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Comment by mc32 | Hacker News Reader

>Find people around you app.

This might be true in NAm. In other parts of the earth, it might be different. There are different cultural barriers and different things which are considered "normal" for meeting new people. I'm sure "dating" sites are working on ways to integrate this feature into their offering. Or, let's say, find 5 other people around me who want to play some 3 on 3 basketball, or a squash partner, whatever.

>Coupon / Daily deals

Again, true in the US market. Other markets might be ripe for a newcomer. For example, a team in SAfrica could develop something to fit the local market.

>Online Dating Sites.

Sites, yes. But there's still room for innovation. It's far from perfect.

>Book Exchanges for colleges

True. Will there be any physical books in the long run anyway?

>Apps that create Apps

Ok.

View on HN

> "Or, let's say, find 5 other people around me who want to play some 3 on 3 basketball, or a squash partner, whatever."

I don't think that's really the "people around you" concept he's talking about. There are lots of social sites out there that will find activity partners and groups in your city - Meetup being the most salient example. The "people around you" services are the ones that go "user123 is 3 blocks away!". Hyper-local, if you will.

I'm hanging out with friends at a bar, I couldn't give two shits that cutegrrl123 is a block away and also likes chess. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of a single moment in my life where "meet a random stranger based on an algorithm" is a substantially more attractive option than what I'm doing at that moment.

"user123 likes chess and challenges you to a game this week" might work

"user123 is two blocks away and wants to play chess right the hell now" is not a really good use case

This is a concept that really only works in your head - every implementation of it has landed somewhere between "creepy" and "really useless".

"In fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of a single moment in my life where "meet a random stranger based on an algorithm" is a substantially more attractive option than what I'm doing at that moment."

As someone who hops around the country a fair bit, I can definitely think of one place where this would be an appealing option: airports. I am sometimes able to find a random stranger to engage in conversation, but it's often a crapshoot trying to find someone who's both willing to engage in conversation and interested in the same subjects; I usually settle for just the former. This actually doesn't work too poorly (I've found that on the whole, people who fly tend to be more interesting than a typical cross-section of the population), but I'd be more than willing to spend my hour-long layover with an algorithmically-selected stranger. If I'm also able to find activity partners, all the better; I'd be happy to start packing my portable chess set and Magic the Gathering deck in my carry-on luggage.

"user123 is two blocks away and likes having sex with anonymous strangers". Grindr and its clones are massively successful.

This might be true in NAm. In other parts of the earth, it might be different. There are different cultural barriers and different things which are considered "normal" for meeting new people.

Other parts of the earth? Ask your local gay friends about Grindr.

> > Apps that create Apps

> Ok.

Lisp for the masses!

Online marketplaces

0.02

The problem is that everyone who's ever used the web ever comes up with these ideas and either thinks it hasn't been done or think they can do it better. The latter almost always end up just cloning something that exists in a way that's shitty. No, it's not sub-par, they're not terribly execute, they're fucking shitty. I'm just finishing up a site that the guy who commissioned it calls "Facebook except for dating". I'm embarrassed to even admit I built it now (I really needed the cash and in hindsight I was paid peanuts). Luckily I was able to steer him towards positioning it as more of a sideshow site for entertainment like Lolcats or something.

But anyway, the problem isn't the ideas it's just that it's incredibly rare that someone executes in a way that brings something worthwhile to the table that hasn't been done at least 100 times over.

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