I have friends around the world. My friend Adriana (Brazil) lives in Saskatchian, Canada and Rafael (Brazil, lives in Montreal). Until last year a good friend of mine was living in Australia. Another friend lives in Portugal.
In Brazil, if I were to put pins on the map to indicate places for which I can travel and meet with the hospitality of friends, I could dial the following places: Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Florianopolis, Bethlehem Para, several cities in the interior of Paul (including San Carlos, Araraquara, Sao Jose do Rio Preto).
often exchanged photos. Many of my friends I met through the Internet itself. And to share photos more efficiently, we use services online albums, free .
Last year my friend Paul (who live in Chicago) told our group of friends on Fotolog Him. The staff rushed to open fotologs to post photos to each other, because the Fotolog has some nice features, like being able to leave comments on pages of photos and set up a bookmark with fotologs friends. But the
Fotolog has several limitations. The most annoying is that the server spends at least half a day off the air. Other irritants are two limitations: you can not have more than one photo per day and not know who've linked you on fotolog. The
Paul then found another service, virtually identical to Fotolog that only Brazil: Photopage . It is a more comprehensive service that Fotolog with more cool features - you can have more than one photo per day, longer texts can post messages, make bookmarks more complete. The Photopage had some technical problems last year, had to switch servers, but solved all the problems, and today works better than the Fotolog .
One solution that Photopage adopted to solve the problems was to place banner advertising and finding sponsors.
Recently, a similar service appeared on national lands: the Flog Brazil. It is identical to Fotolog American, with the advantage of offering users the option to become a Gold user, paying for only 60 dollars per year, and payment can be made through a bank in real .
Certainly, because of the passion shown by the Brazilians to join in online album services, other services will come soon. Already
line services online albums, the Paula uses a very nice service, the Fotki . There are other great free services to online albums: I use Photobucket , Sony ImageStation created , and there is a nice Village Photos .
I'm talking about all this because the article Alexander on Fotologs. Nessse article he says:
Pity the Americans. Raised in a culture that values the business, did not understand why so much noise. They felt, frankly, that the issue was financial, that $ 15 a month was too much for the Brazilian reality. Someone needs to explain to them that for 80% of flogueiros tupiniquins, this is pittance.
not, Ale, the $ 5 that Fotolog and by month are not trifle. The server of them is bad, there are a number of features that they offer - such as knowing who've linked you on fotolog, posting longer texts, reports on who visited your fotolog, etc, etc and that Photopage , for example, which is 100% free, owns. Besides the Photopage also has an IRC channel (chat for users hit) and a virtual radio. In addition, most users of Fotolog a teenager, has no such five dollars and the very least, international credit card.
The bigger problem Fotolog is that the owners, whoever they are, seem to ignore the reality that makes any site for free services sink quickly when he lacks a good strategy: there will always be competitors for their services, free or cheaper with more features, with the best sponsors or major investments. To be able to increase the number of paying users, considering that 56% of their users are Brazilians, Fotolog first need to greatly improve service and offer a payment in real with some better option than Paypal, which requires that if an international credit card. Maybe starting with this, they gain greater that 1% of their paying customers. Moreover, this number is significant. Because only 1% of users pay, and 44% of them are Brazilian? The problem should not be a form of payment, the problem probably is not offered a service for which a price worth paying. I would not pay for Fotolog simply because the same amount, I can get other image-hosting services much better than theirs.
Honestly? I doubt Fotolog may significantly increase the number of paying users. In eight years working with internet, never seen any free service to be successful when they decided to become a paid or when decided to force a situation to increase the amount of paying users. Most users who want to continue using the service without pay, just go off in search of a competitor, or by having sponsors for live advertising, remains free. Where is one. And then I'm agree with you, Ale:
As a user of Fotolog and former manager of bankrupt Internet company, I can only wish good luck.
As a user of the Internet, also can only wish them good luck, I have found them identical to other services that are still free.
Touché!
comment Alexander in his text on Fotolog :
"Brazilians have traditionally not like to pay. So far so good. Nobody likes. But the Brazilian honestly think entitled to enjoy the work of others for free. That's the problem. "
The Bolt posted this comment on this quote:
The work was offered for free and there was no obligation to pay for the service. Soon it's their problem, not the Brazilians. Had
thought before the consequences of offering a free service to the international community, they would not be complaining. Moreover, if you cut all the free accounts, to cut. If this is bad publicity, again it's their problem.
Oh, and if only 6% of users are American, because the service is not so well regarded in the U.S.. If it is because there are more foreigners than Americans, the problem is theirs again.
The photolog is only popular because Americans (and Russians, Pakistanis, Canadians, etc.) use the service. And the service is only used because it is free.
You think that if by chance fotolog decide to close the doors will be a tragedy for the users? They close the doors, drive out the Brazilians and provide service only to those who pay. WARRANT will soon be opening those doors again, once they realize that users who pay really want is to show off for those who do not pay. For those who pay the use of the Fotolog, he is a showcase of work and egos. Nobody here is doing charity. Neither do we.
Meanwhile, we are posting the same photos in photopage, a domestic competitor and that offers exactly the same kind of service that the fotolog.
And Photopage is free and Brazil. Touché. Posted by
DaniCast
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