Dropsafe

by Alec Muffett

“The greatest lie told to the public is that people make apps to sell data. Data has no value—you can buy a complete data set on the entire US population for under $10,000. In reality, we actually do it to sell engagement. Attention is more valuable than a spreadsheet…” | Nikita Bier

This is a lot more realistic than most takes you’ll ever read on the matter.

Saving you a click:

The greatest lie told to the public is that people make apps to sell data. Data has no value—you can buy a complete data set on the entire US population for under $10,000. In reality, we actually do it to sell engagement. Attention is more valuable than a spreadsheet. And you only capture people’s attention by creating valuable & novel experiences. This misconception has made people fear trying new products, which has hampered innovation in how we communicate and entrenched the positions of incumbent companies. And it has also narrowed the audiences who developers can build for. So when you ask why there are so many silly teen apps, it’s because it’s one of the few audiences that haven’t been deluded by the narrative yet.

⊞

Comments

One response to ““The greatest lie told to the public is that people make apps to sell data. Data has no value—you can buy a complete data set on the entire US population for under $10,000. In reality, we actually do it to sell engagement. Attention is more valuable than a spreadsheet…” | Nikita Bier”

  1. happyborg

    @alecm > And you only capture people’s attention by creating valuable & novel experiences.

    Not really. That's one way, but even then it's only a part of what is being done in the apps which generate most value for their operators.

    The quote has the same quality as The Selfish Gene. A useful perspective but only a part of the picture.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More posts