The way posters here complained about Google shuttering their free offering I'd think people would shun switching to another free product, but nope!
Bunch of whining free riders. Now I understand why Google dumped you.
Bunch of whining free riders. Now I understand why Google dumped you.
The key is making sure all the layers in your stack are either commodities or can be self-hosted.
For example, proprietary SaaS/PaaS services - bad. Generic and interchangeable Linux systems - good. You can build on top of the latter knowing that you can switch if the service is killed.
Then, for non-standard components (e.g., the application), you must either host it yourself or make sure you have everything you need (code and data). If you don't have the skills, you can pay someone else to set it up, as long as you don't become hostage to them.
It's not unlike cars - if you want something reliable and durable, you're better off choosing the less comfortable model for which parts are easily sourced.
If you take out the whining people out of the three million, you still have a pretty good user base. A user base which just might be willing to pay if there's a good service. Heck, I'd pay if there was something significantly better than the free Feedly.
You... you don't understand even the very basics of Google's business model, do you?
Spoiler: 99% of their revenue is not derived from direct user transactions to them.