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Is this a viable business idea? E.g. providing a service online that requires a limited amount of processing time and could be packaged in a fairly small progra

by kken 13y ago

Is this a viable business idea? E.g. providing a service online that requires a limited amount of processing time and could be packaged in a fairly small program when provided for offline processing? To the vendor this obviously provides more control. But is it worth it for the client? Personally, I'd be very reluctant to transfer anything that could be done locally by a small command line tool online.

molf 13y ago
I'm one of the creators and I can tell you we don't know either. We're a web development agency and this is a side project that got more popular than we imagined. After we launched we got a massive amount of requests for licenses or API subscriptions, so we decided to give it a go and see if we can at least cover the costs.
- cbsmith 13y ago
  I have to admit this one is a bit of a head scratcher, but I get why it works at least for now. You've essentially built a SaaS bug fix for a shrink wrap product, which.. yeah.
  - sturgill 13y ago
    Back when I was slicing and dicing specs that had to be compatible with IE6, I really wish I could have used TinyPNG. Preserves alpha transparency that works in really crappy browsers, without resulting to weird CSS filter shenanigans. But even today, I really enjoy the service. Not sure what I would pay for it, but it is very convenient.
- kken 13y ago
  Interesting. Thanks for replying. So I guess it is mainly a question of convenience right now.
pwg 13y ago
> E.g. providing a service online that requires a limited amount of processing time and could be packaged in a fairly small program when provided for offline processing? You mean something like optipng: http://optipng.sourceforge.net/ http://optipng.sourceforge.net/ or pngcrush: http://pmt.sourceforge.net/pngcrush/ http://pmt.sourceforge.net/pngcrush/
sachingulaya 13y ago
Is the standard CGI email form a viable business model? Wufoo says yes. People will pay small fees to not have to worry about something. The "I'll transition to using self-hosted forms next month but I need this done right now" mentality.

by kken 13y ago

molf 13y ago

I'm one of the creators and I can tell you we don't know either. We're a web development agency and this is a side project that got more popular than we imagined. After we launched we got a massive amount of requests for licenses or API subscriptions, so we decided to give it a go and see if we can at least cover the costs.

cbsmith 13y ago
I have to admit this one is a bit of a head scratcher, but I get why it works at least for now. You've essentially built a SaaS bug fix for a shrink wrap product, which.. yeah.
- sturgill 13y ago
  Back when I was slicing and dicing specs that had to be compatible with IE6, I really wish I could have used TinyPNG. Preserves alpha transparency that works in really crappy browsers, without resulting to weird CSS filter shenanigans. But even today, I really enjoy the service. Not sure what I would pay for it, but it is very convenient.
kken 13y ago
Interesting. Thanks for replying. So I guess it is mainly a question of convenience right now.

pwg 13y ago

> E.g. providing a service online that requires a limited amount of processing time and could be packaged in a fairly small program when provided for offline processing? You mean something like optipng: http://optipng.sourceforge.net/ http://optipng.sourceforge.net/ or pngcrush: http://pmt.sourceforge.net/pngcrush/ http://pmt.sourceforge.net/pngcrush/

sachingulaya 13y ago

Is the standard CGI email form a viable business model? Wufoo says yes. People will pay small fees to not have to worry about something. The "I'll transition to using self-hosted forms next month but I need this done right now" mentality.