Why You Should Want to Pay for Software, Instagram Edition
theatlantic.com
Why You Should Want to Pay for Software, Instagram Edition
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Re: Why You Should Want to Pay for Software, Instagram Edition
#2"X has Y millions of users, if they charged $5..." yeah, right. I am willing to pay for online services, but sharing phone pictures of coffee mugs or posting status messages isn't one of them. I bet most people feel the same.
Re: Why You Should Want to Pay for Software, Instagram Edition
#3While I agree with the overall sentiment of the article, the hypothetical monetization numbers in the last paragraph are just ridiculous. Getting 20% of a free userbase to pay anything is extremely high. ~0.2% to 2% sounds like a more likely number, based on my admittedly cursory knowledge of monetization of apps. $5 a month also sounds a bit high for essentially a photo-sharing service, a yearly charge of ~$20 sounds more likely. However, for users that have passed the "willing to pay anything" barrier, the actual cost might not as big a deal.
This also completely ignores the viral nature of these types of services; people are more likely to use Instagram when their friends are using it. Without being free, it's not clear whether it would have taken off enough to gain 2 million users (or whether it could keep 2 million after the remaining 98 million left).
That said, I'm all for paying for services, and much prefer that model to ads. But just because some of us would prefer that doesn't mean it would have been the right choice for Instagram. It's easy to look back and say "they should have charged users," but we can't be sure we'd be in a place to analyze them if they had.
Re: Why You Should Want to Pay for Software, Instagram Edition
#4The Atlantic is being deliberately misleading here. Pay for Software? I think they should have said, "Why You Should Pay for Internet Service."
That is, unless there's a way for you to download Instagram's entire service as a package and install it on your own infrastructure (not likely), you aren't ever going to pay them for "software." If you pay them, it will be a subscription to their service.
I think the real culprit here is actually Google, who can (and do!) release all kinds of useful free services. They then actively support the misconception that all online services should be free – this helps them because consumers then make the error of assuming that this is reasonable; meanwhile, Google benefits as consumers turn a blind eye to their data mining, advertising, etc.
I suppose it would be fair to blame all the large cloud providers competing in the same space (Microsoft and Yahoo for example). However, Google was the first to try this and arguably the most successful.
Re: Why You Should Want to Pay for Software, Instagram Edition
#5This make a wildly naive assumption that paying for a product somehow makes it less likely that they will monetize your likeness. The truth is large companies with any swath of investors are expected to grow, thats how money is made. This means that there will need to be constant new revenue streams added on.
TLDR: Paying for any app just delays the inevitable monetization of content as the company is forced to expand and create more revenue.
Re: Why You Should Want to Pay for Software, Instagram Edition
#6I'll bet instagram never thought of that! If only they had these guys coming in to tell them that they could charge for software. "Guys, if you charge just $5 a month - you'll have $300m a quarter!" Genius!
Great reporting Atlantic, I'm normally a fan, but this is quite poor.
Re: Why You Should Want to Pay for Software, Instagram Edition
#7I'll bet instagram never thought of that! If only they had these guys coming in to tell them that they could charge for software. "Guys, if you charge just $5 a month - you'll have $300m a quarter!" Genius! Great reporting Atlantic, I'm normally a fan, but this is quite poor.
This article's claim (even stated in the title) is not that Instagram should have charged, but that users should demand to pay. The article is not written for Instagram: it is written for users.
> Truly, the only way to get around the privacy problems inherent in advertising-supported social networks is to pay for services that we value. It's amazing what power we gain in becoming paying customers instead of the product being sold.
Re: Why You Should Want to Pay for Software, Instagram Edition
#8This make a wildly naive assumption that paying for a product somehow makes it less likely that they will monetize your likeness. The truth is large companies with any swath of investors are expected to grow, thats how money is made. This means that there will need to be constant new revenue streams added on. TLDR: Paying for any app just delays the inevitable monetization of content as the company is forced to expan…
Agreed with a caveat:
People could prefer services that have some sort of contractual agreement for perpetuity to never do anything creepy with your stuff. Those services would by definition have to have some sort of paid angle or make due with dumb ads. Now most people don't care but it's possible someone could, in DDG fashion, try and leverage the "don't be creepy" angle.
Re: Why You Should Want to Pay for Software, Instagram Edition
#9I'll bet instagram never thought of that! If only they had these guys coming in to tell them that they could charge for software. "Guys, if you charge just $5 a month - you'll have $300m a quarter!" Genius! Great reporting Atlantic, I'm normally a fan, but this is quite poor.
This article's claim (even stated in the title) is not that Instagram should have charged, but that users should demand to pay. The article is not written for Instagram: it is written for users. > Truly, the only way to get around the privacy problems inherent in advertising-supported social networks is to pay for services that we value. It's amazing what power we gain in becoming paying customers instead of the prod…
But then:
> Here's an alternative version of what Instagram could have done
Re: Why You Should Want to Pay for Software, Instagram Edition
#10I'll bet instagram never thought of that! If only they had these guys coming in to tell them that they could charge for software. "Guys, if you charge just $5 a month - you'll have $300m a quarter!" Genius! Great reporting Atlantic, I'm normally a fan, but this is quite poor.
This article's claim (even stated in the title) is not that Instagram should have charged, but that users should demand to pay. The article is not written for Instagram: it is written for users. > Truly, the only way to get around the privacy problems inherent in advertising-supported social networks is to pay for services that we value. It's amazing what power we gain in becoming paying customers instead of the prod…
> users should demand to pay
People have a hard time paying for parking space, yet some claim those same people should demand paying for the ability to upload a small file to the internet. I don't think anybody outside of the tech bubble treats such advice seriously.