Dan Hartley
wants to talk about
Lots of different scenarios here. Paying $36/year for a service with not nearly as much value (to me, at least) as Twitter provides doesn't make sense.
Starting a social network with an entry fee is tough for that exact reason, as others have stated above. Even Hipstamatic, which was just *one dollar* in the App Store, didn't gain the following Instagram did. I'm sure there were other factors also at work there, but lots of average users really seem to hate paying for apps.
But when you've got an established network with millions of users and no entry fee, what's wrong with adding ads and allowing users pay to remove them to help support the service? Perhaps it's not be profitable enough? Maybe we'll never know.
I had this branch a little earlier, but I'll reiterate here. The main reason Hisptamatic didn't gain the following Instagram did was because it lacked a social element. I bought it when it first came out, and while it was fun for a little while, lacking a social element kept me from coming back to it. Instagram was free, similar, had a better interface AND was a social network. By the time Hipstamatic added their social component, it was too late.
Thanks for your feedback! Team Branch
