Re:Ask HN: What to do if your open source project becomes fa...
by ggchappell on Thursday July 09, 2015 @12:49PM
(#9859073)
> How do you sell ads on open source code?
The code just shows ads. Users are free to get rid of them, but you hope they don't; perhaps you encourage them not to. (Note: webpages are often the same way; users can run AdBlock if they want.) If advertisers pay only for click-throughs to their site, then they know they're not getting ripped off.
> I know about ubuntu and firefox but was wondering if there are startups doing open source work and generating revenue.
Well, you said "famous". Once you're famous, you're often not a start-up any more. In any case, I can't think of any, but then I'm not really into the start-up scene.
The code just shows ads. Users are free to get rid of them, but you hope they don't; perhaps you encourage them not to. (Note: webpages are often the same way; users can run AdBlock if they want.) If advertisers pay only for click-throughs to their site, then they know they're not getting ripped off.
> I know about ubuntu and firefox but was wondering if there are startups doing open source work and generating revenue.
Well, you said "famous". Once you're famous, you're often not a start-up any more. In any case, I can't think of any, but then I'm not really into the start-up scene.