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Popular websites which are not making any revenue

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  • S Single Step Debugger

    How they pay their employees’ salaries and the other expenses if they don’t make any money? Why Apple wants to by Twitter if there is no money in it?

    The narrow specialist in the broad sense of the word is a complete idiot in the narrow sense of the word. Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.

    E Offline
    E Offline
    Electron Shepherd
    wrote on last edited by
    #4

    Deyan Georgiev wrote:

    How they pay their employees’ salaries and the other expenses if they don’t make any money?

    With VC funding. Any business starts off making a loss (you're incurring costs from the moment you start, but the first revenue is always a bit delayed). The difference with these people is that it may be a long delay. Don't forget, to you or me, $10M is lot of money. To a large venture capital firm, it's small change. These people[^] talk in billions, not millions.

    Server and Network Monitoring

    S 1 Reply Last reply
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    • R Rama Krishna Vavilala

      It's kind of scary to know that some of the popular websites: YouTube, Twitter and Facebook(not that sure?) are not making any money. Surely they can not last long if they don't have a good revenue model. So what do you think will eventually happen to them? Is there a second big burst coming which will engulf all these social media sites? In my opinion it has to come the only question is when.

      modified on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 1:01 PM

      J Offline
      J Offline
      JoeSox
      wrote on last edited by
      #5

      Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:

      Surely they can not last long if they don't have a good revenue model. So what do you think will eventually happen to them?

      Youtube could be expensed as Advertising for main site Google? I don't know. I thought Google employees developed all their apps in their off hours anyways.

      Later, JoeSox CPMCv1.0 - Last.fm - MyFriendfeed - Joesox.com

      1 Reply Last reply
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      • R Rama Krishna Vavilala

        It's kind of scary to know that some of the popular websites: YouTube, Twitter and Facebook(not that sure?) are not making any money. Surely they can not last long if they don't have a good revenue model. So what do you think will eventually happen to them? Is there a second big burst coming which will engulf all these social media sites? In my opinion it has to come the only question is when.

        modified on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 1:01 PM

        D Offline
        D Offline
        Dan Neely
        wrote on last edited by
        #6

        Get bought out by a megacorp who subsidizes them while trying to figure out how to get revenue without offending the users. :rolleyes:

        It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. -- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

        OriginalGriffO 1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • R Rama Krishna Vavilala

          It's kind of scary to know that some of the popular websites: YouTube, Twitter and Facebook(not that sure?) are not making any money. Surely they can not last long if they don't have a good revenue model. So what do you think will eventually happen to them? Is there a second big burst coming which will engulf all these social media sites? In my opinion it has to come the only question is when.

          modified on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 1:01 PM

          C Offline
          C Offline
          Christopher Duncan
          wrote on last edited by
          #7

          The standard business model on the web has actually changed only slightly from the pre dot com crash days. In the beginning, people launched companies and lived on venture capital. This let programmers play with their toys on somebody else's nickel without worrying about all that generating revenue stuff. The end game strategy was not that they'd end up bringing in money, but rather that once the product was done, they'd make a ton of money by taking the company public and profiting from the stock market. After the crash, taking a company public is no longer the end game, but it's been replaced (albeit subtly) with a minor variation. They still have no clue as to how they're going to generate revenue, so the game is start a company, live on venture capital so that programmers can play with their toys on somebody else's nickel, and hopefully before the VC tires of pumping money into a black hole some fool of a large corporation will buy the startup out for a large sum of money. It's a very, very minor variation that simply shifts the sucker left holding the bag from those who buy company stock to those who buy the company itself. Either way, P. T. Barnum would be proud.

          Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!

          J R 2 Replies Last reply
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          • C Christopher Duncan

            The standard business model on the web has actually changed only slightly from the pre dot com crash days. In the beginning, people launched companies and lived on venture capital. This let programmers play with their toys on somebody else's nickel without worrying about all that generating revenue stuff. The end game strategy was not that they'd end up bringing in money, but rather that once the product was done, they'd make a ton of money by taking the company public and profiting from the stock market. After the crash, taking a company public is no longer the end game, but it's been replaced (albeit subtly) with a minor variation. They still have no clue as to how they're going to generate revenue, so the game is start a company, live on venture capital so that programmers can play with their toys on somebody else's nickel, and hopefully before the VC tires of pumping money into a black hole some fool of a large corporation will buy the startup out for a large sum of money. It's a very, very minor variation that simply shifts the sucker left holding the bag from those who buy company stock to those who buy the company itself. Either way, P. T. Barnum would be proud.

            Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!

            J Offline
            J Offline
            Jim Crafton
            wrote on last edited by
            #8

            What's the saying, something like "Fool Me Once, Shame On you, Fool Me Twice,Shame on Me"? I would be curious, how do the VC's operate with other industries? Are they as incredibly gullible (and apparently stupid) as they are with the software industry?

            ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow

            J 1 Reply Last reply
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            • R Rama Krishna Vavilala

              It's kind of scary to know that some of the popular websites: YouTube, Twitter and Facebook(not that sure?) are not making any money. Surely they can not last long if they don't have a good revenue model. So what do you think will eventually happen to them? Is there a second big burst coming which will engulf all these social media sites? In my opinion it has to come the only question is when.

              modified on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 1:01 PM

              J Offline
              J Offline
              Jim Crafton
              wrote on last edited by
              #9

              Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:

              Is there a second big burst coming which will engulf all these social media sites?

              I think you mean third burst/crash, don't you? Yes I think there will be, or maybe it will be more a whimper? Eventually this stuff will pass, maybe to be replaced with something more useful? Or something that has some way of generating money? Youtube I can see being just absorbed into Google's cost of running the company. Facebook and Twitter though are virtually worthless, and I wouldn't at all be surprised to see them dumped eventually. Here's hoping! :)

              ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow

              S E 2 Replies Last reply
              0
              • E Electron Shepherd

                Deyan Georgiev wrote:

                How they pay their employees’ salaries and the other expenses if they don’t make any money?

                With VC funding. Any business starts off making a loss (you're incurring costs from the moment you start, but the first revenue is always a bit delayed). The difference with these people is that it may be a long delay. Don't forget, to you or me, $10M is lot of money. To a large venture capital firm, it's small change. These people[^] talk in billions, not millions.

                Server and Network Monitoring

                S Offline
                S Offline
                Single Step Debugger
                wrote on last edited by
                #10

                YouTube looks so unprofessional; that I always thought that it has been started form a couple enthusiast in a garage.

                The narrow specialist in the broad sense of the word is a complete idiot in the narrow sense of the word. Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.

                J B 2 Replies Last reply
                0
                • J Jim Crafton

                  What's the saying, something like "Fool Me Once, Shame On you, Fool Me Twice,Shame on Me"? I would be curious, how do the VC's operate with other industries? Are they as incredibly gullible (and apparently stupid) as they are with the software industry?

                  ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow

                  J Offline
                  J Offline
                  Joe Simes
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #11

                  "fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." - GWB

                  J 1 Reply Last reply
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                  • D Dan Neely

                    Get bought out by a megacorp who subsidizes them while trying to figure out how to get revenue without offending the users. :rolleyes:

                    It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. -- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

                    OriginalGriffO Offline
                    OriginalGriffO Offline
                    OriginalGriff
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #12

                    dan neely wrote:

                    Get bought out by a megacorp who subsidizes them while trying to figure out how to get revenue without offending while not giving a stuff about the users.

                    FTFY

                    No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced. This message is made of fully recyclable Zeros and Ones

                    "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
                    "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

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                    • S Single Step Debugger

                      YouTube looks so unprofessional; that I always thought that it has been started form a couple enthusiast in a garage.

                      The narrow specialist in the broad sense of the word is a complete idiot in the narrow sense of the word. Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.

                      J Offline
                      J Offline
                      Jerry Hammond
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #13

                      Deyan Georgiev wrote:

                      YouTube looks so unprofessional; that I always thought that it has been started form a couple enthusiast in a garage.

                      Kind of like Apple and Google beginnings, eh?

                      "My interest is in the future because I'm going to spend the rest of my life there." - Charles F. Kettering

                      J 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • J Jerry Hammond

                        Deyan Georgiev wrote:

                        YouTube looks so unprofessional; that I always thought that it has been started form a couple enthusiast in a garage.

                        Kind of like Apple and Google beginnings, eh?

