LogFAQs > #976716715

Y-combinator infinite growth strats are a hell of a drug

or, to reframe it a little: These companies were not built with profit in mind (or even sustainability, in some cases), they've been massively funded to conquer a niche and then be sold at ridiculous price to investors to then figure out. The ghouls who then buy it are literally never interested in how the product is used, or why, or even the particulars of how it's been built. They want it because Lots Of People use it (people who can - theoretically - be milked for profit).

This scheme falls apart when taking into account the logical consideration of the internet being essentially a luxury service to most of the world - people can and do live without social media, youtube, whatever, which renders attempts to turn the theoretical money-faucet on ultimately self-destructive.

this pattern is extremely frustrating because if/when these dominant sites implode there's nothing to fill the gap that remains, and the niche they fill is extremely good, overall (how many billion hours of good stuff is on youtube, alone? How many artists and collateral creatives like VAs, animators, etc, make a living via their twitter clout? At risk, because some person who is already rich enough for their next twenty generations of family to never need to worry or work needed More Money)

Can we have the *fun* late stage corporate dystopia instead? This one's depressing.