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Slack Faces Giant Tech Rivals

nytimes.com

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Re: Slack Faces Giant Tech Rivals

#11

Post by empath75 »

Sir_Substance wrote: post #7
OliverJones wrote: post #4

I'm a member of a team that pays for Slack. Don't forget, if you don't pay for the product, you are the product. I am sick, sick, sick, of being somebody's product. And with Slack, I don't have to be somebody's product. I don't have to already use Lookout xxx Outlook. I don't have to cope with messages from recruiters sending spam. Any fake nuz that shows up was faked by somebody I know. Go Slack. Please figure out h…

So the problem slack has is that chat is so foundational to the web that it's one of those things that doesn't really make sense to farm it out to third parties. It's not hard or expensive to run yourself, and it's not difficult to securely expose on the web. That's why Lync has such a head start and why Atlassian's on premises option is gaining traction. Ultimately I suspect Mattermost is going to end up the main wi…

I'm going to tell you how hard it is to get chat right. I work at the company that more or less popularized internet chat. We use slack internally pretty much exclusively, and have for years.

Re: Slack Faces Giant Tech Rivals

#15

Post by joelrunyon »

OliverJones wrote: post #4

I'm a member of a team that pays for Slack. Don't forget, if you don't pay for the product, you are the product. I am sick, sick, sick, of being somebody's product. And with Slack, I don't have to be somebody's product. I don't have to already use Lookout xxx Outlook. I don't have to cope with messages from recruiters sending spam. Any fake nuz that shows up was faked by somebody I know. Go Slack. Please figure out h…

Part of what I like about Slack is how they raised money when they didn't need to (at very advantageous terms).

https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/is-slack-really-wo...

> This is the best time to raise money ever. It might be the best time for any kind of business in any industry to raise money for all of history,

He basically knows he didn't need to raise 200M, but if you can take that, put it in the bank and don't have burn rates the likes of Uber - you've got a while to figure out the exact route to profitability.

Re: Slack Faces Giant Tech Rivals

#17

Post by inopinatus »

empath75 wrote: post #11
Sir_Substance wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the problem slack has is that chat is so foundational to the web that it's one of those things that doesn't really make sense to farm it out to third parties. It's not hard or expensive to run yourself, and it's not difficult to securely expose on the web. That's why Lync has such a head start and why Atlassian's on premises option is gaining traction. Ultimately I suspect Mattermost is going to end up the main wi…

I'm going to tell you how hard it is to get chat right. I work at the company that more or less popularized internet chat. We use slack internally pretty much exclusively, and have for years.

Goodness me. I had no idea that Mirabilis still existed. What is is doing these days?

Re: Slack Faces Giant Tech Rivals

#18

Post by cmahler7 »

I really hate the way tech is trending. Startups have basically become free market validation for the tech kings. They can just wait to see what works, then copy it and kill the startup that did it first.

With tech more than any other industry the rich get richer. Combined with how tight the big tech companies have gotten with Washington DC and they've basically become too big to fail.

Re: Slack Faces Giant Tech Rivals

#19

Post by hdhzy »

cmahler7 wrote: post #18

I really hate the way tech is trending. Startups have basically become free market validation for the tech kings. They can just wait to see what works, then copy it and kill the startup that did it first. With tech more than any other industry the rich get richer. Combined with how tight the big tech companies have gotten with Washington DC and they've basically become too big to fail.

> They can just wait to see what works, then copy it and kill the startup that did it first.

Well, if the only advantage is being first that's a big problem. The same goes for other startups: they can observe what works and deliver a better solution faster.

I see Slack innovating a little (custom menus etc.) but maybe it's just the market shifting - the chat alone is not interesting anymore as a standalone product but rather as part of a bigger solution.

Re: Slack Faces Giant Tech Rivals

#20

Post by afandian »

bshimmin wrote: post #12

Looking at that office makes me feel so glad that I work from home - look at all those people hovering about and interrupting!

It is interesting. It might go some way to explain the culture that the app embodies. Lots of 'cutesy' things like MOTD on the loading screen, emoticons everywhere, application messages that include the word "yay", integration with Giphy which seems to be a random Gif roulette. It all feels rather unprofessional sometimes. And like they're trying to crowbar the Slack culture into my own office culture.

When tools are straightforward in their utility they can empower, but when they have so much baggage, they can also influence culture. Of course being able to communicate more fluidly can change the culture of a workplace to be more open. But it sometimes feels like an extension of flippant social media, except you can't escape because there's critical stuff on it.

I used to work in a place that used XMPP, and before that Microsoft Communicator. They didn't bring as much benefit as Slack does, but sometimes I wish for something a bit more unobtrusive. I don't want a tool to try and make friends with me.

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