# Why would Discourse's business model work when Stack Exchange v1's failed? **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [11 Febbraio 2013, 12:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-would-discourses-business-model-work-when-stack-exchange-v1s-failed/2678 "2013-02-11T00:31:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1
**Author:** ![obvio171](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/obvio171/32/103541_2.png) [@obvio171](https://meta.discourse.org/u/obvio171)\ **Post date:** [11 Febbraio 2013, 12:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-would-discourses-business-model-work-when-stack-exchange-v1s-failed/2678/1 "2013-02-11T00:31:56Z")
Stack Exchange v1’s business model was “build your own community, we’ll give you the software on a subscription basis”. That model failed because communities require critical mass, and achieving that is _really hard_. All but one community created at that time ([Math Overflow](http://mathoverflow.net/)) got any significant traction, if I recall correctly. SE eventually decided to shut down the SaaS model and to launch instead their own communities via [Area 51](http://area51.stackexchange.com/). Discourse compares itself to the [Blog Tool, Publishing Platform, and CMS – WordPress.org](http://Wordress.org/Wordpress.com) model because it’s open source and anyone can host their own, but aside from the self-hosting part, the model resembles SEv1 a lot more than WP. There are a lot more solo bloggers out there than forum organizers, and they can start blogging (and paying) from day 1, without needing to first build up a community with critical mass to make it something they can use. So what’s different this time around? Btw, I’m assuming that charging end-users for hosting their forums is a major part of the revenue stream, because if the plan is just [selling to big enterprises](http://meta.discourse.org/t/why-gnu-license/2531/2) I don’t even see why charge end-users in the first place. --- _[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-would-discourses-business-model-work-when-stack-exchange-v1s-failed/2678)._