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This might look like a failure for Flattr, but if you compare them with the flood of micro-payment services that sprang up 5 or 6 years ago, 99% of which vanis
by lkrubner 14y ago
This might look like a failure for Flattr, but if you compare them with the flood of micro-payment services that sprang up 5 or 6 years ago, 99% of which vanished without a trace, then clearly it marks a kind of success for Flattr that people are still talking about them, and still thinking about their business model. Of all the micro-payment and/or donation sites that tried to make something like this work, Flattr has been the most successful so far. As a point of comparison, look at Kachingle, which so far has failed to gain any traction, and which has attracted more derision (and lawsuits) than praise: http://kachingle.com/ http://kachingle.com/
- jacques_chester 14y agoKachingle made a big bet on getting a business method patent and (last year) they lost that bet. They also bet big on getting the New York Times to sign up and, when it didn't happen, took an ... unhelpful ... tone about the subject afterwards.
- lkrubner 14y agoYes, I know. I worked with Kachingle very briefly. The amount of internal chaos and fighting was amazing, much worse than what I've seen at other startups.
- jacques_chester 14y agoWithout commenting on the internal stuff, I think Flattr's slow-growth strategy has been much more effective. As you point out, the base rates for failure is very high. I've been watching since about 2008. I remember thinking that Contenture and Tipjoy would be serious competitors.