So just one thought on @alexstamos’s tweets here: how much does it really cost to operate an e2e encrypted messenger?https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/1045046804369178624?s=21 …
-
-
I imagine it is more expensive. But it’s probably a lot less expensive than “we need to strip mine all the content and sell targeted ads” level of revenue.
-
WhatsApp used to charge $1/yr. With only a small fraction US users paying that, you would have a hard time convincing me that server and dev costs exceed $20m per year.
-
I'm confused. $20M may cover Signal's costs; but a) they don't have 20m users (I'm pretty sure) b) If they did I bet they would lost half or more even by charging just $1 and c) WhatsApp's costs are surely higher than $20m
-
WhatsApp did charge money and they did it during a stage when they were growing like a weed. They obviously have higher costs now. Ok, $50m.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
What is the revenue source for Signal then?
-
AIUI, Signal was funded by grants (eg $700K from OTF in 2016) and consulting (WhatsApp, Google, others). Consulting as a revenue model for development was tried by
@zooko for Tahoe, and his conclusion was it just didn't work well. (Happy to have him correct/elaborate). 1/2 -
And not only did it not work well: that was just for personnel, I don't think he was trying to pay for service hosting/twilio. 2/2
-
Plus, consulting business is unstable. You *cannot* run a 5 person consulting shop with your overhead being "5 more people who don't consult". You would need to charge, at a minimum 2.2x a developer's salary for consulting *and* keep your consultants fully booked.
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.