[pa5tabear]

>Spiegel seems like a really cool guy with a heart in the right place and is probably a genius.

What do you base this opinion on?

I guess he might be cool but I don't think the press about him indicates genius or a rightly placed heart.

[nickysielicki]

I like his disdain for targeted ads, in spite of the fact that this could probably be profitable for his company.

I think the fact that he's made an internet company out of extending picture messaging is amazing. As much many of us HN readers would like to scoff and say, "I could build that in a weekend," we really couldn't. He's not done anything technically difficult, per se, but the way that he's amassed users is absolutely crazy, and he's doing something right.

I have my doubts about where it can go. I think him not selling was a huge mistake and I think he'll lose a lot of money from it, but I think he's a savvy business man.

[hnnewguy]

>I like his disdain for targeted ads, in spite of the fact that this could probably be profitable for his company.

I don't agree with the idea that all a company has to do is tack on ads and they'll be wildly profitable. I think that ship has sailed; the more ads we're bombarded with, the less effect each individual ad has on us. There are diminishing returns to ad optimization. We can only buy so much stuff.

There will be some interesting times in the near future surrounding this ad-driven ecosystem.