I mean there’s Reddit ofc, as well as Twitter in its entirety, Discord is implementing some dumb updates, there are issues with Tumblr as well as everything to do with Meta, and I’m sure there are plenty more (and I haven’t even touched other digital media, for example the Sims). Why is it all happening in the span of about a couple months?

  • Faendol
    511·
    2 years ago

    Public companies are legally required to always do their best to grow year over year. Eventually these companies get so large they can’t realistically get more market share so they have to figure out how to make more money from their users. This leads to them squeezing users for cash in the hunt for short term gains because they’ve already realistically capped out on how much money they can make per year. It’s a dumb system that can’t work in the long term.

    • Echo@lemmy.world
      16·
      2 years ago

      A business corporation is organized and carried on primarily for the profit of the stockholders. The powers of the directors are to be employed for that end. The discretion of directors is to be exercised in the choice of means to attain that end, and does not extend to a change in the end itself, to the reduction of profits, or to the nondistribution of profits among stockholders in order to devote them to other purposes.

      This was pulled from Case law on the fiduciary duty of directors to maximize the wealth of corporate shareholders with a few more cases sometimes in favor of the business and others in favor of the shareholder. If anyone else wants to read some more on this. Reading some more based on what searches I find it seems like in reality it complicated. But I’m just a individual contributor all of this is above my knowledge grade.

      I do agree though that this model is not realistic long term. Eventually you need to jump into other markets to continue your growth or just squeeze your user base / customers dry.

    • Silviecat44@vlemmy.net
      9·
      2 years ago

      I know the system prevents it but they should just be happy with making a steady amount of income each year

      • Faendol
        2·
        2 years ago

        Private companies absolutely can, what sucks is alot of owners are looking for a public exit so they can make a ton of money and step away from the company. Valve is a great example of a private company happy to sit back and rake in cash. They have no plans to go public and can continue slowly improving their product because of it.