that's only true because they all try to monetize by making their service obnoxious or even hostile to users.
Even if they were to insist on making their money by pushing ads, doing it in a way that doesn't degrade the service would go a long way toward keeping users around.
When I think about the massive amount of data image hosts collect, I have to imagine there should be ways to make money from that information without any impact on the user's experience uploading or viewing photos.
As far as I can tell the biggest problem image hosts have is dealing with our insane copyright laws. Users just want to share information, while companies want to act as gatekeepers and toll collectors which often leaves image hosts caught in the middle. They hold massive data sets of our collective culture and interests, but have a lot of limits on what can be done with it. Most of their content was uploaded to them in violation of copyright laws to start with.
Don’t businesses that host also have to pay for moderators that deal with removing media of abuse and other illegal content? That cannot be cheap once you are popular.
Even if they were to insist on making their money by pushing ads, doing it in a way that doesn't degrade the service would go a long way toward keeping users around.
When I think about the massive amount of data image hosts collect, I have to imagine there should be ways to make money from that information without any impact on the user's experience uploading or viewing photos.
As far as I can tell the biggest problem image hosts have is dealing with our insane copyright laws. Users just want to share information, while companies want to act as gatekeepers and toll collectors which often leaves image hosts caught in the middle. They hold massive data sets of our collective culture and interests, but have a lot of limits on what can be done with it. Most of their content was uploaded to them in violation of copyright laws to start with.