                        "My interest is in the future because I'm going to spend the rest of my life there." - Charles F. Kettering

                        J Offline
                        J Offline
                        Jim Crafton
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #14

                        No, Apple actually had a *real* product and a business plan that led to generating, gasp, income without scratching your head and wondering how it was going to work. Google and *especially* Youtube don't have that.

                        ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow

                        B 1 Reply Last reply
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                        • J Joe Simes

                          "fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." - GWB

                          J Offline
                          J Offline
                          Jim Crafton
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #15

                          I've been edjumacated by the best! Thanks! I won't be misunderestimating that again!

                          ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • C Christopher Duncan

                            The standard business model on the web has actually changed only slightly from the pre dot com crash days. In the beginning, people launched companies and lived on venture capital. This let programmers play with their toys on somebody else's nickel without worrying about all that generating revenue stuff. The end game strategy was not that they'd end up bringing in money, but rather that once the product was done, they'd make a ton of money by taking the company public and profiting from the stock market. After the crash, taking a company public is no longer the end game, but it's been replaced (albeit subtly) with a minor variation. They still have no clue as to how they're going to generate revenue, so the game is start a company, live on venture capital so that programmers can play with their toys on somebody else's nickel, and hopefully before the VC tires of pumping money into a black hole some fool of a large corporation will buy the startup out for a large sum of money. It's a very, very minor variation that simply shifts the sucker left holding the bag from those who buy company stock to those who buy the company itself. Either way, P. T. Barnum would be proud.

                            Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!

                            R Offline
                            R Offline
                            Rama Krishna Vavilala
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #16

                            Christopher Duncan wrote:

                            live on venture capital so that programmers can play with their toys on somebody else's nickel,

                            What is wrong about that? As a programmer and a capitalist you have no reason to complain. ;)

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • R Rama Krishna Vavilala

                              It's kind of scary to know that some of the popular websites: YouTube, Twitter and Facebook(not that sure?) are not making any money. Surely they can not last long if they don't have a good revenue model. So what do you think will eventually happen to them? Is there a second big burst coming which will engulf all these social media sites? In my opinion it has to come the only question is when.

                              modified on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 1:01 PM

                              B Offline
                              B Offline
                              BillWoodruff
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #17

                              Hi Rama, Some companies are started on a "wing and a prayer" and by the clever extraction of other people's (investors) monies with business plans that are sheer "science fiction." Often the end-goal in both the founders and the investors minds is not revenue per se, but reaching a critical mass in either popularity, notoriety (Pirate's Bay ?), usage, or reputation for uniqueness that then triggers the buying out of the company at which point the "fantasy" stock of the start-up becomes "real stock." What accumulates at some of these in-the-end-we-will-be-bought companies is the technological capital and the human capital they amass and what marketers call "sizzle." I personally have been at a small company that used exactly this model, and, praise be, we were acquired by a very large company at an incredible valuation. It was only years later that I realized the founder of the company from the beginnings was deliberately shaping the company to be the "apple" of this very large company's eye. You can be sure we employees were never told this, but you can be sure it was discussed with the VC's who put two rounds of financing into it a a time when VC money was in short supply. "Hitch your wagon to a star" is a timely adage, perhaps. best, Bill best, Bill

                              "Many : not conversant with mathematical studies, imagine that because it [the Analytical Engine] is to give results in numerical notation, its processes must consequently be arithmetical, numerical, rather than algebraical and analytical. This is an error. The engine can arrange and combine numerical quantities as if they were letters or any other general symbols; and it fact it might bring out its results in algebraical notation, were provisions made accordingly." Ada, Countess Lovelace, 1844

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                              • J Jim Crafton

                                Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:

                                Is there a second big burst coming which will engulf all these social media sites?

                                I think you mean third burst/crash, don't you? Yes I think there will be, or maybe it will be more a whimper? Eventually this stuff will pass, maybe to be replaced with something more useful? Or something that has some way of generating money? Youtube I can see being just absorbed into Google's cost of running the company. Facebook and Twitter though are virtually worthless, and I wouldn't at all be surprised to see them dumped eventually. Here's hoping! :)

                                ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow

                                S Offline
                                S Offline
                                si618
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #18

                                Jim Crafton wrote:

                                Facebook and Twitter though are virtually worthless

                                I trust you're joking. Google has a market cap around $130US billion based mostly on selling advertising. Facebook and Twitter both have large and growing user base, ripe for targeted advertising...

