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Slack Said to Draw Interest from Amazon

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Re: Slack Said to Draw Interest from Amazon

#221

Post by simonrobb »

hueving wrote: post #207
simonrobb wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A glorified IRC client built on web tech... that everybody uses. Tech is only one small part of a business. Slack provides real value to millions of people, $9B certainly doesn't seem an unreasonable valuation to me.

>that everybody uses You're spending too much time in the tech industry. Even if you double the daily active users from a year ago, that doesn't even reach 5% of the US population.

That's still a lot of users. By that logic most B2C companies (e.g.: Atlassian) shouldn't have a big valuation either. My point is that Slack has taken technology which has been around a long time, made it fun and usable so people use it, and most importantly they've got people to pay for it. GP's comment was dismissing Slack purely because of the tech.

Re: Slack Said to Draw Interest from Amazon

#222

Post by ryeguy »

ForHackernews wrote: post #187
pc86 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I help hire people and consider strong opinions about which chat service is used a negative signal.

I don't have a strong opinion, but I do think using Slack shows that a company is vulnerable to chasing hype and eager to hop on bandwagons.

I don't see how you get that. Slack does tons of things IRC doesn't. IRC is not a valid replacement for the entirety of slack. To choose IRC means deciding that you don't need or want the rest of slack's features.

Re: Slack Said to Draw Interest from Amazon

#223

Post by perseusprime11 »

anon_8247582 wrote: post #171
perseusprime11 wrote: post #57

Microsoft will counter with $12b. Makes sense to sit with Microsoft. The new culture at Microsoft will allow for the caring and feeding of Slack.

As someone who pays for Slack and uses it throughout the working day, I hope nobody acquires them, especially Microsoft. I don't have anything against Microsoft per se, but in my opinion, they ruined Skype.

I mean they are clearly looking to sell and Stewart is trying to create a bidding war to get the most money out of this deal. How many companies can afford to create new enterprise contracts with Amazon for enterprise software? They are either Google customers or Microsoft customers for employee productivity software.

Re: Slack Said to Draw Interest from Amazon

#224

Post by ForHackernews »

ryeguy wrote: post #222
ForHackernews wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have a strong opinion, but I do think using Slack shows that a company is vulnerable to chasing hype and eager to hop on bandwagons.

I don't see how you get that. Slack does tons of things IRC doesn't. IRC is not a valid replacement for the entirety of slack. To choose IRC means deciding that you don't need or want the rest of slack's features.

Exactly, how will our company be productive without emoji and embedded reaction gifs?

Re: Slack Said to Draw Interest from Amazon

#225

Post by ForHackernews »

sangnoir wrote: post #201
ForHackernews wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WhatsApp is (AFAIK) the only major chat service that offers a J2ME app. There are a _lot_ of feature phones in the Global South, and a lot of telecoms that charge gouging rates for SMS and MMS.

> WhatsApp is (AFAIK) the only major chat service that offers a J2ME app WhatsApp's support for J2ME ended in 2016[1] - it is now smartphone only, because it requires "advanced features" (or bloat) to compete with Snapchat and complete Facebook's flanking manoeuvre (along with Instagram). 1. https://faq.whatsapp.com/en/s60/21099118

Ah, I guess my information is out of date. It's sad that Facebook owns WhatsApp now.

Re: Slack Said to Draw Interest from Amazon

#226

Post by tuananh »

sinatra wrote: post #121
chollida1 wrote: post #77

Serious question..... but also more me fleshing out my thoughts on messaging apps.... What is the point in buying a messaging app? - instant messenger - ICQ - Skype - Yammer - WhatsApp They all seem to be popular for a short time and then fad away. What does owing one of these get a company? The case against owning them is that they all go out of favour and you only have a small window, say up to 5 years, where your…

We all asked the same question about Facebook. All social networks before Facebook had faded away. But, Facebook didn't. Potential Slack buyers think that Slack is also here to stay in a similar manner. EDIT: I'm not saying Slack is Facebook. One reason why I think Slack may survive longer than ICQ, Skype etc is how well integrated it is with all other services. For a tool to replace Slack, it should also provide the…

> But, Facebook didn't

Not yet. We used to think MySpace is huge and not going away anytime soon

Re: Slack Said to Draw Interest from Amazon

#227

Post by benjamincharity »

deegles wrote: post #191
eduren wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I've seen, there are plenty of companies that keep sensitive data out-of-band for just that reason, and have policies to keep it out of their Slacks.

Ironically, Slack is explicitly prohibited for internal use at Amazon.

Source?

Re: Slack Said to Draw Interest from Amazon

#228

Post by pc86 »

ForHackernews wrote: post #224
ryeguy wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how you get that. Slack does tons of things IRC doesn't. IRC is not a valid replacement for the entirety of slack. To choose IRC means deciding that you don't need or want the rest of slack's features.

Exactly, how will our company be productive without emoji and embedded reaction gifs?

What's a good way to get mobile notifications about an IRC message?

Re: Slack Said to Draw Interest from Amazon

#229

Post by ForHackernews »

pc86 wrote: post #228
ForHackernews wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, how will our company be productive without emoji and embedded reaction gifs?

What's a good way to get mobile notifications about an IRC message?

Install an IRC client on your phone?

If this is just going to be a game of "let's list every feature Slack has bolted on to their chatroom" then I don't care to play.

Re: Slack Said to Draw Interest from Amazon

#230

Post by rkda »

sinatra wrote: post #164
zanny wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook isn't just about the people on it at this instant, it is about the accumulated history people build up on it. Exporting your Facebook profile is a labyrinthian effort few would consider. Switching chat providers is as simple as getting everyone to use the new thing and going from there, there is little to no baggage to bring with you.

I don't think that's true. Switching to another messaging service means you lose all past messages. It also means you need to integrate all other services (like Github, Google Doc, Travis, and many others) to this new messaging service. That is a lot of friction!

Chat services usually have an import service. At least for their more famous competitors. Doesn't Slack allow you to export your message history?
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