Kagi is completely bootstrapped. It has basically 10 developers and me doing everything else. No managers. The expense is low as humanely possible as still coming out of my own pocket.
It is the cost of commercial APIs that we use. We can't get volume discounts because we dont have volume, not are ever likely to have volume similar to free search engines.
I'd challenge that the cost per search is actually very low. For just 1.25 cents, you can search the entire world wide web with any query, find what you need with no distractions and all that in just 500ms. The value of that search outcome for you can be $10 or even $100. It is probably the most amazing return on investment existing in the world today. Imagine for a second that Google and other search engine didn't exist, and someone offered you this deal today. I'd be you'd take it in a hearbeat. Heck you may even consider paying $1 per search or even $5. So the value is there.
But today this value is anchored in the price of 'free' search. So instead $1 per search sounding like a good deal, we struggle to accept that 1.25 cents is.
We hope that for a portion of people that 1.25 cents per search is going to sound like an amazing deal, especially as this is the only search relationship where the incentives of the information provider are aligned with the incentives of the information consumer.
While I agree that it probably have a lot of value, the issues is human brains.
I don't feel 1 cents per search is a good deal at all, while -logically- it probably will give me more than 1 cent of value out of it.
People never thought about how much the knowledge they acquired is worth, most of the time they share it free of charge, people like to share, somes will even pay hosting to share knowledge !
That's why I don't believe in the pay-as-you-go I'm fine with a subscription, I don't pay to have more value out of my search, but because:
1. I dont like ads, I want to support an ad free alternative.
2. I pay for my privacy.
3. Better results will mean less time lost on searching, less frustration.
I never accounted the value I will get out of better search, I looked at the price and felt that I was a bit overpriced for my taste, but I want an ad-free, pro privacy internet.
I didn’t know Kagi was bootstrapped. As a fellow bootstrapper, it makes me like Kagi even more. Good luck in the future. I think you really have something here so I hope the monetization strategy works.
