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Wasn't App.Net a pay-only social network before? What happened to that? Is this new model a pivot?

ihuman 13y ago
Earlier this year they added a free tier. http://blog.app.net/2013/02/25/introducing-a-free-tier/ http://blog.app.net/2013/02/25/introducing-a-free-tier/
minimaxir 13y ago
About a few months ago, App.net decided that being a Twitter clone won't work, so it is trying to be a data framework that anyone can use. (Which incidentally Dropbox is also trying to do.)
- misuba 13y ago
  That was always the core of their model. The idea was to monetize a Twitter-ish network by monetizing app development and API usage, a model which was allegedly on the table at Twitter itself at one point. They've just communicated really poorly about the whole thing.
- neuroscr 13y ago
  Isn't DropBox's data api more granular (record-level). Where App.net is more coarse (file-level) and not really ideal for changing data. In fact App.net only has one primitive that you can edit and it can only store up to 8k of data.
neuroscr 13y ago
It was actually part of their original plan (See the beginning of http://blog.app.net/2013/02/25/introducing-a-free-tier/ http://blog.app.net/2013/02/25/introducing-a-free-tier/) First they charged and crowd-sourced for marketing and proving their concept. Paying early adopters allowed them to pay developers which attracted the developers who made apps. Then they had the apps and content to attract the users, so they made it free. I believe they embraced of open standards like RSS and WebFinger (http://blog.app.net/2013/08/07/response-to-brennan-novak-part-ii/ http://blog.app.net/2013/08/07/response-to-brennan-novak-par...) to make sure developers would choose them for implementation. I think App.net maybe trying to become the identity platform for the web (maybe not the only one but a damn good alternative to the rest). As a developer given the choice between Twitter's 100k token limit or App.net's almost 200k users (plus a chance to get paid by app.net) it's a no brainer. I think their main competitor now is Facebook Connect. And there are plenty of users out there that are refusing to use FB.

Earlier this year they added a free tier. http://blog.app.net/2013/02/25/introducing-a-free-tier/ http://blog.app.net/2013/02/25/introducing-a-free-tier/

minimaxir 13y ago

About a few months ago, App.net decided that being a Twitter clone won't work, so it is trying to be a data framework that anyone can use. (Which incidentally Dropbox is also trying to do.)

misuba 13y ago
That was always the core of their model. The idea was to monetize a Twitter-ish network by monetizing app development and API usage, a model which was allegedly on the table at Twitter itself at one point. They've just communicated really poorly about the whole thing.
neuroscr 13y ago
Isn't DropBox's data api more granular (record-level). Where App.net is more coarse (file-level) and not really ideal for changing data. In fact App.net only has one primitive that you can edit and it can only store up to 8k of data.

neuroscr 13y ago

It was actually part of their original plan (See the beginning of http://blog.app.net/2013/02/25/introducing-a-free-tier/ http://blog.app.net/2013/02/25/introducing-a-free-tier/) First they charged and crowd-sourced for marketing and proving their concept. Paying early adopters allowed them to pay developers which attracted the developers who made apps. Then they had the apps and content to attract the users, so they made it free. I believe they embraced of open standards like RSS and WebFinger (http://blog.app.net/2013/08/07/response-to-brennan-novak-part-ii/ http://blog.app.net/2013/08/07/response-to-brennan-novak-par...) to make sure developers would choose them for implementation. I think App.net maybe trying to become the identity platform for the web (maybe not the only one but a damn good alternative to the rest). As a developer given the choice between Twitter's 100k token limit or App.net's almost 200k users (plus a chance to get paid by app.net) it's a no brainer. I think their main competitor now is Facebook Connect. And there are plenty of users out there that are refusing to use FB.