
Ask HN: Is it possible to monitize chat? - newChatBuilder
I live and work in a a European SF wanna be city. There is a fair amount of devs living around working here but almost no sense of community.<p>I want to start a chat application that targets specifically people working&#x2F;living here, as a side project. And I&#x27;m wondering if there has been already proven harmonization strategy for &quot;targeted chat&quot; applications.
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helen842000
Before you build anything, see if you can pull a Slack community together. All
you need is a landing page to test this out. If you can't find 20 people to
start with, then building additional tech isn't going make up for that.

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askafriend
This is very smart advice. I'd take it.

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ocdtrekkie
There are a lot of chat apps, I can't think of many with successful business
models attached. Things like Skype and Hangouts are huge, userbase-wise, but
dubiously valuable to the companies which bankroll them with profits
elsewhere. I guess Skype has banner ads? I can't imagine Discord makes money
yet, their subscription plan doesn't seem like a good value, I don't know why
anyone would pay it.

There are too many chat apps already, also. Most of us want less chat apps to
talk to all our friends, not more.

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newChatBuilder
I think the target is mostly lonely people that just can't break into social
circles.

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mattbgates
There are some dominant chat apps already existing, so you will certainly have
competition. Just know there is absolutely nothing wrong with developing an
alternative web app at all. Most people like to have a few options or
alternatives.

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kleer001
You'll probably need to get up your user base before any monetization.

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sharemywin
You're best bet would be tech job ads. Find some big local companies to
sponsor them.

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newChatBuilder
I would think so, but that requires a large user-base to get the first ad.

Also maybe local bars that want to promote their events or happy hours

