You don’t.
Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?
101–110 of 120 posts
Re: Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?
#102I wouldn't.
I tried and tried to sell stuff to "privacy freaks". Turns out that type doesn't like paying for closed-source services and generally will turn their nose up to subscriptions. I am one of these "privacy freaks", love them, but they are honestly probably the hardest people to sell to.
I stopped trying to market to them. It is also a nightmare to try to reach that audience too because they almost always have ad blockers and any space they hang out in very quickly sniff out ads or outright ban talking about products they created.
Furthermore, privacy people tend to be technical themselves so they would prefer to build a solution specific to them rather than use someone else's solution unless it is difficult or requires specialized knowledge they don't care to acquire.
Re: Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?
#103I don't think starting with celebrities and hoping you instantly become Instagram is the move. Do something different, and better, than Instagram that some group of people will want... privacy isn't it. You prioritize privacy, I'd even say you should, but that should be an added benefit, not your primary sales pitch. As much as I like it, the public at large has collectively responded that they don't care enough. So what novel thing will you have that will draw in the kids and make it cool? And remember that no matter how good of thing you make, there is a large element of luck in becoming an Instagram. The second you describe your product by saying it's like another existing and popular product, you're already at a disadvantage. There is no shortage of instagram clones.
Re: Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
No video support ? No meme support ? Why would anyone bother ? I think you didn't read the request completely.
Well, I was asked what I would do, and what I would do is... Instead of supporting videos and memes and trying to compete with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Tumblr, Bluesky, Mastodon, Reddit and EVEN IMGUR I'd focus on images and then my only competitor would be Pinterest, and I wouldn't have to deal with all the complexity that comes with supporting video.
Finally someone that mentioned mastodon!
Re: Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tiktok solves a problem no one has, and look at it go. Not a dig on PG or Tiktok. It's just such an outlier I don't really understand it, and to me it breaks the framework.
I disagree… sort of. TikTok found a better way to deliver video content. The problem was, video content and its associated social data, sucked. Most of us just didn’t realize it. But TikTok did. And they were right. It’s sort of like how you didn’t realize that horses sucked for transportation until you saw car. A flawed metaphor, but you get my point. I think a distinction here is that video, in the TikTok, is the p…
They also didn't come first. Vine was a very popular platform that seemingly shut down out of the blue (at the height of it's popularity). There was no real replacement for a long time after that. Tiktok first started out as Musically, allowing people to create mainly dance and lipsync videos. Only later they rebranded to Tiktok and pivoted to general purpose video content.
The point is, even tiktok didn't just get right and had to pivot and maybe that is key. So to the op I would say: try your idea but just be very very spontaneous and flexible to change it quickly if it doesn't work.
Re: Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
I genuinely don't understand this perspective of privacy. I think it's a dishonest use of the word. For example, in Bluesky, which users you blocked is public information. To me, this sounds like a bigger "privacy" issue than "the ad company figured out you're a man who lives near the beach so you get ads about surfboards." Privacy is about control of your data. Control requires centralization. How come people think…
If you have a better word for "Designed in a way that attempts to protect you from Surveillance Capitalism", I am all ears. > Control requires centralization. How, exactly? What control do you have over data you handed to Facebook?
You don't have control over your data, but Facebook does at least, so long as you trust Facebook, it's fine.
Keyword: TRUST.
Decentralization is often paired with trustlessness, and that's where things fall apart. The average person isn't a paranoid cybersecurity expert. They will trust on services evem if those services' whole mantra is "trust nobody, even us."
In essence, with Facebook, you are knowingly transferring control of your data to Facebook. With decentralized social media, you completely let go of any control and there is nobody to take over it.
Most people won't understand that nobody will have control of the data. They'll think they can just ask Mastodon staff to delete a post from an instance across the globe after they pressed the delete button and for some reason it didn't completely disappear from every instance.
I'm afraid all the privacy problems of decentralization didn't manifest yet because almost nobody is using it to begin with. If more people start to use it, it's going to be obvious we're only trading one privacy violation by another.
Re: Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?
#107> by far the most common mistake startups make is to solve problems no one has. - Paul Graham [1] I think this proposal points at an interesting issue that I see crop up often on sites like HN. It goes (I think) like this: 1) "I care deeply about what I perceive to be a problem." 2) Extrapolates onto some large critical mass of people, 3) That critical mass of people does not actually agree with the problem statement…
Tiktok solves a problem no one has, and look at it go. Not a dig on PG or Tiktok. It's just such an outlier I don't really understand it, and to me it breaks the framework.
TikTok clearly solves two problems that fit squarely within Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:
1. For content consumers: “I’m bored, and want to be entertained with minimal effort.”
2. For content creators: “I’m externally motivated and need the self validation that comes from attention and praise.”
Solutions to these problems have been sold for hundreds of years and trillions of dollars in profit. TikTok is the latest and possibly most efficient iteration on solving them.
Re: Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you have a better word for "Designed in a way that attempts to protect you from Surveillance Capitalism", I am all ears. > Control requires centralization. How, exactly? What control do you have over data you handed to Facebook?
You don't have control over your data, but Facebook does at least, so long as you trust Facebook, it's fine. Keyword: TRUST. Decentralization is often paired with trustlessness, and that's where things fall apart. The average person isn't a paranoid cybersecurity expert. They will trust on services evem if those services' whole mantra is "trust nobody, even us." In essence, with Facebook, you are knowingly transferri…
> You don't have control over your data. (...) as long as you trust Facebook
You just lost any right to complain over people misusing words.
> With decentralized social media, you completely let go of any control and there is nobody to take over it.
Quite the opposite. Decentralized social media allows you to be in control if you so desire.
> I'm afraid all the privacy problems of decentralization .
You were arguing that centralized systems are inherently more private. This is absolute and utter bullshit.
Is the "real privacy" story weak on federated social media? Yes, currently it is. But to have a "real private" communication platform, control MUST be given to the end user, which in effect means that the system MUST be decentralized.
Re: Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tiktok solves a problem no one has, and look at it go. Not a dig on PG or Tiktok. It's just such an outlier I don't really understand it, and to me it breaks the framework.
TikTok clearly solves two problems that fit squarely within Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: 1. For content consumers: “I’m bored, and want to be entertained with minimal effort.” 2. For content creators: “I’m externally motivated and need the self validation that comes from attention and praise.” Solutions to these problems have been sold for hundreds of years and trillions of dollars in profit. TikTok is the latest and…
right, and you don't get to any of these problems by "talking to the customer" b/c they'll never just say "I’m bored, and want to be entertained with minimal effort" — or at least, that's kind of obvious
it breaks the framework bc to make a successful company like tiktok, you'd build "obvious" apps like this, and wouldn't really need to ask customers what their needs are
Re: Ask HN: How would you launch a privacy-first, Instagram-like social network?
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree… sort of. TikTok found a better way to deliver video content. The problem was, video content and its associated social data, sucked. Most of us just didn’t realize it. But TikTok did. And they were right. It’s sort of like how you didn’t realize that horses sucked for transportation until you saw car. A flawed metaphor, but you get my point. I think a distinction here is that video, in the TikTok, is the p…
They also didn't come first. Vine was a very popular platform that seemingly shut down out of the blue (at the height of it's popularity). There was no real replacement for a long time after that. Tiktok first started out as Musically, allowing people to create mainly dance and lipsync videos. Only later they rebranded to Tiktok and pivoted to general purpose video content. The point is, even tiktok didn't just get r…
yeah exactly, no amounts of user research would lead to "people want a platform like tiktok"