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posted by janrinok on Wednesday January 25 2023, @03:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the circle-of-life dept.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

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.

I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two sided market," where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.

[...] Search Amazon for "cat beds" and the entire first screen is ads, including ads for products Amazon cloned from its own sellers, putting them out of business (third parties have to pay 45% in junk fees to Amazon, but Amazon doesn't charge itself these fees). All told, the first five screens of results for "cat bed" are 50% ads.

This is enshittification: surpluses are first directed to users; then, once they're locked in, surpluses go to suppliers; then once they're locked in, the surplus is handed to shareholders and the platform becomes a useless pile of shit. From mobile app stores to Steam, from Facebook to Twitter, this is the enshittification lifecycle.


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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday January 28 2023, @08:42PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday January 28 2023, @08:42PM (#1289118)

    The government serves the people, at some point they do step in, for instance to stop the selling of "snake oil" promoted as health cure-alls that take people's money and actually delays them seeking proper care. Also: selling "death trap machines" that can travel up to 100mph but don't include things like seat belts because that might make the customers think they are unsafe. Outright fraud (Bernie Maddoff), broadcast of misinformation and other material not in the public interest, etc. Government steps in a lot.

    This internet thingy is pretty new in the greater scheme of things, when people start dying, or losing lots of money, or acting like they're going to vote out the incumbent legislators, because of how it's being run, Government may well step in and try to make things a little more friendly to the interests of the constituency.

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