Thoughts on Picplum Automatic Photo Prints • Hacker News Board

Re: Thoughts on Picplum Automatic Photo Prints

#11

Post by ugh » Mon, Aug 22, 2011, 7:58 PM UTC

cschmidt wrote: post #10

hnsmurf wrote: post #2

I feel like selling printed photos is a lot like selling CDs. You know at some point nobody will ever use these anymore. You don't know when, exactly, and they'll probably outlast the CD, but I personally already get annoyed when someone gives me a non-digital version of a photo. If I like it enough I scan it and throw it out, if I don't I just trash it directly. Every day a bunch of people who want printed photos di…

My parents would greatly disagree with you. They're fairly computer literate, but for them photos don't "count" unless they're on paper. I always feel guilty because they never get to see many of my good photos locked away in Aperture. I think that's exactly the market here.

Exactly. Your parents. Not you.

(That said, there’s plenty of time for this startup to thrive. I wouldn’t worry about it.)

Re: Thoughts on Picplum Automatic Photo Prints

#12

Post by rorrr » Mon, Aug 22, 2011, 8:08 PM UTC

There are tons of competitors with much lower prices. They will need a lot of luck.

Re: Thoughts on Picplum Automatic Photo Prints

#13

Post by hnsmurf » Mon, Aug 22, 2011, 8:09 PM UTC

cschmidt wrote: post #10

hnsmurf wrote: post #2

I feel like selling printed photos is a lot like selling CDs. You know at some point nobody will ever use these anymore. You don't know when, exactly, and they'll probably outlast the CD, but I personally already get annoyed when someone gives me a non-digital version of a photo. If I like it enough I scan it and throw it out, if I don't I just trash it directly. Every day a bunch of people who want printed photos di…

My parents would greatly disagree with you. They're fairly computer literate, but for them photos don't "count" unless they're on paper. I always feel guilty because they never get to see many of my good photos locked away in Aperture. I think that's exactly the market here.

Yeah I'm certainly not suggesting there's no demand for this now. I just think the demand will shrink over time. I don't think I'd want to try to build a long term business in a market that will certainly shrink.

Re: Thoughts on Picplum Automatic Photo Prints

#14

Post by jordanlev » Mon, Aug 22, 2011, 8:13 PM UTC

ugh wrote: post #11

cschmidt wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My parents would greatly disagree with you. They're fairly computer literate, but for them photos don't "count" unless they're on paper. I always feel guilty because they never get to see many of my good photos locked away in Aperture. I think that's exactly the market here.

Exactly. Your parents. Not you. (That said, there’s plenty of time for this startup to thrive. I wouldn’t worry about it.)

Well we're obviously just talking about anecdotal evidence here, but I'm a young-ish hacker-news-reading programmer, and I am really excited about this service because I love having prints. I also want to sign my brother up for this so I can get pics of my nephew but only 15 per month, not the usual 150-per-facebook album.

Re: Thoughts on Picplum Automatic Photo Prints

#15

Post by cschmidt » Mon, Aug 22, 2011, 8:17 PM UTC

ugh wrote: post #11

cschmidt wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My parents would greatly disagree with you. They're fairly computer literate, but for them photos don't "count" unless they're on paper. I always feel guilty because they never get to see many of my good photos locked away in Aperture. I think that's exactly the market here.

Exactly. Your parents. Not you. (That said, there’s plenty of time for this startup to thrive. I wouldn’t worry about it.)

My wife feels the same way, actually. But isn't that the market here. It is computer literate people with lots of digital pictures (me), with relatives that want prints (my family).

I don't think this startup should worry about the demise of prints any more than Netflix worried about the demise of the DVD when they started. (Of course, they've since worked hard to transition to digital, and been very successful at that, but not at the beginning.)

Re: Thoughts on Picplum Automatic Photo Prints

#16

Post by dot » Mon, Aug 22, 2011, 8:28 PM UTC

rorrr wrote: post #12

There are tons of competitors with much lower prices. They will need a lot of luck.

This is one of the major strengths of YC. They can build a small, profitable company with customers that read HN and TC. This gives them time to build a good product. Once they have that down they can go out and raise some money to help them compete more aggressively. And with a solid product.

Re: Thoughts on Picplum Automatic Photo Prints

#17

Post by lyime » Mon, Aug 22, 2011, 8:31 PM UTC

rorrr wrote: post #12

There are tons of competitors with much lower prices. They will need a lot of luck.

There are tons of competitors in every market. We are not competing on price. We are a premium product and we offer a much better experience and a higher quality product than most of our competitors.

Re: Thoughts on Picplum Automatic Photo Prints

#18

Post by iamscanner » Mon, Aug 22, 2011, 8:39 PM UTC

ugh wrote: post #11

cschmidt wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My parents would greatly disagree with you. They're fairly computer literate, but for them photos don't "count" unless they're on paper. I always feel guilty because they never get to see many of my good photos locked away in Aperture. I think that's exactly the market here.

Exactly. Your parents. Not you. (That said, there’s plenty of time for this startup to thrive. I wouldn’t worry about it.)

Maybe I'm an outlier here - but I actually prefer physical photos. It's too easy for someone to just spray digital photos everywhere - when they're physical, you have constraints that mean I'm seeing the photos you decided were worthy of being printed.

Apparently my market is supposed to shrink - but I know among friends as well, a printed photo still carries a lot more weight than a digital one ever will.

Re: Thoughts on Picplum Automatic Photo Prints

#19

Post by rstocker99 » Mon, Aug 22, 2011, 9:18 PM UTC

Picplum reminded me of picwing which I believe is another YC company.

I had a chuckle when I noticed that they both have the exact same testimonial from Jessica Livingston, modulo the company name.

I'm not quite sure how both can be true:

"Picwing is the easiest way for me to get digital photos printed. I just email pictures to my account and never have to think about it again. With Picwing, I can be sure that my family back East receives photos of my new baby regularly. They couldn't be happier!"

"Picplum is the easiest way for me to get digital photos printed. I just email pictures to my account and never have to think about it again. With Picplum, I can be sure that my family back East receives photos of my new baby regularly. They couldn't be happier!"

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3637134/quotes/jl_picplum_quote.png http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3637134/quotes/jl_picwing_quote.png

Re: Thoughts on Picplum Automatic Photo Prints

#20

Post by timdorr » Mon, Aug 22, 2011, 9:43 PM UTC

rstocker99 wrote: post #19

Picplum reminded me of picwing which I believe is another YC company. I had a chuckle when I noticed that they both have the exact same testimonial from Jessica Livingston, modulo the company name. I'm not quite sure how both can be true: "Picwing is the easiest way for me to get digital photos printed. I just email pictures to my account and never have to think about it again. With Picwing, I can be sure that my fam…

Picplum bought Picwing and is essentially a rebranding of the same service, along with improvements. The testimonial holds because it's the same thing, just with an updated name.