them, it's worth turning those low odds into zero odds.
  - alex1138 8mo ago
    Yet Zuck can somehow argue with a straight face FB has competition (apparently they straight up used to delete links to competitors like Google+ at the time, and also the constant copying of Snapchat) and Hacker News can split hairs over trivial definitions like "wdym fb no competition? email exists" or whatever

ohyoutravel 8mo ago

Those “early” ai generated avatars created from you sending in a handful of your own photos. Absolutely printed money, hit right as mildly technical people could use the tech + the tech was developed enough, but before normal people could easily do it.

pocksuppet 8mo ago

It's not even one hit software. The software is horrible. It's a one hit PR website.