“What if there's a chatroom where you pay per message?” - Marc Köhlbrugge
That's the basic concept behind Expensive Chat, a chatroom where you pay $0.01 per letter. Expensive Chat launched on Product Hunt last week from Maker Marc Köhlbrugge, who also runs WIP and BetaList (among many side projects). The more abstract idea behind the product: chatrooms turn into chaos quickly — so how will people act when every letter matters? 🤑
We noticed in the product's comments that people were surprisingly game for the social experiment, and even had some suggestions for other ways to monetize conversations on the internet:
“It will change the internet. It'd be nice if implemented in groups on WhatsApp or Telegram to reduce spam notifications. Google should think about this to fight email spam too. Email from non-contact lists should pay” - Agus
“This concept should be applied to intra-office email/chat communications. Or meetings. Apply cost to disruption like this and it could make communications between co-workers or meetings far more productive” - Hayden
“I want an integration with Twitter to get to know how much my timeline is worth” - Alessandro
Since Expensive Chat's been active, folks have paid to post things like a job board for remote opportunities and requests to follow personal Instagram accounts and podcasts.
It's turned into a conversational ad platform, which may play into Köhlbrugge's vision. In the future, he says he imagines Expensive Chat could be a place where celebrities or professionals could host paid chats. 💬
We've seen a few other “social experiments” looking to combat conversation overload. SayHenlo only lets you send users one message, and you can’t send another message until they respond to your last one. Leeroy is like a decentralized Twitter, where instead of "likes" you get "tips" for good content (and get paid real ETH it). Cardpop is like Snapchat, but for postcards — you can send cards from photos you've taken on your phone.
Product News!
Ola Electric (Uber's rival in India) just raised $56M to double down on electric vehicles. Amazon now lets you pick your delivery date and plan your week. Halide's new app lets you take beautiful long exposure shots with AI. And Messenger finally added Dark Mode to its app. 😻
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