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Re:Ask HN: Examples where you make something people want, bu... by zitterbewegung on Sunday December 06, 2009 @06:06PM (#980313)
4chan is probably the best example of this. Loads of people want an image board but it isn't profitable.
Re:Ask HN: Examples where you make something people want, bu... by drp on Sunday December 06, 2009 @07:05PM (#980392)
It's skirting profitability though. From http://www.4chan.org/news/?all#95

"We've long since shed the notion of recouping costs through donations, and instead turned to ad revenue for covering operating expenditures. Our entry into the wild and not-so-wonderful world of advertising has been mixed. We've added more ad positions to the site over the years to offset rising overhead and been bounced around between so many ad networks and account managers that I'd be hard pressed to list them all. But we've succeeded—4chan is still here, after all."

Re:Ask HN: Examples where you make something people want, bu... by antidaily on Sunday December 06, 2009 @06:19PM (#980326)
I was curious - apparently 4chan costs upwards of $85k to run... http://www.4chan.org/faq