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Just the opposite. The free software movement has led to apps and programs where the users are the product, not the customer, and companies bend over backwards

Just the opposite. The free software movement has led to apps and programs where the users are the product, not the customer, and companies bend over backwards for advertisers. The companies have no incentive to care about your privacy, just your data. Paid messaging apps, however (at least until they get acquired by advertising companies like Facebook), give companies incentives to service their customers first, and the users are actually the customers. That's why Slack and WhatsApp and HipChat and Basecamp have taken off--because they offer the security and paid customer/company relationship. This article's title is woefully non-conclusive. Sure it would be wonderful if ALL messaging apps could by built and funded by Russian billionaires such they were private and free for the end user, but the fact is that to support the infrastructure of a billion+ user messaging app, you need to make money. And if you can't make money from the users to whom you are promising security and privacy (and thus to whom you owe allegiance), you have to make money elsewhere. And the alternative is arguably what has caused so many security and privacy problems in the first place.

troymc 12y ago
It seems you missed this chunk of the article: <quote>Will he continue to bankroll the business -- or does he see revenue opportunities? "We will become financially sustainable at some point," he says. "It will most likely involve third-party paid apps built on the Telegram platform."</quote>
- tedunangst 12y ago
  How do you collect rent on an open platform?
  - boomzilla 12y ago
    "How do you make money off search?" -- question by a lot of smart people around 2000.
    - guessbest 12y ago
      The commenter above, bmmayer1, noted advertisers would be how that would be done. I believe a similar method was used with search engines.
copsarebastards 12y ago
> The free software movement has led to apps and programs where the users are the product, not the customer, and companies bend over backwards for advertisers. What part of "Shouldn't make money" didn't you understand? You do realize that if you're selling user data that makes money? The free software movement has done no such thing. The apps and programs you're talking about where the users are the product are free as in beer, not free as in freedom, and the latter is what the free software movement is about. > This article's title is woefully non-conclusive. Maybe try reading more than the title?
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
ioddly 12y ago
> Just the opposite. The free software movement has led to apps and programs where the users are the product, not the customer, and companies bend over backwards for advertisers. That's a business model common for SAAS applications, I don't really think it's related to free software. Gcc on linux doesn't send usage statistics to someone, I hope.
- bmmayer1 12y ago
  You're right. I should have said consumer software, not free software.

troymc 12y ago

It seems you missed this chunk of the article: <quote>Will he continue to bankroll the business -- or does he see revenue opportunities? "We will become financially sustainable at some point," he says. "It will most likely involve third-party paid apps built on the Telegram platform."</quote>

tedunangst 12y ago
How do you collect rent on an open platform?
- boomzilla 12y ago
  "How do you make money off search?" -- question by a lot of smart people around 2000.
  - guessbest 12y ago
    The commenter above, bmmayer1, noted advertisers would be how that would be done. I believe a similar method was used with search engines.

copsarebastards 12y ago

> The free software movement has led to apps and programs where the users are the product, not the customer, and companies bend over backwards for advertisers. What part of "Shouldn't make money" didn't you understand? You do realize that if you're selling user data that makes money? The free software movement has done no such thing. The apps and programs you're talking about where the users are the product are free as in beer, not free as in freedom, and the latter is what the free software movement is about. > This article's title is woefully non-conclusive. Maybe try reading more than the title?

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

ioddly 12y ago

> Just the opposite. The free software movement has led to apps and programs where the users are the product, not the customer, and companies bend over backwards for advertisers. That's a business model common for SAAS applications, I don't really think it's related to free software. Gcc on linux doesn't send usage statistics to someone, I hope.

bmmayer1 12y ago
You're right. I should have said consumer software, not free software.