HACKER Q&A
📣 b-pixel

Is there a market for privacy-first apps?


Free apps are convenient, but they are most likely free because they collect and sell personal information. Are you willing to pay for a privacy focused version of an app that is otherwise free?


  👤 davismwfl Accepted Answer ✓
Not really answerable in general terms at this point. People have shown they will pay for some apps but not others. Social apps require the network effect which is hard to build so adoption is the hardest problem to solve, hence any friction (e.g. payment) can lead to less people signing up etc.

But other apps are fairly easy to get people to pay for where privacy could be a key differentiator. Let's be honest, very few actually do give you privacy beyond maybe a couple of email providers. Spotify which people pay for to remove ads still winds up using data about you and almost surely selling profile information as a revenue stream. I don't know this for a fact so feel free to correct me, but I would be shocked if they didn't as most companies do today because charging $10-15/month is hard to build a large company off.


👤 upen946
There are a ton of products (not typically apps) that are super profitable. See some at https://microsaasidea.substack.com/p/micro-saas-products-pri...

👤 r_singh
I’m visiting Germany from India right now and it seems to me that everyone around here will pay an extra buck for higher (perceived) privacy. Whether it’s for email, VPN or anything for that matter