Ads may come to Instagram • Hacker News Board

Re: Ads may come to Instagram

#21

Post by notmarkus » Thu, Dec 13, 2012, 9:18 PM UTC

quarterto wrote: post #11

Either: Facebook have no imagination. Or: Slate (and the internet) has the wrong end of the stick. Scenario the first. So FB dropped a cool billion on a photo-sharing social network and app with a sizeable, vehemently dedicated and pretty damn vocal userbase. Now they want to make money out of it. Fine. "So guys, Instagram monetization. Hit me." "Um." "Um." "Ads?" "Perfect!" I (and I'm sure a large majority of Instag…

Did you read the article? The entire thing is about how Instagram has NOT said they're adding ads, and likely, based on the VP's response, actively trying to stay away from them.

Re: Ads may come to Instagram

#22

Post by dasil003 » Thu, Dec 13, 2012, 9:19 PM UTC

purplelobster wrote: post #13

kyllo wrote: post #9

Kind of a condescending article. Really, Instagram pulled an enormous bait-and-switch. Create a great application, give it away for free until you've built up a huge base of users, then sell the application and its user base to another company and let them figure out how to actually make money off it. Understandably users are going to be upset because they're being asked to either pay for or see ads with something th…

Users don't really have any right to be upset over not being able to use services completely for free. Is this what the world has come to? Start-ups make their service free initially until they've gotten enough users, then try to monetize and then the users hop on to the next free service. And repeat. Either user expectations have to change, or start-ups will have to realize that they need to start monetize right awa…

Since seed investments continue at a breakneck pace, and since instagram sold at many multiples of any revenue stream their existing service could have provided, I don't see much chance of startups realizing they have to change.

Likewise, user complaints are a tempest in a teapot. Does it matter to anyone how angry you are about the downward spiral of your favorite service? I actually think people enjoy their righteous indignation and are nowhere near being mad enough to consider not using the next cool free service.

Re: Ads may come to Instagram

#23

Post by runT1ME » Thu, Dec 13, 2012, 9:31 PM UTC

They don't really need 'ads', just corporate accounts, right?

When someone creates an account they could immediately be following a Coca Cola, BMW and Apple instagram account.

They could even make it a requirement to follow a small number of brands.

I for one wouldn't be too pissed if an occasional cool picture of an apple store or BMW came up in my feed...

Re: Ads may come to Instagram

#24

Post by devcpp » Thu, Dec 13, 2012, 9:35 PM UTC

goatforce5 wrote: post #20

kyllo wrote: post #9

Kind of a condescending article. Really, Instagram pulled an enormous bait-and-switch. Create a great application, give it away for free until you've built up a huge base of users, then sell the application and its user base to another company and let them figure out how to actually make money off it. Understandably users are going to be upset because they're being asked to either pay for or see ads with something th…

How's it a bait and switch? Should free things be provided to you forever? If something is being given to you for free, shouldn't you realize that at some point money has to enter the equation? “If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.”

I think it's more about how they sold the company while the application was still not making any money. People expected to have to pay one day, of course, but by selling the users without the business model, Instagram showed it didn't care about the users.

Letting another company figure out how to make money with your product does sound odd, particularly when the product is the users and not some kind of resource.

Re: Ads may come to Instagram

#25

Post by ErikAugust » Thu, Dec 13, 2012, 9:35 PM UTC

ryanwhitney wrote: post #14

quarterto wrote: post #11

Either: Facebook have no imagination. Or: Slate (and the internet) has the wrong end of the stick. Scenario the first. So FB dropped a cool billion on a photo-sharing social network and app with a sizeable, vehemently dedicated and pretty damn vocal userbase. Now they want to make money out of it. Fine. "So guys, Instagram monetization. Hit me." "Um." "Um." "Ads?" "Perfect!" I (and I'm sure a large majority of Instag…

No, it's that Business Insider writes trolly headlines. Nowhere in the interview did Facebook say nor "confirm" they were adding ads to Instagram.

BI are masters of click-bait. Which makes them masters of spreading untrue statements.

Re: Ads may come to Instagram

#26

Post by ceejayoz » Thu, Dec 13, 2012, 9:35 PM UTC

kyllo wrote: post #9

Kind of a condescending article. Really, Instagram pulled an enormous bait-and-switch. Create a great application, give it away for free until you've built up a huge base of users, then sell the application and its user base to another company and let them figure out how to actually make money off it. Understandably users are going to be upset because they're being asked to either pay for or see ads with something th…

This isn't so much bait-and-switch as it is a car dealership forgetting to put a price tag on a car and people getting mad that it isn't free to buy.

Re: Ads may come to Instagram

#27

Post by danudey » Thu, Dec 13, 2012, 9:39 PM UTC

404error wrote: post #8

lancefisher wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used printstagr.am, and liked it. The prints are fun just like the instagram photos. It would be cool if this were built in to Instagram, and I could mail the prints as a gift.

Yup that's what I was thinking. Build in the functionality to order prints straight from the app. They could expand to postcards which I think would be awesome.

Expand it out even more. If you make a postcard or printout of my photo, give me a cut of the money (even if it's a small one). Let me use that credit towards my own postcards, or if I get a ton of it, cash it out.

It would also encourage brands to put good content up, rather than just being a boring corporate mouthpiece, which is always a plus.

Re: Ads may come to Instagram

#28

Post by FuzzyDunlop » Thu, Dec 13, 2012, 9:39 PM UTC

goatforce5 wrote: post #20

kyllo wrote: post #9

Kind of a condescending article. Really, Instagram pulled an enormous bait-and-switch. Create a great application, give it away for free until you've built up a huge base of users, then sell the application and its user base to another company and let them figure out how to actually make money off it. Understandably users are going to be upset because they're being asked to either pay for or see ads with something th…

How's it a bait and switch? Should free things be provided to you forever? If something is being given to you for free, shouldn't you realize that at some point money has to enter the equation? “If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.”

Everyone trots out that line in a cargo-cultish manner. Thing is, you're still 'the product being sold' once you become a paying customer.

Re: Ads may come to Instagram

#29

Post by kyllo » Thu, Dec 13, 2012, 9:52 PM UTC

goatforce5 wrote: post #20

kyllo wrote: post #9

Kind of a condescending article. Really, Instagram pulled an enormous bait-and-switch. Create a great application, give it away for free until you've built up a huge base of users, then sell the application and its user base to another company and let them figure out how to actually make money off it. Understandably users are going to be upset because they're being asked to either pay for or see ads with something th…

How's it a bait and switch? Should free things be provided to you forever? If something is being given to you for free, shouldn't you realize that at some point money has to enter the equation? “If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.”

Oh I am very much aware of this fact.

But another fact is that if you give someone something for free for a while and then you start to charge for it (or add ads to it) they are going to be upset, regardless of whether they "should" be upset. No one is happy about the experience of having value subtracted.

Re: Ads may come to Instagram

#30

Post by slykat » Thu, Dec 13, 2012, 10:18 PM UTC

The title of this should be "Facebook is looking at ways to monetize its billion dollar investments, much like every other public company in world."

I'm not sure how this is even worthy of an article.