The Power of Platforms

[GL_Storm]

This is one of the better pieces of writing I've read in quite some time. He's writing about platform power and how those platforms, over time, reallocate value away from users, creators, and brands, and to their own shareholders, which then opens up a space for new platform competitors to emerge. Though, to be clear, each of the companies he talks about are still doing quite well. They aren't exactly dying. But his points are still quite valid I think.

Monopoly power is the major threat to our freedoms today. It isn't Democrats trying to take away your guns and gas stoves, and it isn't Republicans being "fascist", whatever the hell that means. It's the power of major corporations dominating markets at scale and dictating our choices to us, limiting and in many cases completely excluding competitors.

I urge you all to read this. Wired, I believe, has a soft paywall that allows you to read one or two articles per month for free. You can also use an incognito window, and there are other ways as well to access the content that I won't go into here, but I think a lot of you know what I'm talking about.

The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok: https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-plat ... al_twitter

[douche]

That first paragraph...

HERE IS HOW platforms die: First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.

[DanielVogelbach]

This is one of the better pieces of writing I've read in quite some time. He's writing about platform power and how those platforms, over time, reallocate value away from users, creators, and brands, and to their own shareholders, which then opens up a space for new platform competitors to emerge. Though, to be clear, each of the companies he talks about are still doing quite well. They aren't exactly dying. But his points are still quite valid I think.

Monopoly power is the major threat to our freedoms today. It isn't Democrats trying to take away your guns and gas stoves, and it isn't Republicans being "fascist", whatever the hell that means. It's the power of major corporations dominating markets at scale and dictating our choices to us, limiting and in many cases completely excluding competitors.

I urge you all to read this. Wired, I believe, has a soft paywall that allows you to read one or two articles per month for free. You can also use an incognito window, and there are other ways as well to access the content that I won't go into here, but I think a lot of you know what I'm talking about.

The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok: https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-plat ... al_twitter

Commercial monopolies in a free market are okay, as they serve the market. What's not good are monopolies when they can then lobby / control the "government" to gain far more power than they could ever gain with commerce alone. Moreover the idea that you need "government" to break up monopolies is sheer hypocrisy, because the "government" is run by the corporations, and the "government" itself is the greatest example of a monopoly. It's a monopoly on the use of force. When they force a breakup like Standard Oil or Bell telephone, it's all for show. The power structure doesn't actually change.

The largest platforms are YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Those are the ones that don't allow free speech. I don't really think they're clamping down on free speech to boost shareholder profits. They allowed free speech for years and years until the last few years where they started shutting down accounts for "misinformation". The agenda takes priority over the profits. Fortunately, there are still platforms like Bitchute and Rumble that allow people to speak freely, but how long will that last?

[D-train]

This is one of the better pieces of writing I've read in quite some time. He's writing about platform power and how those platforms, over time, reallocate value away from users, creators, and brands, and to their own shareholders, which then opens up a space for new platform competitors to emerge. Though, to be clear, each of the companies he talks about are still doing quite well. They aren't exactly dying. But his points are still quite valid I think.

Monopoly power is the major threat to our freedoms today. It isn't Democrats trying to take away your guns and gas stoves, and it isn't Republicans being "fascist", whatever the hell that means. It's the power of major corporations dominating markets at scale and dictating our choices to us, limiting and in many cases completely excluding competitors.

I urge you all to read this. Wired, I believe, has a soft paywall that allows you to read one or two articles per month for free. You can also use an incognito window, and there are other ways as well to access the content that I won't go into here, but I think a lot of you know what I'm talking about.

The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok: https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-plat ... al_twitter

Even better than the literary triumvirate of Curtis, Luke and Churchill? lol