Twitter 宣佈要廢掉免費的 API 權限

昨天下午的時候看到這則官方在 Twitter 上提到的消息,要廢掉 free tier 的 API access:

但這邊提到的 paid basic tier 的價錢還沒看到公告。以「API Pricing - It’s very dark out here」這邊看到的價格,目前的 premium plan 超級貴:

這下看起來是真的得搬了,目前有好幾隻程式在上面跑 :o

Kagi 公佈了收費三個月後的進展

Kagi 公佈了收費三個月後的進展 (可以參考「Kagi 開始收費了」這篇):「Kagi status update: First three months」。

搜尋的部份 (Kagi 這個產品線),目前有 2600 個付費使用者,以 US$10/mo 的費用來算大概是 US$26K/mo 的收入:

Kagi search is currently serving ~2,600 paid customers. We have seen steady growth since the launch 3 months ago. Note, this is with zero marketing and fully relying on word of mouth. We prefer to keep things this way for now, as we are still developing the product towards our vision of a user-centric web search experience.

後面在講財務狀況也是類似的數字 (幾乎都是 Kagi 的付費收入):

Between Kagi and Orion, we are currently generating around $26,500 USD in monthly recurring revenue, which incidentally about exactly covers our current API and infrastructure costs.

這個收入差不多 cover 目前的 infrastructure 部份,但還有薪資與其他的 operating cost 大約在 US$100K/mo 這個數量級,看起來還有很大的距離:

Between Kagi and Orion, we are currently generating around $26,500 USD in monthly recurring revenue, which incidentally about exactly covers our current API and infrastructure costs.

That means that salaries and all other operating costs (order of magnitude of $100K USD/month) remain a challenge and are still paid out of the founders’ pocket (Kagi remains completely bootstrapped).

然後要大概是目前十倍的付費數量才會打平 (25K 個使用者):

We are planning to reach sustainability at around 25,000 users mark, by further improving the product, introducing new offerings and pricing changes. With the product metrics being as good as they are, we should be able to reach this as our visibility increases.

比較好一點的消息是 churn rate 很低:

Product stickiness is also very high, with churn being lower than 3%.

然後提到每個使用者大約 27 次查詢 (包括 free tier),有些 user 大約在 100 次,peak 是 400 次:

We are currently serving around 70,000 queries a day or around ~27 queries/day/user (this includes free users which are about 10% of total users). There is a lot of variance in use though, with some users regularly searching >100 times a day. Every time we see a search count go >400 times in day we are happy to be an important part of someone’s search experience.

我看了一下自己的用量,看起來偏高一些,但沒到他說的每天平均 100 次:

然後提到了推出新方案的計畫,包括 Teams Plan & Family Plan,而目前在跑的方案會被分類到 Individual Plans。

另外比較重要的是 Individual Plans 有漲價的計畫。新的方案預定分成三個層級,主要是增加了一個 Kagi Starter 的版本:

  • Kagi Unlimited - $19/mo or $180/year ($15/mo) or $288/biennial ($12/mo) - Original Kagi experience, with unlimited searches
  • Kagi Starter ($5/mo; 200 searches) - For casual users who make less than 200 searches per month
  • Free basic - 50 free searches that reset every month

漲不少,雖然有提到在漲價前既有的付費使用者將會維持原價:

If such change to Individual plans is to occur, we plan to grandfather-in all early adopters (meaning all current and future paid customers, up until this change) allowing them to keep their existing subscription price as long as they don’t cancel it.

繼續觀察看看...

Telegram 推出 Premium 方案

Telegram 宣佈推出 Premium 了:「700 Million Users and Telegram Premium」。看了一下有點長度,就直接放 iThome 的報導:「Telegram正式推出付費訂閱服務Telegram Premium」。

更新 Telegram 後就會在 Settings 裡面看到 Premium 的設定可以選,然後看起來走 IAP,我自己是在台灣的 iOS 上面買,NT$160/mo,裡面提到的功能基本上都用不到 (大概只有 no ads),但還是買起來...

Dropbox 也要搞自己的密碼管理器

Dropbox 也要搞自己的密碼管理器 Dropbox Passwords:「Dropbox Passwords coming soon for all users」。

看起來只要是 Dropbox 的付費方案就可以無限使用,而免費版的則是 50 組。從下載頁看起來目前在 PC 上只支援 Microsoft WindowsmacOS,不支援 Linux

Come back to this page on a PC with Windows 10 or a Mac with at least macOS Sierra 10.12 to get the Passwords desktop app.

而行動平台就是 iOSAndroid

How do I use the Android and iPhone password manager?

Once you sign in to the Passwords app, it automatically fills in your usernames and passwords so you can access frequently used apps and websites on your mobile device.

從示意圖看起來有整合瀏覽器,而加密技術的部份沒有講太多,只說是 zero-knowledge encryption,先觀望看看...

Elasticsearch 提供免費版本的安全功能

Elasticsearch 決定將基本的安全功能從付費功能轉為免費釋出,很明顯的是受到 Open Distro for Elasticsearch 的壓力而做出的改變:「Security for Elasticsearch is now free」。

要注意的是這不是 open source 版本,只是將這些功能放到 basic tier 裡讓使用者免費使用:

Previously, these core security features required a paid Gold subscription. Now they are free as a part of the Basic tier. Note that our advanced security features — from single sign-on and Active Directory/LDAP authentication to field- and document-level security — remain paid features.

這代表 Open Distro for Elasticsearch 提供的還是比較多:

With Open Distro for Elasticsearch, you can leverage your existing authentication infrastructure such as LDAP/Active Directory, SAML, Kerberos, JSON web tokens, TLS certificates, and Proxy authentication/SSO for user authentication. An internal user repository with support for basic HTTP authentication is also avaliable for easy setup and evaluation.

Granular, role-based access control enables you to control the actions a user can perform on your Elasticsearch cluster. Roles control cluster operations, access to indices, and even the fields and documents users can access. Open Distro for Elasticsearch also supports multi-tenant environments, allowing multiple teams to share the same cluster while only being able to access their team's data and dashboards.

目前看起來還是可以朝 Open Distro for Elasticsearch 靠過去...

維基百科的使用條款更新,強制揭露利益衝突問題

維基百科昨天的使用條款修訂公告中,提到了「揭露利益衝突」的問題:「Making a change to our Terms of Use: Requirements for disclosure」,這份文件的最後方有簡體中文版的說明,對於看英文比較不通順的人可以先看中文版的說明。

在新版的「Terms of Use」裡面,有一個專門的章節「Paid contributions without disclosure」:

These Terms of Use prohibit engaging in deceptive activities, including misrepresentation of affiliation, impersonation, and fraud. As part of these obligations, you must disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation. You must make that disclosure in at least one of the following ways:

  • a statement on your user page,
  • a statement on the talk page accompanying any paid contributions, or
  • a statement in the edit summary accompanying any paid contributions.

這段修正可以從「Difference between revisions of "Terms of Use" - Wikimedia Foundation」這邊看到完整的 diff。

這是對於「付費編輯」的反制:國外甚至有專門收費找人編輯維基百科的公司在運作 (可以參考 2013 年 10 月的「Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner’s response to paid advocacy editing and sockpuppetry」這篇文章),這次在使用條款內直接增訂這一部份,將本來只是社群規範的項目變成直接上法院反制。

早該這麼做了,這件事情意義重大...