The dangers of relying on startup steroids | Hacker News Reader

The dangers of relying on startup steroids

theverge.com

30 pointscienrak11 comments

I don't know if OMGPOP integrated with Open Graph, but there story is certainly similar.

A mobile app powered largely by Facebook interactions takes off like a rocket ship. In less than month is adds so many millions of users that it gets bought for $180 million dollars.

A company that was in the red is suddenly worth a ton of cash. Cut to a few weeks later, and Draw Something is shedding users like water off a duck's back.

http://www.betabeat.com/2012/05/02/draw-something-decline-om...

Honestly, I wonder what would have happened if any other company bought them instead of Zynga. I imagine that it wouldn't be dropping users quite as quickly.

It still would drop users, because the game itself isn't that deep. But I don't think it would be shedding users nearly as much as they are currently.

I think I miss the part where Pinterest got burned by Facebook? Seems like engagement just dropped off (and to far higher levels than pre-FB). How's that Facebook's fault in any way?

Facebook shut down a big component of their Open Graph integration: the spammy auto-publishing. The decline followed shortly after. https://twitter.com/#!/rabois/status/194259967816105984

I must've completely missed that. Thanks!

TheVerge writing content for HN is not a good sign.

Why is that?

Because they're a rag and if they're allowed to get a foothold here we'll get more of their sleazy summary spam too. If cloning Engadget's not enough for them tough shit.

I like the Verge, and I agree. They rarely make content that I would like to see on HN.

(Also: they didn't clone Engadget. They left Engadget to do their own site.)

This isn't spammy gadget coverage, its real reporting on big trends in the startup/mobile app world.

Don't judge a link by its cover

The Verge does lots of summaries, but that doesn't make them sleazy. They would be sleazy if they failed to produce lots of good original content. They would be sleazy if their summaries weren't clearly marked as such. They would be sleazy if they didn't properly attribute & link their sources.

The Verge tries to be the best single source for gadget news, and they're succeeding, in my opinion.

Also, the creators of the Verge should be lauded for leaving AOL rather then being scorned for "cloning".

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