

The Hipsters are a Billion Dollar Industry - DavidZhangToGo
http://simply.io/blog/2012/03/the-hipsters-are-a-billion-dollar-industry/

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homosaur
I don't think it's just passing value judgement on these companies to point
out that they don't create any value or content of note. I see more and more
of these startups every day that are basically dedicated to emphemera. There's
a billion different retro photo apps and no one is ever going to produce
anything worth saving.

Yes, Instagram has some value, but it's in the users and the eye of that
particular person that you enjoy. The photographs themselves are rarely
anything of note.

I do think it's unfair to lump these companies. Hipstamatic is just selling an
app. Even if the community turns into nothing, they sold quite a few apps at
$2. Most of these companies though have nothing to sell and little value to
provide. They are just hoping for some angel to bail them out until the
inevitable Google buyout.

And stop reading TechCrunch already.

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ChuckMcM
I suppose if this were the 70's he'd be dissing the folks who bought pet
rocks. But seriously, why pass judgement on what other people think is worth
buying? I've long since given up trying to figure out fashion trends or the
people who report on them.

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trafficlight
As Reddit is apt to say: Stop liking things I don't like.

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angersock
You know, is it just me, or does it seem like working as an engineer for one
of the internet gambling/porn sites would be both more fulfilling and
challenging than 90%+ of these hipster-social-twitterscape-search-
blogomisation things?

EDIT: why choose? cant i combine my love for vintage polaroid burlesque with
modern erotic search engine optimization?

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bobbles
instagram / socialcam strictly dedicated to uploading your own porn?

Someone must be working on it

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homosaur
They do have that, it's called Tumblr.

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joelrunyon
I think it's a little odd how he chose to pile all those startups together.

For example, I think path is a much different animal than the others, and
while I agree with his overall point (there are some ridiculous valuations
going around), it's more of an angry rant than a critique of the apps
themselves.

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DavidZhangToGo
You're right, it's more of a rant than I like. But I see it as more of a
critique of the startup industry than specific apps.

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kunle
@DavidZhangToGo - out of curiousity, what exactly does Simply.io do? [EDIT]:
This isn't meant to read as a snarky comment - I am truly curious.

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DavidZhangToGo
We're just a bunch of college kids hacking away and trying to explore
different projects, and hopefully turn it into a successful startup.

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ariannasimpson
Correction: __definitely turn it into a successful startup.

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nickheer
> What do Path, Hipstamatic, Highlight, Hipster (yes, that’s an app), and
> Color have in common? They create absolutely nothing of value.

The post begins with and relies upon this faulty premise. This is not
explained, and I would argue that Hipstamatic and Path _do_ create value for
the users. The latter allows me to socialize with people in a more private
manner, while the former takes photos, values in of themselves.

Furthermore, why must the users of these apps necessarily be "hipsters"? Is
this a requirement for the use of these apps? (Clearly not, as Hipstamatic was
one of the biggest apps on the store last year, and not all of those users can
be generalized as hipsters).

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joelrunyon
> What do Path, Hipstamatic, Highlight, Hipster (yes, that’s an app), and
> Color have in common? They create absolutely nothing of value.

This is like complaining Jersey Shore adds nothing of value to people's lives.
Sure, it doesn't, but it's not supposed to. It's entertainment. Just because
people are easily entertained and advertisers will pay for those eyeballs,
doesn't mean it's not a financially viable business.

Some apps solve problems and are useful. Some apps entertain (solving a
different problem - boredom). Confusing the two purposes leads to posts like
these.

(For the record, I completely agree that there are a lot of useless apps out
there, but how is that different from there being a ton of useless TV shows,
movies and video games out there? If you don't want to contribute to that
because you think it's a poor use of time, then don't, but it doesn't mean
that there's not a market for it and that there isn't money to be made there).

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DavidZhangToGo
Definitely agree. I really love Path's design and I use Instagram. But I do
think those apps + a lot of tech blogs give people a narrow view of what most
startups are actually doing - which is solving real problems that people have.

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joelrunyon
I thought your point was that most startups aren't solving problem and "create
nothing of value" as you put it.

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joelrunyon
>This is why 90% of the companies posted on TechCrunch fail!

How does this figure fair in comparison to other startup, small business
failure rates. Isn't the default for most startups death? (pg article for
reference - <http://www.paulgraham.com/hubs.html>)

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collegeportalme
How do you define value? I'm asking this question because i really don't know
a wholesome answer. Not a philosophical statement.

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kylebrown
Not by how much money you make.

Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker in 2009 said, "I wish someone would give me
one shred of neutral evidence that financial innovation has led to economic
growth - one shred of evidence… [U.S. Financial services increased its share
of value-added from 2 percent to 6.5 percent] Is that a reflection of your
financial innovation, or just a reflection of what you're paid?" The only
financial innovation over the past 20 years that impressed Volcker was the
automated teller machine.

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DavidZhangToGo
Well the website is definitely not built for this.

F __* it, we'll do it live! We're going to live edit now...

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Radzell
They buy the people not the company. Google and facebook need developers. Not
the college graduate developers that have only done school project in C/C++
and never manage anything that people want in their life. They need people
like the ones who made path because they know the people who made path
understand mobile, understand design, and understand how to gain hype. It
wasn't luck these guys were on tech crunch they understood their market. That
is what is worth 100 million. Some people are academics, but only real test
for a great app developer is can you make something people want.

