Re:Behind the Messy, Expensive Split Between Facebook and Wh...
by eitland on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @01:42PM
(#17240141)
> Maybe I'm just not creative enough, but what is a better alternative?
> Let's say you have a subscriber model,
There was a company with a subscriber model. It worked pretty well and we loved it. Facebook bought it and destroyed the very idea behind it.
> but than what kind of world will it be where only the wealthy have access to these communication technologies and access to social information.
The same kind of world were all kinds of tech is expensive at first and then becomes cheaper and cheaper as it approaches and enter mainstream usage?
Nobody would argue today that we should have refused luxury cars to add airbags because "what kind of world would it be where only the rich has access to safer cars".
In the same way we shouldn't argue against people paying for better products.
That said, I think WhatsApp were planning to add other paid options like API access etc before they got eaten by Facebook.
> Let's say you have a subscriber model,
There was a company with a subscriber model. It worked pretty well and we loved it. Facebook bought it and destroyed the very idea behind it.
> but than what kind of world will it be where only the wealthy have access to these communication technologies and access to social information.
The same kind of world were all kinds of tech is expensive at first and then becomes cheaper and cheaper as it approaches and enter mainstream usage?
Nobody would argue today that we should have refused luxury cars to add airbags because "what kind of world would it be where only the rich has access to safer cars".
In the same way we shouldn't argue against people paying for better products.
That said, I think WhatsApp were planning to add other paid options like API access etc before they got eaten by Facebook.