I'm reminded of Roshi, their distributed/crdt Redis solution, they open sourced (https://github.com/soundcloud/roshi) a while back just to deal with problems of their scale. CRDTs and Distrubuted programming is not something they teach at coding bootcamps. You should really take a look at some of their developer talks and get a sense of their scaling pains before you assume that SoundCloud is built by 200 fresh-out-of bootcampers (Also, those 200 aren't exclusively engineers, you need a sizable marketing/community team to manage all that global talent on your platform).
Even a feed, where one user can publish to millions others, is non-trivial at scale. I think you are seriously underestimating the amount of work that goes into building something like SoundCloud.
Ignoring this - it doesn't seem SC has ever been in the green so comparing to relatively simple models of DeviantArt or Craigslist doesn't make sense. DeviantArt doesn't have the target of the MPAA on its back. SoundCloud will never be as cheap as Craigslist to run.
Also, SoundCloud hasn't been acquired - I'm not sure where you are getting this info. The same guys who ran the ship in its "humble beginnings" are running it now.
Have you used SoundCloud? SoundCloud is not a CRUD app. SoundCloud is a full blown social network. Just take a look at their GitHub page: https://github.com/soundcloud?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=+only%3As...
I'm reminded of Roshi, their distributed/crdt Redis solution, they open sourced (https://github.com/soundcloud/roshi) a while back just to deal with problems of their scale. CRDTs and Distrubuted programming is not something they teach at coding bootcamps. You should really take a look at some of their developer talks and get a sense of their scaling pains before you assume that SoundCloud is built by 200 fresh-out-of bootcampers (Also, those 200 aren't exclusively engineers, you need a sizable marketing/community team to manage all that global talent on your platform).
Even a feed, where one user can publish to millions others, is non-trivial at scale. I think you are seriously underestimating the amount of work that goes into building something like SoundCloud.
Ignoring this - it doesn't seem SC has ever been in the green so comparing to relatively simple models of DeviantArt or Craigslist doesn't make sense. DeviantArt doesn't have the target of the MPAA on its back. SoundCloud will never be as cheap as Craigslist to run.
Also, SoundCloud hasn't been acquired - I'm not sure where you are getting this info. The same guys who ran the ship in its "humble beginnings" are running it now.