This is some budget thinking, but 20 $5 instances, 10 from Vultr and 10 from Linode in 4 different locations and 2 load balancing servers for tops $30 with DDOS protection etc. to send the requests to proper servers would easily handle this and scale without the problem. Would that work? We would be left with $130 easy to scale, huge bandwidth and computing power network.
GG would become so much more popular if it would aim at certain niches first, like security, technicians, doctors and public servants (partially the way Segway did) - it should invest in showcase apps that cater for those niches and build up market from there.
I wonder if Snapchat will manage to get this money back in one way or another. Instagram is a massively popular app, while Zenly - it is HN where I first heard it. Also, 2 million downloads mainly from teens seem to be not so massive. There are bigger and more unique apps.
I wonder how often deals like that comes from pressure from VC's rather than actual strategy.
I only wondered why US will not open up to the countries, that are known for being safe, with well educated and easy to integrate citizens. US is opening its borders to rich countries instead of opening to safe bets to grab some tech talent.
There are numerous countries that fit this profile. The majority of Central/Eastern Europe, few Asian and South American countries, even with Africa having some. Instead, they expect for people from developed countries go through the nightmare of getting a visa, being screened and then live in places like Cali where cost of living is ridiculous. US could easily give out 1 Mil easy-to-get visas with easy-to-get transition program to a green card that would bump their economy, instead, they are creating walls everywhere.