this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2025

133 points (88.9% liked)

Technology

61632 readers

4199 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each other!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

L3s@lemmy.world

enu@lemmy.world

technopagan@lemmy.world

L4s@lemmy.world

133

Kagi Introducing Fair Pricing (kagi.com)

submitted 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) by cyrano@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world

68 comments fedilink hide all child comments

In months where you don't utilize any searches on your plan, we will automatically apply a full credit to your account for that month. This credit will be applied to your next billing cycle, effectively covering your subsequent month's subscription at no additional cost.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] sudneo@lemm.ee 14 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

The user growth has been bigger than usual in the last months, they have live stats. Not to say they were breaking even at around 25k users, they now have 38k.

Also their product shouldn't be interesting, should be invisible. It's a search engine, not a toy.

If you really want to see malice, I would say it's more of a marketing move because very very few users will not make any search at all in a month. And those users have indeed no cost for them. Giving them credit still means you are getting the money eventually.

[+] aaron@lemm.ee -8 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

Sorry, I use a search engine about 300 times a month at minimum. I'm not what you'd consider a power user right now. I agree it shouldn't be interesting, but it should be used at least. How many figures are you earning?

[–] sudneo@lemm.ee 3 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

You said "if your product is not interesting enough for users to use".

The product has to be useful, and the user growth for a obviously premium service I think is a good testimony of that.

Have you considered that they might be a healthy business that doesn't bleed money (like most tech companies) and therefore doesn't need to rely on trapping users in subscriptions hoping they won't use the product?

Also what's with the passive aggressive tone? We are talking about a search engine, chill.

[–] aaron@lemm.ee -3 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I'm fine. I feel like I'm arguing with a secret Kagi operative here.

I haven't considered that they might be a healthy business but you seem to know a lot more than I do about it....

Please, keep sharing what you don't know about Kagi

[–] sudneo@lemm.ee 3 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (2 children)

I am repeating data points they shared during the community event.

BTW buddy, you can cool it with the passive-aggressiveness. Not everyone on the internet is out to get you.

The info about them breaking even at 25k was shared in the discord channel (which I very rarely look). The rest are stats that are published on their website and as I said shared during the yearly community event.

I work in tech, and I would be blind to not acknowledge that a company which:

is profitable/breaks even after few years of operation
does that with 25k users
doesn't have a marketing budget (used to, now they might have a ridiculously small one).

Might be a healthy business, different from 99% of tech companies that generally bleed money even with millions of users.

You seem completely sure of the opposite, whatever, don't use their service lol

[–] devfuuu@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

Kind cool to see a profitable company like that. I worked on a place that for years was burning millions of dollars every month in hopes of eventually making it work out 😄

[–] aaron@lemm.ee -2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

You can cool it with accusing me of being passive-aggressive, I think I've been completely fair to you. You can definitely not call me 'buddy', and you can stop acting like a victim here.

You have to agree that it's strange that you're putting so much energy into something you don't have a monetary interest in. This is very unusual behavior for some random dude on the internet. You must see that. You don't seem stupid, but you definitely seem incentivized.

So let's both acknowledge that you're getting paid to do this and that I'm not.

I also work in tech. I'm not sure why you'd be working so hard for a company that you claim isn't paying you. You're worth more than this homeboy.

So, I'm going to assume that you are working for them. Wouldn't you? So please, again, tell me everything you think you know about Kagi. I'm really curious.

[–] sudneo@lemm.ee 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Let me explain it to you:

first comment with meta-statements about down votes (I didn't downvote, but still shows the tone)
one comment in: "how many figures you get"
two comments in: "I feel like I am talking with a secret operative".

Now, you might think everyone is stupid, but it doesn't take that much that all these statements are passive aggressive and they are a way to insinuate your interlocutor is arguing in bad faith or for ulterior motives.

so much energy into something you don't have a monetary interest in

I don't agree. First because it's little effort, if any. I am right now taking a dump and tapping on my phone. Second, by the same logic your commitment would show also financial incentive? So are you paid by Google to smear competitors?

I instead think that we are simply commenting on stuff that we are interested in. I want kagi to succeed, of course, and I do because it's a great product but much more importantly because I want their business model to succeed. I want more and more companies adopting it and stop thinking that fucking over users is the only way to make money. From this perspective, sure, I am invested because I want a healthy tech industry which works for humans and their rights.

Not that I have to justify anything anyway.

BTW, if you start every conversation with the mindset that "everyone who disagrees with me must be paid by whom I am accusing", I hardly think you can consider yourself fair. As I said, using your own logic I need to assume you work for Google or Microsoft and are paid by them to smear competitors.

[+] aaron@lemm.ee -7 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I just can't believe you put so much energy into defending a profit-generating company WITHOUT COMPENSATION. You could argue that someone would have to be stupid to participate in the industry that we do, but it's another thing to defend these companies without any compensation. I don't disrespect you, but it's sad. I hope you can do better for yourself. Good luck homeboy. I think you're better than this.

[–] sudneo@lemm.ee 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

"You can't call me buddy" - proceeds to call "homeboy".

I explained my reasons, if you disagree or you decided not to read them it is your problem. Keep your compassion for those who need it.