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Snapchat, You've Made a Huge Mistake

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Re: Snapchat, You've Made a Huge Mistake

#61

Post by ryandvm »

ionwake wrote: post #47
ryandvm wrote: post #35

I find Snapchat's charter fascinating. I say this as the author of a competing, and much less successful, product called Privy ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appidio.pr... ). I wrote Privy with a very simple use case in mind. It was for sending messages that you never want to resurface. Privacy, of course, was paramount. After reading a few interviews with the Snapchat guys, I was amused that the…

I do not know much about privy, but as a competitor - why do you feel snapchat was more successful?

I think they were more successful because of marketing. Initially, Privy and Snapchat were fairly close to feature parity. I had never actually heard of them while I was developing Privy. And then about a month or so before I was ready to release Privy, SnapChat hit the TechCrunch lottery. After that they quickly became a media sensation.

Being a side project, Privy wasn't able to compete. Especially after they started picking up funding. Once the Snapchat buzz hit full fever pitch I threw in the towel on development.

I used to think that useful apps could sell themselves. I know a lot of developers have this mentality. Nothing could be further from the truth. I now have much greater respect for the value of good marketing.

Re: Snapchat, You've Made a Huge Mistake

#62

Post by Groxx »

moheeb wrote: post #59
bennyg wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those two aren't all the options though. 1.) Pay for SnapPro 2.) Sit through advertisements 3.) Let people who want to pay for SnapPro pay, while you don't because you don't want to pay for it. Therefore no ads, and Snapchat is making money. Option 3 is the best for consumers. Option 3 is possible if the price-point dictates that enough people will pay for it to remain alive and well. Not everyone will pay. But when…

You've been brainwashed. The best option for consumers is for it to be free, with no ads.

because it's best for consumers when things they like go away?

Re: Snapchat, You've Made a Huge Mistake

#63

Post by bennyg »

moheeb wrote: post #59
bennyg wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those two aren't all the options though. 1.) Pay for SnapPro 2.) Sit through advertisements 3.) Let people who want to pay for SnapPro pay, while you don't because you don't want to pay for it. Therefore no ads, and Snapchat is making money. Option 3 is the best for consumers. Option 3 is possible if the price-point dictates that enough people will pay for it to remain alive and well. Not everyone will pay. But when…

You've been brainwashed. The best option for consumers is for it to be free, with no ads.

Exactly my point. Option 3 is free for everyone with optional purchases for those that want it. The parent of my comment would rather see ads than purchase Pro. But those aren't mutually exclusive. He/She can still not see ads and not purchase pro while Snapchat makes money.

Re: Snapchat, You've Made a Huge Mistake

#64

Post by jerf »

moheeb wrote: post #59
bennyg wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those two aren't all the options though. 1.) Pay for SnapPro 2.) Sit through advertisements 3.) Let people who want to pay for SnapPro pay, while you don't because you don't want to pay for it. Therefore no ads, and Snapchat is making money. Option 3 is the best for consumers. Option 3 is possible if the price-point dictates that enough people will pay for it to remain alive and well. Not everyone will pay. But when…

You've been brainwashed. The best option for consumers is for it to be free, with no ads.

No, it's not. That ends with no service existing at all. Money has to come from somewhere for the service.

Re: Snapchat, You've Made a Huge Mistake

#65

Post by criley »

moheeb wrote: post #59
bennyg wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those two aren't all the options though. 1.) Pay for SnapPro 2.) Sit through advertisements 3.) Let people who want to pay for SnapPro pay, while you don't because you don't want to pay for it. Therefore no ads, and Snapchat is making money. Option 3 is the best for consumers. Option 3 is possible if the price-point dictates that enough people will pay for it to remain alive and well. Not everyone will pay. But when…

You've been brainwashed. The best option for consumers is for it to be free, with no ads.

You've been brainwashed. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

All services cost.

Who will pay for your free service? Venture capital only lasts so long.

The best option for consumers is one that meets their needs for as long as they need it, not one that exceeds their needs for six months until the doors close...

Re: Snapchat, You've Made a Huge Mistake

#66

Post by AJ007 »

pkfrank wrote: post #31
carbocation wrote: post #12

Most of the comments are focused on the author's trivial mistake (when was this information surfaced: now, or at launch?). His substantive point is more valuable to bring to light. Perhaps the fact that there are top-users lists highlights the tension between what Snapchat says that people use it for (sharing brief moments with friends) vs what people actually use it for. In fact, I actually use Snapchat for sharing…

Spot-on. If people would stop playing "gotcha" and focus on the substance of this post, we'd have much more substantial and valuable conversation. Snapchat has always positioned itself as a temporal messaging app, where anything goes - but only for a few seconds. It's always meant to be the foil to our Facebook, Google+, et. al., culture of heavy-hitting, abundant, follow-you-everywhere data trails. Why they would em…

Snapchat proves there is a huge market for privacy. The secondary issue is trusting that the privacy is as advertised. Developers should seize on both.

Re: Snapchat, You've Made a Huge Mistake

#67

Post by samstave »

rschmitty wrote: post #55
speeder wrote: post #29

Today lots of posts on privacy... To those saying that if you have nothing to hide you should not have a problem with this, you are missing some points, and situations... For example, sometimes you do things that are controversial, but not necessarily wrong, or "sketchy", and you don't want the negative attention. For example, regarding the Verizon call list: What if people discover you have made lots of calls to KKK…

Your counter argument to verizon call list is: what if a black guy is calling the KKK? Not that I'm pro verizon, just that is a very poor example.

I think he was trying to grab an example that would be easy to jump to conclusions about (calls to the KKK)

Re: Snapchat, You've Made a Huge Mistake

#68

Post by lotso »

ryandvm wrote: post #61
ionwake wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not know much about privy, but as a competitor - why do you feel snapchat was more successful?

I think they were more successful because of marketing. Initially, Privy and Snapchat were fairly close to feature parity. I had never actually heard of them while I was developing Privy. And then about a month or so before I was ready to release Privy, SnapChat hit the TechCrunch lottery. After that they quickly became a media sensation. Being a side project, Privy wasn't able to compete. Especially after they start…

This is an incorrect history of Snapchat. Snapchat was a couple of college kids' summer project. It had a couple of thousand of users in the Fall of 2011, but didn't take off until it went viral in a couple of LA high schools.

They raised money in the Spring of 2012, and were still relatively under the radar of most tech publications. It wasn't until the Fall of 2012 that they started getting major buzz.

I'm not disagreeing that marketing can't sway products into success, but that was not the case with Snapchat.

Re: Snapchat, You've Made a Huge Mistake

#69

Post by csears »

KathyMurphy wrote: post #43

If you are looking for snapchat for adults without the Best Friends feature check out www.ncryptedcloud.com The private camera function is much better than Snapchat because I can send my private photos to ANYONE not just someone who has Snapchat. The ability to watermark the image with the email or the phone number of my friends is WAY better than a notice that someone took a screen shot IMHO.

This kind of spammy comment is not appreciated. Based on a quick read of your site, your product isn't even remotely similar to SnapChat. Why would you damage your brand by leaving misleading comments like this?
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