<story><title>Zeta Global acquires Disqus (YC S07)</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/05/zeta-global-acquires-commenting-service-disqus/?ncid=rss&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>KajMagnus</author><text>All (?) upcoming alternatves to Disqus: (my own listed last)&lt;p&gt;- Mozilla&amp;#x27;s Talk, &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;coralproject&amp;#x2F;talk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;coralproject&amp;#x2F;talk&lt;/a&gt;. Open source, install yourself.&lt;p&gt;- Discourse, &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.discourse.org&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.discourse.org&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;. One needs to navigate to a separate page, to post a comment. Not threaded. Min $20&amp;#x2F;month. Open source. Facebook and Gmail login.&lt;p&gt;- Isso: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;posativ.org&amp;#x2F;isso&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;posativ.org&amp;#x2F;isso&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;. Open source, install on your own server.&lt;p&gt;- Commento, &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;adtac&amp;#x2F;commento&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;adtac&amp;#x2F;commento&lt;/a&gt;. Open source. Moderation, spam-protection and hosting is under development.&lt;p&gt;- Schnack, &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.vis4.net&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;hello-schnack&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.vis4.net&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;hello-schnack&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;. Open source, install yourself. Has GitHub and Facebook login.&lt;p&gt;- HostedComments, &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.hostedcomments.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.hostedcomments.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;. Proprietory. Min $10&amp;#x2F;month&lt;p&gt;- Remarbox, &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.remarkbox.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.remarkbox.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;. Proprietory. Min $4&amp;#x2F;month&lt;p&gt;- Gitalk. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;gitalk&amp;#x2F;gitalk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;gitalk&amp;#x2F;gitalk&lt;/a&gt;. Open source, install yourself. Comments stored as GitHub issues.&lt;p&gt;- &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;skx&amp;#x2F;e-comments&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;skx&amp;#x2F;e-comments&lt;/a&gt;. Open source, install yourself.&lt;p&gt;- And my own: EffectiveDiscussions: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.effectivediscussions.org&amp;#x2F;blog-comments&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.effectivediscussions.org&amp;#x2F;blog-comments&lt;/a&gt;. Open source, or $2 per month. Has Facebook and Gmail login.</text></comment>
<story><title>Zeta Global acquires Disqus (YC S07)</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/05/zeta-global-acquires-commenting-service-disqus/?ncid=rss&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>ploggingdev</author><text>An acquisition was pretty much an expected outcome since there was no way a company with $10.5 million in VC funding over 10 years could go public. IMO the comments as a service space is a terrible fit for the VC model. It&amp;#x27;s easy to get to scale by offering a free service, but very very hard to monetize. You can force ads on your users, but you end up being at the receiving end of users&amp;#x27; wrath, as was the case with Disqus.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve tried talking to VCs with the idea for a Disqus alternative [0] and many of them shared the same concern : market size. It&amp;#x27;s tiny. A back of the envelope calculation gives me a number between $100 million and $200 million in ARR potential with most of the revenue being generated via ads instead of paid subscriptions. Disqus serves 17 billion monthly pageviews which translates to roughly $1.7 million in MRR.  So yeah, I guess this space is more suited for the artisanal variety (bootstrapped companies) than the VC model. Another guy who&amp;#x27;s been working on an alternative for 3 years is `foxhop with Remarkbox [1].&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.hostedcomments.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.hostedcomments.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.remarkbox.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.remarkbox.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>