Who will win – a company earning billions of $$$ or a team of five developers working on a side project? Take a guess.
Since it’s not a happy ending film, the big company will win.
Here’s how:
The tech giant invests 100s of millions in a product and launches it for free. People go bonkers to sign-up and use the product five hours a day. Later, the company harvests user data to earn billions from the product.
But there is a team of five developers who wants to change the world for good. As an alternative, they launch their privacy-friendly product – open source and free of cost. Some people use the product but hesitate to donate money. As a result, the developers can not invest in the UX and UI of the product. Nor can they update it frequently. And the big company keeps winning. And winning. And winning.
Proton Mail – The Origin Story
Andy Yen is the co-founder and CEO of Proton AG. When Edward Snowden exposed the US spy programme in 2013, Andy was working at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research). Like every other citizen, Andy was dismayed by the revelation. But unlike any other citizen, Andy decided to do something about it.
A number of scientists, including Andy, met at CERN and decided to work together. Their vision was to create a safe and private email communication tool with the help of encryption. They worked towards the vision and created Proton Mail.
This time, It’s Different
The story of big company vs independent developers that we mentioned above get repeated every other day in the tech world. But, thankfully, the story of Proton Mail unfolded in a different way.
Instead of relying on small donations by users, the team of Proton mail crowdfunded, received grants, raised funding, and charged their customers. They had resources. And they kept refining their product.
If you sign-up for Proton Mail today, you will find that it is as easy to use as any other product of Google or Facebook. But unlike their products, Proton Mail respects your digital safety and privacy.
Read Next: Benefits of Using Proton Mail – Is It Better than Gmail?
