App.net is a nice idea but won’t solve anything

http://zachinglis.com/2012/app-net-is-a-nice-idea-but-wont-solve-anything/

by railsbob • 14 years ago

32 14 14 years ago

ekpyrotic• 14 years ago

Small point: Zach assumes that Facebook's current conversion rate properly estimates App.net's prospective conversion rate. Incorrect.

App.net's users have /already/ paid $50 for membership, so their userbase will be more likely to (1) have expendable income, (2) feel comfortable buying digital products, and (3) feel comfortable buying products over the Web.

As such, you can expect App.net's prospective conversion rate to be (much) higher (cf. iPhone vs. Android).

ryguytilidie2• 14 years ago

Along a similar line, the first thing I thought when I heard about App.net is how everyone who can afford it will now be cut off from the people who can't. No more news about uprisings in Syria straight from the source, no Occupy news straight from the source, no news from basically anywhere but NYC, SF and random other towns around the US but basically no input from anyone who doesn't have extra expendable income. Pretty sad really.

Supermighty• 14 years ago

At first I can see this. It would change if App.net gets crazy relevant. Maybe not as many direct from the source, but groups of dissident people could pool their resources to buy an account.

That also doesn't include the idea of sponsored accounts. Where App.net or charities in rich countries buy an account for someone in a conflict zone.

manaskarekar• 14 years ago

On the other hand, think of it as a never ending conference of a very specific type of crowd, a lot of the crowd from hackernews for example, who are connected to an extremely focused network, without having to deal with as much noise as they do right now on twitter/facebook.

You could stretch it to sound like a million dollar membership country club you want to be a part of because of all the potential investors who are hanging out there, and you want your idea heard.

The $50 entry barrier will not eliminate this problem, but reduce it a lot.

Also, didn't Dalton himself mention that this does not intent to be a twitter/facebook killer? Those channels will always exist and you can always check out trending topics if need be.

Just thinking out loud.

shawndumas• 14 years ago

App.net is a nice idea but won’t solve anything

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