zlacker

>>waxpan+(OP)
> I felt sad for the guy. It’s awful going through life never believing in anything.

Being an idealist is fine, but being a dick is not. This article took on some personal schadenfreude after I read this line.

>>Andrex+lZ
There was definitely a certain amount of "I told you so" vibes, but I don't blame the author. It appears that he was attacked by a lot of Ello founders and fans for raising some cautionary notes. And as it turns out, he was right and they were wrong.

We would all like to have a model where users don't get charged money, and yet are not the product. But I haven't seen a model that works to date. In some cases, I don't mind my personal date getting sold; in other cases I pay money because the service is valuable. But I certainly make backups since I don't assume that even when I pay $$$, that the company might not go poof in the night....

>>tytso+p31
>> But I haven't seen a model that works to date

Sure you have. Amazon grew without giving stuff away for free. Customers paid (just below market rate) from day 1. This demonstrated the -convenience- of ecommerce. It had revenues from the first sale. Yes, it spent mountains of VC money on marketing and development, but -not- on just buying stuff for you so you think it'll be free forever.

Uber is the same, although it's less clear that users will pay gor what a ride really costs. (And their margin makes it attractive for competition)

In both cases though there us revenue from customers from day 1. You can wind prices up. It's really hard to "go from free to paid".