App Dot Net Goes Freemium
I am stuck on a plane without WiFi as I write this, so it seems appropriate I write a blog post for a change rather than speak my mind.
Just before I got on the plane, App.Net announced a free tier for their previously paid-for social networking service. Right now, you need an invite from an existing paid App.Net (ADN) member to join the free tier, but people are giving them away on Twitter. Sorry, I don’t have any more invites at the moment, folks 
I’ve enjoyed this “early early adopter” period of ADN. I’ve met some great people in the last 3 months. Yes, it’s a bit like Twitter but I didn’t invest $36 a year just for that. It will be one of many “experiences” you can and will have in the future. Without users being monetized with ads. Value for value. I like that.
The rate of innovation on the ADN platform (both in the API and the clients) has been quite amazing to watch. Which is in stark contrast to Twitter locking down the API, Facebook providing an incomplete API at best, and Google+ never really providing an API at all. I’m really excited about the things to come.
A few people are not happy with this move. To them, I say: get over it. ADN needs more users to grow and $36 a year is a huge barrier to entry. The free tier is quite reasonable for what it offers–follow up to 40 users and 500MB of file storage (up to 10MB each). You can earn more storage by sharing invites to people that actually become active (follow 5 users and authorize using a third party ADN client–there are many free ones). If you actually use the service, you can pay for it and you get more (up to 10GB file storage and no follow limits).
In any case, there’s no reason not to check out App.Net now. Except you’ll need an invite. I’ll see if I can get a few more to share.