                                Jim Crafton wrote:

                                Eventually this stuff will pass, maybe to be replaced with something more useful?

                                I do agree with this though, MySpace was the social networking site a few years ago (remember how much News Corp paid for it!), but it's code and appearance are crapulent and Facebook is now dominating.

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                                • R Rama Krishna Vavilala

                                  It's kind of scary to know that some of the popular websites: YouTube, Twitter and Facebook(not that sure?) are not making any money. Surely they can not last long if they don't have a good revenue model. So what do you think will eventually happen to them? Is there a second big burst coming which will engulf all these social media sites? In my opinion it has to come the only question is when.

                                  modified on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 1:01 PM

                                  D Offline
                                  D Offline
                                  decaffeinatedMonkey
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #19

                                  Facebook is actually making a boat load of dough with all those "single's/date matching" sites such as Match.com and eHarmony and the like. Plus, they sell these "gifts" at about a dollar a pop that you can give to other people. I'm not sure if those "gifts" are just images or if they are the real deal little toys. I still haven't extrapolated how YouTube gets it's financing, other than the whole VC's infusing it on a regular basis. I've been on MySpace and it was a novel concept, just poorly executed because the site was crap and not well maintained IMO. Facebook had a much cleaner structure and made it simple for many to extend with those applications (my all-time favorite app is still the sheep throwing one :-D).

                                  I 1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • D decaffeinatedMonkey

                                    Facebook is actually making a boat load of dough with all those "single's/date matching" sites such as Match.com and eHarmony and the like. Plus, they sell these "gifts" at about a dollar a pop that you can give to other people. I'm not sure if those "gifts" are just images or if they are the real deal little toys. I still haven't extrapolated how YouTube gets it's financing, other than the whole VC's infusing it on a regular basis. I've been on MySpace and it was a novel concept, just poorly executed because the site was crap and not well maintained IMO. Facebook had a much cleaner structure and made it simple for many to extend with those applications (my all-time favorite app is still the sheep throwing one :-D).

                                    I Offline
                                    I Offline
                                    Idaho Edokpayi
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #20

                                    MySpace is profitable from what I heard. It sells enough advertising to support itself. YouTube is owned by Google and is financed through Google, at a tremendous loss. Google is in talks with Disney and other content providers in an attempt to make some money. Twitter is run by the original owners of Blogger, which they sold to Google a while back. They are independently wealthy and can apparently afford to run Twitter at a loss for a long time. Twitter has made noises that it doesn't care about how it will make money and is content to stay in its current unprofitable state as long as it can.

                                    Idaho Edokpayi

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                                    • R Rama Krishna Vavilala

                                      It's kind of scary to know that some of the popular websites: YouTube, Twitter and Facebook(not that sure?) are not making any money. Surely they can not last long if they don't have a good revenue model. So what do you think will eventually happen to them? Is there a second big burst coming which will engulf all these social media sites? In my opinion it has to come the only question is when.

                                      modified on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 1:01 PM

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                                      Y Offline
                                      yassir hannoun
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #21

                                      the make millions with advertising !

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                                      • J Jim Crafton

                                        No, Apple actually had a *real* product and a business plan that led to generating, gasp, income without scratching your head and wondering how it was going to work. Google and *especially* Youtube don't have that.

                                        ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow

                                        B Offline
                                        B Offline
                                        Brian W King
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #22

                                        Wow, you really believe that? You haven't read much from the Woz have you. He was as anti-planning as any startup has ever been.

                                        J 1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • B Brian W King

                                          Wow, you really believe that? You haven't read much from the Woz have you. He was as anti-planning as any startup has ever been.

                                          J Offline
                                          J Offline
                                          Jim Crafton
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #23

                                          He may have been anti-planning, but they still had a real product, the Apple I, the Apple II, and a few other gadgets too, didn't they? And I seem to recall a story about Steve J taking one of the Apple I (or maybe it was the Apple II) to a bank to get a loan along with some rudimentary business plan that he'd put together.

                                          ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow

                                          B 1 Reply Last reply
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