this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025
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DeGoogle Yourself
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The only way to know if it would work would be to roll the dice and make a startup. You'll need enough cash to cover a year or two of projected operations, the capital to develop the application and infrastructure in addition to the money required to advertise the service.
At the same time you have to realize that your proposition for potential customers is 'You can pay us $5 to get the service that Google gives you for free and it only works in this one metro area.' De-googling is a popular topic on nerd social media but the average person would gladly trade all of their privacy to pay less money.
If we could magic wand a company into existence and capture all of the privacy focused customer base in a large metro area then yeah, the company could pay the operating expenses. But going from 'This is a cool idea' to 'We have a successful service that has a positive cash flow' is a hard, capital intensive, process.
I think a municipal economic development corporation grant could be an answer.
EDCs exist in lots of cities. The usual setup is they're given a percentage of local sales tax, and they provide grants to businesses to move into town or start up. When the business is sucessful, they'll end up paying back more in taxes than was given to them initially, both through direct taxes, but also by providing higher-paying jobs for residents, who will pay more in their property taxes and spend money at local businesses, bringing in more sales tax.
The EDC could pay for the startup to provide the service locally, and then it can spread to other cities, who can either pay for it as a municipal service, or through subscriptions.