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Ello, goodbye

aralbalkan.com

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Re: Ello, goodbye

#2

Post by seren »

I have seen Ello popping up multiple times on HN. Ok, this is an ad-free social network with a manifesto and you are not the product. This is fine and dandy. But at the end of the day, you need some source of income. Does anyone know what is their business model ?

Re: Ello, goodbye

#3

Post by arlenmark0987 »

seren wrote: post #2

I have seen Ello popping up multiple times on HN. Ok, this is an ad-free social network with a manifesto and you are not the product. This is fine and dandy. But at the end of the day, you need some source of income. Does anyone know what is their business model ?

I too need to know this

Re: Ello, goodbye

#4

Post by FreezerburnV »

arlenmark0987 wrote: post #3
seren wrote: post #2

I have seen Ello popping up multiple times on HN. Ok, this is an ad-free social network with a manifesto and you are not the product. This is fine and dandy. But at the end of the day, you need some source of income. Does anyone know what is their business model ?

I too need to know this

On their "Why no ads?" blog post/web page they mention at the bottom that they will sell "special features" to users while keeping most things free.

https://ello.co/wtf/post/why-no-ads

Re: Ello, goodbye

#5

Post by seren »

FreezerburnV wrote: post #4
arlenmark0987 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too need to know this

On their "Why no ads?" blog post/web page they mention at the bottom that they will sell "special features" to users while keeping most things free. https://ello.co/wtf/post/why-no-ads

So basically hats ?

Re: Ello, goodbye

#6

Post by chippy »

seren wrote: post #2

I have seen Ello popping up multiple times on HN. Ok, this is an ad-free social network with a manifesto and you are not the product. This is fine and dandy. But at the end of the day, you need some source of income. Does anyone know what is their business model ?

I think that's what Aral was saying - it's VC backed and that therefore their business model is that "you actually will be the product", and that "there will be ads".

The manifesto will be compromised - it's inevitable, because it requires a business model because the VCs require it. It's predicted to happen in the future, not now when the manifesto is all about recruiting users.

It would happen when the network grows large enough and when people invest their personal lives into the platform, and cannot leave without some kind of mental pain. This is the core point of Aral's blog post.

Re: Ello, goodbye

#7

Post by fibbery »

seren wrote: post #5
FreezerburnV wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On their "Why no ads?" blog post/web page they mention at the bottom that they will sell "special features" to users while keeping most things free. https://ello.co/wtf/post/why-no-ads

So basically hats ?

If it was hats I'd actually sign up. As it is, I feel a little too jaded to trust the latest version of "don't be evil".

Re: Ello, goodbye

#8

Post by kolev »

Voice of reason. The "ad-free version of X" never worked... unless it's self-hosted and enthusiast-made. Here, we still see people wanting to make profit for themselves and the VCs and that's fine, but this is not how you build an "(ad-)free version of X"! Look at http://withknown.com - it's open-source and still offers a free hosted version. Will it survive? Who knows, but worst-case scenario, they can let people self-host in a case of running out of money to support hosting and only use the old URL for CNAMEs costing them nothing. So, no open-source, no, thanks!
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