| ▲ | HanClinto 4 hours ago |
| I'm regularly amazed that HuggingFace is able to make money. It does so much good for the world. How solid is its business model? Is it long-term viable? Will they ever "sell out"? |
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| ▲ | microsoftedging 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| FT had a solid piece a few weeks back: "Why AI start-up Hugging Face turned down a $500mn Nvidia deal" https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/9b4eca... |
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| ▲ | jackbravo 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | sounds very interesting, but even though it says giftarticle.ft, I got blocked by a paywall. | | |
| ▲ | nerevarthelame 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | https://archive.is/zSyUc To summarize, they rejected Nvidia's offer because they didn't want one outsized investor who could sway decisions. And "the company was also able to turn down Nvidia due to its stable finances. Hugging Face operates a 'freemium' business model. Three per cent of customers, usually large corporations, pay for additional features such as more storage space and the ability to set up private repositories." | | |
| ▲ | bee_rider an hour ago | parent [-] | | Freemium seems to be working pretty well for them—what’s the alternative website, after all. They seem to command their niche. |
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| ▲ | bityard an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Their business model is essentially the same as GitHub. Host lots of stuff for free and build a community around it, sell the upscaled/private version to businesses. They are already profitable. |
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| ▲ | HanClinto 30 minutes ago | parent [-] | | This is what Sourceforge did too, and they still had the DevShare adware thing didn't they? GitHub is great -- huge fan. To some degree they "sold out" to Microsoft and things could have gone more south, but thankfully Microsoft has ruled them with a very kind hand, and overall I'm extremely happy with the way they've handled it. I guess I always retain a bit of skepticism with such things, and the long-term viability and goodness of such things never feels totally sure. |
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| ▲ | dmezzetti 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| They have paid hosting - https://huggingface.co/enterprise and paid accounts. Also consulting services. Seems like a pretty good foundation to me. |
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| ▲ | heliumtera 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| >Will they ever "sell out"? Oh no, never. Don't worry, the usual investors are very well known for fighting for user autonomy (AMD, Nvidia, Intel,IBM, Qualcomm) They are all very pro consumers and all backers are certainly here for your enjoyment only |
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| ▲ | zozbot234 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | These are all big hardware firms, which makes a lot of sense as a classic 'commoditize the complement' play. Not exactly pro-consumer, but not quite anti-consumer either! | | |
| ▲ | 5o1ecist 17 minutes ago | parent [-] | | > AMD, Nvidia, Intel, IBM, Qualcomm > but not quite anti-consumer either! All of them are public companies, which means that their default state is anti-consumer and pro-shareholder. By law they are required to do whatever they can to maximize profits. History teaches that shareholders can demand whatever they want, with the respective companies following orders, since nobody ever really has to suffer consequences and any and all potential fines are already priced in, in advance, anyway. Conversely, this is why Valve is such a great company. Valve is probably one of the only few actual pro-consumer companies out there. Fun Fact! Rarely is it ever mentioned anywhere, but Valve is not a public company! Valve is a private company! That's why they can operate the way they do! If Valve was a public company, then greedy, crooked billionaire shareholders would have managed to get rid of Gabe a long time ago. | | |
| ▲ | HanClinto 14 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Great points. Valve is one of my top favorite companies right now. Love the work they're doing, and their products are amazing. Can hardly wait for the Steam Frame. |
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| ▲ | I_am_tiberius 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| I once tried hugging face because I wanted I worked through some tutorial. They wanted my credit card details during the registration as far as I remember. After a month they invoiced me some amount of money and I had no idea what it was. To be honest, I don't understand what exactly they do and what services I was paying for, but I cancelled my account and never touched it again. For me that was a totally intransparent process. |
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