Apply HN: Placewire

2 points by slowernet 10 years ago | 10 comments

Placewire (https://placewire.co) is a new platform for sharing interesting neighborhood information and gossip via photo sharing.

Everyone likes good dope about their neighborhood, but when you spot something of interest, it doesn’t fit on the social apps you have today — your sorority brothers on Facebook and the lifestyle pornographers from work on Instagram probably don’t care about the new dog run in your park, or the manhole fire you spotted on your way to the train because you’ve carefully chosen to live far away from such people. On Placewire you follow and post photos into the neighborhoods where you live and work.

We're launching in NYC in the next 7 days. You won't want to miss your chance to grab a low user id which you can subtly lord over people when Placewire becomes literally the first hyperlocal business in history to achieve colossal success.

buss 10 years ago |

Why will you be successful when so many neighborhood websites have failed in the past?

How do you overcome people's general apathy towards their neighbors (which is especially true in cities!).

For the sake of discussion, let's take as a given that people care about things happening in their neighborhood. Why would someone use your app instead of instagram with a hashtag for the neighborhood?

slowernet 10 years ago | |

Please see my reply to bobbylox for the operational differentiators I see between Placewire and other hyperlocal models.

I'd argue that despite feeling apathetic about the individuals in your community, one could be motivated use Placewire. Because person-to-person connections/follower counts are not a core part of the product (today), there's a lesser ambient sense of social haves and have nots. I also think an ambivalent person could use Placewire for both practical reasons (I learned that there's a new Cambodian restaurant opening on Smith Street), or because you enjoy being a person who has information. Think about Matt Drudge, a news hound and apparently somewhat of a hermit.

Instagram with a hashtag is fine if you 1. aren't bothered by sending the majority of your followers content that is irrelevant to them, and 2. believe that non-followers will discover your content by surfing your chosen hashtag. Algorithmic feed could change some of this - we'll see!

bobbylox 10 years ago |

It seems as though you know that hyperlocal businesses have not done well in the past. What is the unique thing you bring to the table that might save you from their fate?

slowernet 10 years ago | |

1) Better unit economics via user-generated content creation. I'm not paying per-market salaries like Patch (though I'm not reaping the benefits of labor of a dedicated professional, either).

2) A native ad product (sponsored photo/link) which local businesses understand, because they're already creating the content for existing social media.

3) A content model based on a form of media which people enjoy both consuming and creating, rather than zoning board recaps and the crime blotter. I'm not denigrating either of those - I enjoy both - but like a lot journalism they are costly to produce relative to their travel.

exolymph 10 years ago | | |

How will you compete with NextDoor and Facebook? What's the key improvement?

sideproject 10 years ago | |

btw, what were these hyperlocal businesses that failed in the past? [just not familiar with them that's all]

slowernet 10 years ago | | |

Litany of failed ventures: http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/6-hyperlocal-failures-...

Litany of crippling systemic factors: http://streetfightmag.com/2013/08/23/why-your-hyperlocal-con...