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Comment by rgbrenner | Hacker News Reader

So what's the plan here. Just two months since Pinterest acquired them, they've shutdown Instaparser, moved their team across the country (literally: NY to SF.. I wonder how many employees quit instead), discontinued Premium--their sole source of revenue(?), and committed to no-ads... sounds like they have no monetization strategy at all anymore.

This doesn't look good.

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This is the kind of business model the SF tech scene encourages. People are starting companies to be acquired, not to create a business that stands the test of time.

At the very least, they should write less treacly Dear John letters to their former customers

http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com

Doesn't this look like they are making Instagram a free app in order to collect valuable information which could be used for recommendations or following what is trending?

> I wonder how many employees quit instead

I thought I read that it was just a team of three, all of whom chose to move.

Brian from Instapaper here. It was three of us, and two came along with the acquisition. We all agreed to it before making the decision.

Hi Brian, would you PLEASE consider increasing the maximum read speed in Instapaper. Pocket's much speedier maximum read speeds (with iOS' great Alex voice) are a huge pull that I can't leave behind.

Pinterest could be using it for a tiny boost to their MAU numbers that they plan to report to investors after an eventual IPO. Good ratio of users to headcount (given only 2 employees).

My thought is that pinterest has a solid model for monetization for people who bookmark & read things they find on the internet.

That doesn't involve premium accounts but requires many many more users.. so maybe do a huge push by making the instapaper features free in a PR push, and work to get their active monthly users way up.

Do you think that's possible?

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