Ask HN: Is there room for another photo sharing service?

#1

Post by adilsaleem » Wed, Jan 28, 2009, 12:00 PM UTC

I was having a discussion with my friends on photo sharing and a lot of them didnt seem to like the existing solutions. There are many photo sharing services and every social networks seems to offer it as well. But there are always people who are looking for a better solution.

Do you think there is room for a new picture sharing site?

Re: Ask HN: Is there room for another photo sharing service?

#2

Post by pclark » Wed, Jan 28, 2009, 12:20 PM UTC

A lot of users want to share their photos and are blissfully unaware of FaceBook/Flickr.

You said it yourself:

>But there are always people who are looking for a better solution.

Don't dive straight in, work out what users want that flickr/etc doesn't offer - and do that.

Re: Ask HN: Is there room for another photo sharing service?

#3

Post by axod » Wed, Jan 28, 2009, 12:21 PM UTC

Seems like niche specific sites like twitpic.com can do pretty well...

Re: Ask HN: Is there room for another photo sharing service?

#4

Post by nader » Wed, Jan 28, 2009, 12:25 PM UTC

It would have to stand out clearly as there is so much competition from big and small players out there.

Re: Ask HN: Is there room for another photo sharing service?

#5

Post by tdavis » Wed, Jan 28, 2009, 12:29 PM UTC

Sam seems to think so and apparently YC agreed with him (well, maybe): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=453303

Re: Ask HN: Is there room for another photo sharing service?

#6

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 28, 2009, 12:44 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Is there room for another photo sharing service?

#7

Post by andhapp » Wed, Jan 28, 2009, 12:45 PM UTC

There is always room for better solutions. Think about Google...there were other search engines around when Google was launched but where are they now. If you can deliver a better solution always go for it.

Re: Ask HN: Is there room for another photo sharing service?

#8

Post by eterno » Wed, Jan 28, 2009, 12:47 PM UTC

I think photo-sharing services need to verticalize and create niches.

I see a clear case for a photo-sharing service specifically designed to host high-resolution images (big size) images which are rapidly becoming the norm with higher resolution cameras rolling out.

What would it take:

1. Uploading will take more time. Should happen in the background. 2. Browsing can be made better - by showing reduced resolutions on the fly - zooming out on parts etc.

Re: Ask HN: Is there room for another photo sharing service?

#9

Post by theklub » Wed, Jan 28, 2009, 12:47 PM UTC

Yeah, it's tough when facebook is becoming the default for everyone uploading their pictures. If facebook expands that aspect of their business it might hard between them and flickr already being huge.

Re: Ask HN: Is there room for another photo sharing service?

#10

Post by vaksel » Wed, Jan 28, 2009, 12:52 PM UTC

of course there is. even the biggest photo sharing sites like Flickr have less than 1% of market share of internet users, plenty of space to go in.

Also you have to remember that its a standalone service, so users will get value from day 1. So just throw up a good looking user interface and first time users will sign up to try it out