Why we don't sell ads (2012) • Hacker News Board

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#11

Post by tbarbugli » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 3:44 PM UTC

general_failure wrote: post #8

Most people's morals and ethics, however "religious" and staunch they sound, is up for sale. It's just a matter of finding the right price (as long as what you want from them is not illegal). I am yet to meet someone whose morals are not for sale. I only know figures like Gandhi but I never got a chance to meet them (and some books told me they were flexible when it came to themselves - re: his wife's medical treatme…

I can find lot of names but I am lazy and one is enough to prove you wrong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_More

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#12

Post by gingerlime » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 3:46 PM UTC

ryguytilidie wrote: post #10

Man, I would put whatever the fuck people wanted on my site if it meant my family and the generations after could live comfortably. That's why I try not to make statements like that.

Even if statements like that help getting your family and generations after to live comfortably?

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#13

Post by venomsnake » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 3:48 PM UTC

stoev wrote: post #9

While I strongly support any business model that tries to escape from the typical ads monetisation strategy, we can see (two years after this post was published) that not relying on ads has not been the best long-term strategy for WhatsApp for two reasons: 1. They didn't manage to stay independent and had to sell to Facebook. I always thought that they had a very good chance to expand their product and built a platfo…

If they HAD to sell the price would not have been 19B (okay 15 of them are monopoly money but still)

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#14

Post by rayiner » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 3:50 PM UTC

Remember the internet back when ads were just something you ran across on cheesy low-quality (or porn) sites?

http://royal.pingdom.com/2008/09/16/the-web-in-1996-1997/

http://allthingsd.com/20090720/yahoo-home-pages-over-the-las...

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/time-10-big-websites-looked-15-...

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#15

Post by subdane » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 3:51 PM UTC

stoev wrote: post #9

While I strongly support any business model that tries to escape from the typical ads monetisation strategy, we can see (two years after this post was published) that not relying on ads has not been the best long-term strategy for WhatsApp for two reasons: 1. They didn't manage to stay independent and had to sell to Facebook. I always thought that they had a very good chance to expand their product and built a platfo…

They didn't have to sell to FB they chose to. They had a history of flipping to paid versions of the app to cover costs and reduce growth. Their actual competitors were carriers who charge exorbitant SMS fees internationally. At ~500M users their plan to simply charge $1/yr would have covered their costs.

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#16

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 3:54 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#17

Post by eloisant » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 3:55 PM UTC

"Because our business model is to get bought, not becoming profitable."

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#18

Post by robertoparada » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 3:55 PM UTC

My assumption is that FB bought Whatsapp for its attach business AKA for its data minning opportunity. I bet they won't throw ads in there, but rest assure that if you're talking vacations with your group "Family", you'll see a suggestion around that via Facebook site/mobile, and so will the rest of your family.

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#19

Post by tyang » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 3:56 PM UTC

Selling ads isn't cool.

You know what's cool?

Giving your user info to Facebook to mine and monetize.

Re: Why we don't sell ads (2012)

#20

Post by malanj » Fri, Apr 25, 2014, 3:57 PM UTC

The whole WhatsApp acquisition touches on some of the same personal nerves that Google's acquisition of EtherPad did. It was a really great product that I used daily. At the time Google had big plans for their Wave product, and the entire deal seemed to make sense. Fast forward a few months and Wave is a dud and EtherPad is no more.

I'm not saying that WhatsApp won't be useful to Facebook, but I do think that the philosophy and goal of the two companies are very different. Ads is one potential "technology" that could monetise the product and it's obviously against the founders' philosophy. There will however probably be many other (more subtle) influences from Facebook's side that'll slowly shift it away from the original vision - and promises to users. That's life I guess: take the cash or keep you vision.