4 ms·

This applies to more than just Google. Your income should not solely depend on one party, unless you're in an employment relationship with them, which carries w

by lambda 14y ago

This applies to more than just Google. Your income should not solely depend on one party, unless you're in an employment relationship with them, which carries with it various sorts of legal and social obligations that are a lot harder to simply end on a whim. Does your revenue depend entirely on being in Apple's good graces, and being dropped from the App Store would end it? Does it depend solely on Google's advertising money? Or even if not solely, if 75% of your revenue comes from one source, it will be game changing if you lose that. This is why monopolies are a bad idea, and duopolies aren't much better. A healthy market will have at least three viable players, with none controlling over 50% of the market, allowing you to diversify and be save from any one of them deciding not to play.

pavel_lishin 14y ago
Isn't this basically an argument against ever creating any iPhone app?
- lambda 14y ago
  No. It's an argument against having all of your income based on an iPhone app. Now, sure, you might start out on the iPhone; but rather than focusing all of your effort there, once you've got some traction, it might be good to work on porting it to Android, and possibly Windows Phone or Blackberry. Of course, even there, it's mostly a duopoly; I don't think that Windows Phone or Blackberry are really viable platforms at this point, so you are going to have to deal with the duopoly nature of the business for now.
  - graeme 14y ago
    I would add that it's also an argument against being dependent on the income from an iphone app. If your income is from one source, you should default to saving more of it than you would if you had a diversified income base.
- mistercow 14y ago
  It is a good argument against creating a native iOS app, certainly. If Apple decides to drop you, your app's code is virtually worthless.
moepstar 14y ago
While you're absolutely right, there's still one problem: There aren't much, if any, advertising providers with ads as accepted and unintrusive as Googles AdSense... Not to forget their huge portfolio of ads that will fit almost every context - so yes, AdSense is the go-to provider for most.
jiggy2011 14y ago
Problem is that in some markets (e.g games) you can't really help but be beholden to some large publisher. Whether it be Apple, Steam or MS. You can hedge your risk a little by releasing across multiple platforms but then there is still the risk that one platform in particular accounts for 50%+ of your sales and you could lose that at the drop of a hat.
drzaiusapelord 14y ago
>Your income should not solely depend on one party The networking effect is naturally monopolistic. There aren't any practical alternatives to facebook and youtube. Being kicked from either would be disastrous and neither has to offer an alternate ad network or even need a good reason to get rid of you. I imagine a simple mediation or ombudsman process is all these companies need, but they have no incentive to really make that work. They're still making money hand over fist. From a regulator perspective, these are major issues, especially since we've officially entered the age of the walled garden/centralized store. I don't think this is the kind of thing the free market will magically be able to fix if we sit and our hands and wait. I imagine its going to get worse once MS and other big players start making it much more difficult or impossible to install unsigned software or software from outside their store.

by lambda 14y ago

pavel_lishin 14y ago

Isn't this basically an argument against ever creating any iPhone app?

lambda 14y ago
No. It's an argument against having all of your income based on an iPhone app. Now, sure, you might start out on the iPhone; but rather than focusing all of your effort there, once you've got some traction, it might be good to work on porting it to Android, and possibly Windows Phone or Blackberry. Of course, even there, it's mostly a duopoly; I don't think that Windows Phone or Blackberry are really viable platforms at this point, so you are going to have to deal with the duopoly nature of the business for now.
- graeme 14y ago
  I would add that it's also an argument against being dependent on the income from an iphone app. If your income is from one source, you should default to saving more of it than you would if you had a diversified income base.
mistercow 14y ago
It is a good argument against creating a native iOS app, certainly. If Apple decides to drop you, your app's code is virtually worthless.

moepstar 14y ago

While you're absolutely right, there's still one problem: There aren't much, if any, advertising providers with ads as accepted and unintrusive as Googles AdSense... Not to forget their huge portfolio of ads that will fit almost every context - so yes, AdSense is the go-to provider for most.

jiggy2011 14y ago

Problem is that in some markets (e.g games) you can't really help but be beholden to some large publisher. Whether it be Apple, Steam or MS. You can hedge your risk a little by releasing across multiple platforms but then there is still the risk that one platform in particular accounts for 50%+ of your sales and you could lose that at the drop of a hat.

drzaiusapelord 14y ago

>Your income should not solely depend on one party The networking effect is naturally monopolistic. There aren't any practical alternatives to facebook and youtube. Being kicked from either would be disastrous and neither has to offer an alternate ad network or even need a good reason to get rid of you. I imagine a simple mediation or ombudsman process is all these companies need, but they have no incentive to really make that work. They're still making money hand over fist. From a regulator perspective, these are major issues, especially since we've officially entered the age of the walled garden/centralized store. I don't think this is the kind of thing the free market will magically be able to fix if we sit and our hands and wait. I imagine its going to get worse once MS and other big players start making it much more difficult or impossible to install unsigned software or software from outside their store.