• duncesplayed@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        I don’t think “greed” is quite the right word. “Greed” would be the right word if they were trying to make themselves more profitable. But they’re not: they’re trying to make themselves profitable at all. That’s not about greed, but about surviving. You can’t survive unless you stop hemorrhaging money at some point.

        Maybe the question is “Why do investors invest so many hundred of billions of dollars into companies that cannot be profitable without becoming super-shitty? And why do users join them knowing that they’re going to become super-shitty one day?”

        • epicspongee [they/them or he/him]@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          I don’t think “greed” is quite the right word. “Greed” would be the right word if they were trying to make themselves more profitable.

          I mean regardless of whether it’s greed or not it’s happening because they need to generate a profit period lol.

          “Why do investors invest so many hundred of billions of dollars into companies that cannot be profitable without becoming super-shitty? And why do users join them knowing that they’re going to become super-shitty one day?”

          David Harvey has been ringing the bell on this for at least a decade lol. Effectively capitalism runs out of profitable investments when you need continued YoY growth. Like finding trillions of new investment opportunities a year is just not realistic. So capitalists fund bullshit projects and flow their money into markets where the perceived value is significantly greater than any of the actual socially necessary value. And that distance grows greater over time, until people realize ‘what the fuck are we funding’ (like what happened with crypto, or the metaverse), and then that gap immediately shrinks and the unlucky capitalists lose their money. And that will continue happening.

      • epicspongee [they/them or he/him]@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        To expand on this, it’s not just capitalism - it’s greed.

        No it’s just capitalism lol. Every company has to continue reaping in profits for capitalists or else it dies. This is just Reddit’s way of doing that.

    • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      But first be not as terrible to the users to attract them, then hope they’re lazy enough to not go anywhere when you treat them terribly later while they squeeze value from them

      • infotainment@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Exactly – this is almost certainly bad for Reddit’s business at this point. The problem here isn’t necessarily capitalism so much as it is a egocentric CEO gone mad with power.

        • applejacks@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yea, I am not a capitalism enjoyer, but it’s comical watching people insert their favorite pet politics as the sole reason for everything that’s happening.

        • SpaceToast@mander.xyz
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          1 year ago

          I don’t even think it’s a bad business decision.

          Most people didn’t use 3rd party apps to begin with. I’d guess about 75% of the vocal minority who protested, will continue to use Reddit.

          And a very small % of people will quit Reddit in favor of Lemmy.

          • Spaceman Spiff@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Doesn’t have to be Lemmy, they just have to stop using Reddit. If the power users (posters, content creators, mods, etc) really do leave, then the regular users will likely lose interest and leave as well. It doesn’t matter if they go to Lemmy, TikTok, or start spending time with their loved ones again.

            There are rumors that Reddit will start using (more) bots and AI to generate content, which is certainly not beneath them at this point. The tech equivalent of a lava lamp.

            • SpaceToast@mander.xyz
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              1 year ago

              I suspect that power users, like mods, are more interested in the “power” they have on Reddit than standing up for anything.

              I’d love to be wrong though. Reddit can’t die fast enough.

          • infotainment@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’d argue it is, because of the damage they’re doing to their brand.

            I’ve said it in a couple other threads, but Reddit has other ways they can monetize their 3rd party app users, such as requiring subscriptions to use third party apps, or even by simply giving third party app devs a longer lead time to change to a paid model. Instead of doing either of those things, the CEO had a tantrum and alienated a bunch of people.