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I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

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Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#541

Post by kube-system »

postalrat wrote: post #536
kube-system wrote: post #531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably just because social media consumption looks like this today: https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/07/23/11/newFile-3.jpg and not like this, anymore: https://headlineplanet.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/M...

How does that change anything? I think its more due to mobile sites acting like this https://www.reddit.com/r/TechNope/comments/urboo6/reddit_app... A user on a app is more valuable since you get a lot more data on them, and can stop their ad blockers.

But people are used to that now being the normal state of things, it's rare that they even try the browser -- I develop an application that is web only and typically used on desktops, and people incessantly ask me for "an app so they can use it on their phone".

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#542

Post by PowerElectronix »

aswegs8 wrote: post #525
rafram wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He founded a domain brokerage for squatters and seems to be squatting on other domains for ad revenue (read the section about the trade he made).

Doesn't strike me as particularly immoral.

Zero added value while getting a money inflow ticks my box for immoral.

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#543

Post by cestith »

mogrinz wrote: post #496
wongarsu wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you had a steady investment opportunity with 10% return (about in line with long-terms stock market returns), $9000 per year indefinitely is worth the same as $99000 now (in an idealized finance world. In the real world you can't invest $99000 and withdraw $9000 per year because withdrawals during downturns will take out too much. But it's a quick way to calculate equivalent values). That's obviously an upper boun…

I have a calendaring site (won't mention it here b/c I don't want to be seen as plugging it) that has been generating revenue from ads and subscriptions for 26 years now. At its peak, well over 100k/yr but now more like 15k/yr for the past 5 years. Still a very steady income b/c the site is sticky. The only expense I have is about $3k every 36/mo for VPS hosting. At this point the code base is so mature that I only d…

I would have several questions before negotiating seriously, and I could actually be in the market for such a beast.

At what multiple would you be comfortable considering selling? If revenue has dropped 85% from its peak, have you identified the cause of the drop? Has it been steady that past five years? Do you have a record of the time spent on it, or does it just feel minimal? How much of revenue is from ads vs subscriptions? Is it sticky mainly because a user can’t export things and import them to Google Calendar or something?

Is it custom software, heavily customized software, or are you basically selling the calendaring component of something like Citadel or Horde? What languages are in use? Does the buyer get just the site or full ownership of the codebase and the rights to derive new products and services from it? Does it come with the domain and trademarks?

Are you selling outright, or are you reserving some royalty for yourself?

What does the handover look like? Does the buyer just get an email with URLs and login credentials, or do you plan on familiarizing a buyer with the whole thing?

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#544

Post by pavon »

kube-system wrote: post #523
jona-f wrote: post #459

[flagged]

Domain squatting is when you buy a domain purely for speculation with no intent of using it. This person has built something using the domain. They are not squatting it.

Agreed. The main problem with domain squatting and sniping is scammers either trying to impersonate another organization, or extort trademark owners into paying insane amount of money to obtain a domain which has no legitimate use to the current holder. Neither are happening here. Friendster intentionally let the domain and trademark go, and there isn't any entity that holds a legitimate claim to that name anymore.

I don't think that old business names should be "retired" and forever banned from use. After a certain amount of time the name should be free for someone to use again, and 10 years of non-use seems reasonable to me. The main concern with reuse is confusing consumers into thinking they are dealing with the old friendster, but I think consumers are savvy enough to realize that an old trademark rising from the dead often has nothing to do with the original, regardless of whether the current trademark holders purchased rights from the original, or claimed abandoned ones, as in this case.

His other business dealings aside, I don't have a problem with how he obtained/revived the friendster domain and trademark.

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#545

Post by cestith »

viccis wrote: post #318
angoragoats wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does having a really tightly controlled and/or lengthy invite period translate into the user base being of one particular political viewpoint? I'm not seeing the causal link. Even if I take at face value your claim that "only really tight knit subgroups and subcultures found their way in," I still don't see how these subgroups or subcultures would necessarily have the same political views.

Well it self selected for left wing ones. My point is normal people who aren't extremely online and part of 10 Discord servers with an internet friend network who can hook them up with an invite didn't get into Bluesky. Instead the people who, well, did, got the invites. Obviously the extremely online right didn't because they had other places to go and weren't welcomed by the bsky admins.

Twitter going so far right helped select Bluesky and Mastodon moving further left.

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#546

Post by estearum »

aswegs8 wrote: post #525
rafram wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He founded a domain brokerage for squatters and seems to be squatting on other domains for ad revenue (read the section about the trade he made).

Doesn't strike me as particularly immoral.

yeah just like laying claim to the most fertile land in your region, doing nothing with it, and waiting until your neighbors are sufficiently desperate to sell it to them for gigantic markup

hugely value-added activity, and a well-earned increment.

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#548

Post by cestith »

650REDHAIR wrote: post #63
willsmith72 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait Kim and Selena are irrelevant? I guess I'm not keeping up with the times

Yeah that was the most out of touch HN comment I’ve seen in a long, long time. Persistent irrelevant celebrities are a real thing, but those two wouldn’t crack the top 500.

I mean… Danny Bonaduce and David Caruso are still celebrities. Not being in the top trending list doesn’t mean they’re irrelevant to culture.

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#549

Post by cestith »

IshKebab wrote: post #394
bpt3 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's your standard, you basically can't interact with any entity other than megacorps, which you obviously disdain. What is the benefit of that perspective? It's just social media. If it goes away tomorrow, no real loss. Use it accordingly.

I mean.. yeah. That's why no "Facebook like 2007" social networks have happened since. It would have to be run by someone with a lot of built up trust in order for people to trust it in the way that people did with Facebook. The world has been burnt. If say, Valve started a social network I would consider using it because they've had decades to screw up Steam and they haven't. It is a bit outside their wheelhouse tho…

Steam friends chat is already my primary method of contact for certain people, having very little to do with playing games together.

Re: I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

#550

Post by cbsks »

aswegs8 wrote: post #525
rafram wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He founded a domain brokerage for squatters and seems to be squatting on other domains for ad revenue (read the section about the trade he made).

Doesn't strike me as particularly immoral.

The one takeaway I got from my engineering ethics class in college was that everyone has different morals. Debating if something is “moral” or not is useless. Education on a subject is useful, but once someone understands your point of view and still thinks it’s within/outside their morals, there’s nothing more to discuss.
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