Instapaper Premium is now free for everyone • Hacker News Board

Re: Instapaper Premium is now free for everyone

#41

Post by mtmail » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 5:51 PM UTC

bthdonohue wrote: post #30

mtmail wrote: post #2

On the one hand I like new free features, especially the search. On the other hand Instapaper got acquired by Pinterest ( http://blog.instapaper.com/post/149374303661 ) and if they no longer make money from premium subscriptions and the service is ads-free, then how will they generate revenue? Selling publishers premium spots in my reading queue?

Hi there, Brian from Instapaper here. We will not be serving advertisements in your Instapaper queue. The value Instapaper provides to Pinterest in terms of parser capabilities and aggregate information about links is enough to justify the small operation cost of running the service. I'm happy to answer any other questions you have. Brian

I'm looking forward to features like finding related articles, a https://longreads.com/ like portal or more customizable weekly digests (lately it's all US politics which I don't care about). That said the usual 'click on read later, read article on the train' use-case works very well for me, no complains.

Re: Instapaper Premium is now free for everyone

#42

Post by DanTheManPR » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 5:53 PM UTC

purple-dragon wrote: post #4

Does anyone have experience to share re: Instapaper vs. Pocket (or something better)?

I switched to Instapaper after a long time using Pocket. I think Instapaper's interface is better, and cleaner for reading (especially the web version). I also seem to remember Pocket's android app being slightly laggy, but I don't know if that's still the case.

Re: Instapaper Premium is now free for everyone

#43

Post by AdmiralAsshat » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 5:53 PM UTC

bthdonohue wrote: post #36

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #6

This smells like an app that will be shutting down in about six months.

Brian from Instapaper here. We have no plans to shut the app down, and a big part of the value the app provides (parser improvements, aggregate information on links) requires the ongoing operation of the service.

Hello, Brian! I hope you will take my skepticism in good humor. While I would delight in Instapaper's prolonged availability, I trust you are aware of the widespread perception that acquisition is where startups go to die [0], to say nothing of the fact that some of Instapaper's competitors have also fallen to the wayside [1]. The final red-light comes from the tendency to make services free right before they shut down, #1 as a last-ditch growth mechanism, and #2 as a means to eliminate any legal recourse should the service suddenly shut down.

[0]: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2777-what-happens-after-yahoo... [1]: https://readability.com/

Re: Instapaper Premium is now free for everyone

#44

Post by michaelmrose » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 5:56 PM UTC

I stopped paying for their service as I was broke and they kept billing my account leading to several insufficient funds fees on an overdrawn account that they wouldn't stop billing.

Can't say I'd even use their service for free.

Re: Instapaper Premium is now free for everyone

#45

Post by mtmail » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 5:59 PM UTC

chadlavi wrote: post #35

frankquist wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean?

at some point in the past they were free, then to continue the normal service you had to sign up for a paid plan. So I stopped using their service. This is a "too little too late" for me as far as my customer experience goes. Apparently that gets you downvotes on HN.

Not sure what you mean. I'm a non-paying user from almost day 1 (oldest article from 2011). At no point was I forced to upgrade to paid plan. Did you use a third-party app maybe? Those only worked with premium accounts (http://blog.instapaper.com/post/3208433429)

Re: Instapaper Premium is now free for everyone

#46

Post by exBarrelSpoiler » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 5:59 PM UTC

EduardoBautista wrote: post #38

rgbrenner wrote: post #25

So what's the plan here. Just two months since Pinterest acquired them, they've shutdown Instaparser, moved their team across the country (literally: NY to SF.. I wonder how many employees quit instead), discontinued Premium--their sole source of revenue(?), and committed to no-ads... sounds like they have no monetization strategy at all anymore. This doesn't look good.

This is the kind of business model the SF tech scene encourages. People are starting companies to be acquired, not to create a business that stands the test of time.

At the very least, they should write less treacly Dear John letters to their former customers

http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com

Re: Instapaper Premium is now free for everyone

#47

Post by Happpy » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 6:04 PM UTC

bthdonohue wrote: post #30

mtmail wrote: post #2

On the one hand I like new free features, especially the search. On the other hand Instapaper got acquired by Pinterest ( http://blog.instapaper.com/post/149374303661 ) and if they no longer make money from premium subscriptions and the service is ads-free, then how will they generate revenue? Selling publishers premium spots in my reading queue?

Hi there, Brian from Instapaper here. We will not be serving advertisements in your Instapaper queue. The value Instapaper provides to Pinterest in terms of parser capabilities and aggregate information about links is enough to justify the small operation cost of running the service. I'm happy to answer any other questions you have. Brian

"I'm happy to answer any other questions you have."

How much did you grow since now, last acquisition and first acquisition?

Re: Instapaper Premium is now free for everyone

#48

Post by baldfat » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 6:04 PM UTC

bthdonohue wrote: post #36

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #6

This smells like an app that will be shutting down in about six months.

Brian from Instapaper here. We have no plans to shut the app down, and a big part of the value the app provides (parser improvements, aggregate information on links) requires the ongoing operation of the service.

I love instapaper! I hope for years and years of service. Thanks for making mobile reading of websites easier.

Thanks

Re: Instapaper Premium is now free for everyone

#49

Post by fraXis » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 6:09 PM UTC

purple-dragon wrote: post #4

Does anyone have experience to share re: Instapaper vs. Pocket (or something better)?

I have been using raindrop.io for the past 6 months. I have nothing but good things to say about it.

Was a heavy Pocket user before that but their iPhone app was buggy in the sense that when I saved something from Safari to Pocket, sometimes it would save, other times it would not. It was literally hit or miss. Not sure if they have fixed that in a recent release or not.

Re: Instapaper Premium is now free for everyone

#50

Post by bsg75 » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 6:14 PM UTC

bthdonohue wrote: post #36

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #6

This smells like an app that will be shutting down in about six months.

Brian from Instapaper here. We have no plans to shut the app down, and a big part of the value the app provides (parser improvements, aggregate information on links) requires the ongoing operation of the service.

There are a lot of those questions in the blog post. Perhaps an explanation of how Instapaper development helps Pinterest as a whole would assuage some fears?