Farewell Kagi • Hacker News Board

Re: Farewell Kagi

#11

Post by dcsoft » Mon, Aug 01, 2016, 11:13 AM UTC

I am a current Kagi supplier, and this unexpected closure has me in a bad place. It took a few days to code my system to interface with theirs and to generate licenses automatically for each purchase. I suppose I need to redo all that.

I appreciate Kagi for their years of friendly and comprehensive service as well as the next person, but why didn't Kee Nethery support us better during the closure? No migration path to or even recommendation of a replacement. Where are others moving their payment processor to?

And it sounds like we may not get fully paid either.

Re: Farewell Kagi

#12

Post by erikb » Mon, Aug 01, 2016, 11:26 AM UTC

What did they do? Never heard of them.

Edit: Ah, they were like an old-school Amazon?

webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:GSePr0KJAvoJ:krm.kagi.com/about/

Edit: Why is this post downvoted? There is nothing discriminating here, not even an opinion. Just someone asking what Kagi is. Instead of downvoting you should simply answer the question.

Re: Farewell Kagi

#13

Post by vermontdevil » Mon, Aug 01, 2016, 11:35 AM UTC

sujal wrote: post #4

Does anyone know what the fraud incident was that they reference? I couldn't find anything on Google and don't remember any news, either...

Same here. Especially the fact it happened 10 years ago and they are still paying the debt off.

Re: Farewell Kagi

#14

Post by stevoski » Mon, Aug 01, 2016, 11:52 AM UTC

dcsoft wrote: post #11

I am a current Kagi supplier, and this unexpected closure has me in a bad place. It took a few days to code my system to interface with theirs and to generate licenses automatically for each purchase. I suppose I need to redo all that. I appreciate Kagi for their years of friendly and comprehensive service as well as the next person, but why didn't Kee Nethery support us better during the closure? No migration path t…

If you don't mind do a bit of coding:

  * Stripe
  * PayPal. (You want the "Express Checkout" workflow)

(Hint: for increased sales offer both. Stripe is a developer's dream; adding PayPal adds perhaps 30% more sales, although YMMV)

If you want someone else to take care of all the details in return for higher commission:

  * FastSpring (full service, heavyweight)
  * Paddle (streamlined, focused towards Mac and towards digital products such as ebooks)
  * Gumroad (focused on info products)
  * SendOwl (you still need your own Stripe and/or PayPal, but you don't need to do the coding. They give you a polished, modern feature-rich UI on top of your payment processor.)

Re: Farewell Kagi

#15

Post by jameskegel » Mon, Aug 01, 2016, 12:00 PM UTC

dcsoft wrote: post #11

I am a current Kagi supplier, and this unexpected closure has me in a bad place. It took a few days to code my system to interface with theirs and to generate licenses automatically for each purchase. I suppose I need to redo all that. I appreciate Kagi for their years of friendly and comprehensive service as well as the next person, but why didn't Kee Nethery support us better during the closure? No migration path t…

Full disclosure: I'm a payment processor.

Your best bet is Stripe in most cases. They have a robust API, and a simple payment scheme as far as handling interchange and fee structures. However, it makes sense to find someone like myself (a dev payment processor) when you fill two critera: 1) an average transaction size of $25 or greater, 2) a monthly transaction volume of over $5,000. Until both of those criteria are met, it makes more sense to process through Stripe or Square because their fees will be lower and there is more hand holding on the API side.

I board most of my business with Priority Payment Systems because they have an API that I like, with lots of documentation and good relationship managers. This is just my opinion based on my years in the payments and development space, so do some searching before you settle with something.

Re: Farewell Kagi

#16

Post by jameskegel » Mon, Aug 01, 2016, 12:03 PM UTC

arikfr wrote: post #7

I wonder if they could sell their domain name to cover some of their debt... 4 letter .com domains are hard to come by.

Suppose I had a four-letter domain I'm not using; what avenues are available for selling it, aside from Sedo?

Re: Farewell Kagi

#17

Post by robk » Mon, Aug 01, 2016, 12:33 PM UTC

sujal wrote: post #4

Does anyone know what the fraud incident was that they reference? I couldn't find anything on Google and don't remember any news, either...

From about 10+ years ago it seems something to do with Outpost.com? http://forums.macnn.com/79/developer-center/268919/unofficia... https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zPU6DcS9MN0C&pg=PA22&lpg...

Re: Farewell Kagi

#18

Post by feelix » Mon, Aug 01, 2016, 1:11 PM UTC

stevoski wrote: post #3

Kagi was 22 years in business and they write this: > We are sorry we failed you. Kagi, you did not fail. You provide an essential service for what was then called Shareware when it was really hard to do online payment processing.

I think perhaps that getting defrauded so much money that it sent them bankrupt must feel a bit like failure to them

Re: Farewell Kagi

#19

Post by Nullabillity » Mon, Aug 01, 2016, 1:13 PM UTC

stevoski wrote: post #14

dcsoft wrote: post #11

I am a current Kagi supplier, and this unexpected closure has me in a bad place. It took a few days to code my system to interface with theirs and to generate licenses automatically for each purchase. I suppose I need to redo all that. I appreciate Kagi for their years of friendly and comprehensive service as well as the next person, but why didn't Kee Nethery support us better during the closure? No migration path t…

If you don't mind do a bit of coding: * Stripe * PayPal. (You want the "Express Checkout" workflow) (Hint: for increased sales offer both. Stripe is a developer's dream; adding PayPal adds perhaps 30% more sales, although YMMV) If you want someone else to take care of all the details in return for higher commission: * FastSpring (full service, heavyweight) * Paddle (streamlined, focused towards Mac and towards digita…

> Stripe is a developer's dream

Unless you're using the JVM. Their Java API is so awful that it feels like you're just shelling out to cURL.

Re: Farewell Kagi

#20

Post by Kadin » Mon, Aug 01, 2016, 1:32 PM UTC

erikb wrote: post #12

What did they do? Never heard of them. Edit: Ah, they were like an old-school Amazon? webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:GSePr0KJAvoJ:krm.kagi.com/about/ Edit: Why is this post downvoted? There is nothing discriminating here, not even an opinion. Just someone asking what Kagi is. Instead of downvoting you should simply answer the question.

Kagi was a payments processor / fulfillment service provider focused particularly on shareware. Back in the days before app stores, if you were an indie developer your options for distribution and monetization were very limited. Generally you put out a demo version that took some sort of code to unlock, and users sent you money via the mail in return for unlock codes. This is how many software authors got their start in the 80s.

In the 90s, it began to become clear that accepting credit cards and providing the unlock codes online was the way to go, but for most developers actually doing that was out of reach. Not just for technical reasons, but the fees on having a CC merchant account on a low-cost, low-volume app were just not feasible. Kagi filled this niche. They would do the actual sales, in return for a cut, and provide the unlock codes to customers. You as the developer still handled all support. It was by far one of the easiest ways for a small developer to sell their software online.

I am guessing, although I don't know for sure, that they also provided some sort of libraries or implementation assistance for the 'unlocking' features inside the software itself, because many Kagi-sold apps had very similar-looking unlock codes.

Exactly what happened with the "vendor fraud situation" I don't know, but it's sad to see them go under so suddenly. They provided a valuable service for many years and there are a lot of apps that would probably never have been developed were it not for the sales channel they provided.