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hoshikarakitaridia ,
@hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.fmhy.ml avatar

There are a lot of reasons for this general trend, but let me add my two cents to make a case for the sudden influx of user-opposed changes:

I don’t have a source for this, but I remember that Linus spoke about this on the LTT WAN-Show. Basically, abunch of big silicon valley investors are pulling out of all of the big platforms, therefore leaving them with a huge hole in their profitability. This means, that right now a lot of them are scrambling to scrape together more money over time, so all of those platforms are sustainable.

Obviously this has to observed in conjunction with all of those are trends that are already mentioned by other comments, but this gives more basis as to why now, and why to this extent.

If someone else knows what I’m talking about please add quotes and sources because I don’t like the good old ‘dude trust me’ guarantee one bit.

kubijoe ,
@kubijoe@programming.dev avatar
  1. Reddit API charges: Reddit announced it would begin charging for use of its API, specifically for companies that crawl Reddit for data without providing any value back to the users. This change does not apply to developers building apps and bots that enhance the Reddit experience, or to researchers using the API for academic or noncommercial purposes. Reddit’s move is tied to its attempt to monetize the vast array of user-generated content on its platform, which includes data used to train text-generating machine learning models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. This announcement comes as Reddit is preparing for a potential IPO later this year. It is estimated that Reddit made $350 million from ads in 2021, a figure that pales in comparison to Meta’s and Twitter’s ad revenues Reddit will begin charging for access to its API | TechCrunchReddit will begin charging for access to its API | TechCrunchReddit will begin charging for access to its API | TechCrunchReddit will begin charging for access to its API | TechCrunch.
  2. Twitter’s “Ad-pocalypse”: Twitter saw a significant drop in advertising revenue in December 2022, with ad spending from top brands falling by 71% compared to the same month in the previous year. Major corporations have been pressuring Twitter over its decision to restore banned conservative accounts. There was a similar decrease of 55% in November 2022 compared to November 2021. Twitter relied on ads for 89% of its $5.08 billion revenue in 2021, so this decrease in ad revenue is likely a significant factor in Twitter’s estimated value reduction. Corporate advertising boycotts have often been used in the past to pressure social media platforms into adopting stricter censorship policies Adpocalypse 2.0: Twitter Ad Revenue Fell by 70 Percent in DecemberAdpocalypse 2.0: Twitter Ad Revenue Fell by 70 Percent in DecemberAdpocalypse 2.0: Twitter Ad Revenue Fell by 70 Percent in December.
  3. VC moving to greener pastures: There has been a significant increase in VC and PE investment into climate tech, which includes technologies focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In the first half of 2021 alone, climate tech attracted over $60 billion in investment, which is a 210% increase from the $28.4 billion invested in the 12 months prior. This shift has been driven by a renewed focus on ESG in private markets, emerging regulations and standards, and more companies committing to net-zero strategies. The United States leads in climate tech investing, attracting nearly 65% of VC investment, $56.6 billion from H2 2020 to H1 2021 Global climate tech investment triples, but cash for tech directly cutting emissions lags | TechCrunchGlobal climate tech investment triples, but cash for tech directly cutting emissions lags | TechCrunchGlobal climate tech investment triples, but cash for tech directly cutting emissions lags | TechCrunchGlobal climate tech investment triples, but cash for tech directly cutting emissions lags | TechCrunch.

Note: Sources not all quite unbiased. Take a grain of salt.

KD_14 ,

Can tell this was old data chat gpt generated

oldfart ,

Hey, there’s stuff from 2022, can’t be chatgpt

Grant_M ,
@Grant_M@lemmy.ca avatar

When billionaire fascists start being held to account, they lash out.

feedum_sneedson ,

Let’s stop misusing the word fascist.

Hypersapien ,

Elon Musk just said that people without children shouldn’t be allowed to vote.

TempleSquare ,

Elon Musk does fascist things.

But that doesn’t mean every bad thing Elon Musk does is fascist. Sometimes it’s just greedy. Or stupid.

Hypersapien ,

So, even if a person does fascist things, the fact that some of the bad things that they do aren’t fascist means that the person isn’t a fascist?

A person isn’t a fascist unless every bad thing they do is fascist?

Is that what you’re saying?

feedum_sneedson ,

He says a lot!

McrRed ,

It’s unclear whether it’s a misuse of the word in this case… though amassing billions is a fascistic event. You can’t do it without stepping all over people. Many people.

feedum_sneedson ,

I empathise with the sentiment, billionaires are the product of a very broken system.

ZodiacSF1969 ,

I see this dumb shit made it over from reddit.

Quill0 ,
@Quill0@lemmy.digitalfall.net avatar

I find it the ad bubble is bursting so companies are increasing costs for api access and divert people into using their own apps (so they can’t block ads and such)

QubaXR ,
@QubaXR@lemmy.world avatar

It’s not anything new and nothing “all of a sudden”, unfortunately. Facebook, Tumbler, Google - all done stuff like that before. Even for Reddit this is not the first protest blackout and not the first time they treat users and mods like garbage.

It simply is now happening to the apps and services you (and I) use daily, so it hits closer home.

All modern stairs are built on the same terrible foundation: Attract users, no matter how much money you lose. Once you feel strong, introduce fees, ads, hike the prices and try to regulate years of financial loss.

Happened like clockwork, and companies going public are a clear sign it’s just around the corner. (Kind of like any free mobile app will ask you for a 5 star review, just before introducing monetization schemes)

pseudo ,
@pseudo@lemmy.world avatar

All modern stairs are built on the same terrible foundation: Attract users, no matter how much money you lose.

I have sustainable stairs at home which have plateaued at two users. Not all stairs.

QubaXR ,
@QubaXR@lemmy.world avatar

Lol startupsLeaving the error where it is. Editing still messy for me on Lemmy.

Aux ,

Because the users are their product.

GatoB ,

In the fediverse you are a person and you are imporant, not a product to get the max profit from

Aux ,

OP didn’t mention Fediverse. How’s your comment relevant?

GatoB ,

Its related? It did mention people and I talked about people

Aux ,

Calling a person a “it” is a bit offensive…

Aux ,

Calling a person an “it” is a bit offensive… And no, it’s not related.

GatoB ,

What person xd, I was refering to the comment

RIotingPacifist ,

Part of it is the standard crisis of capitalism, the profit you get from doing the same thing always declines, so over time you have to push up revenue (increasing prices, forcing people to pay, showing more ads, gathering more data, etc) & push down costs (fire engineers, run on less hardware, etc)

Part of it is capitalisms natural tendency to create monopolies, and the lack of competition in a given field causing the company to then lose sight of what it’s good at to compete in a bigger field.

Part is that interest rates mean loans are no longer cheap, so taking on debt to get customer, to at some point down the line make money, is a less viable plan. Twitter is a special case where the bad loans are because that was the original deal not interested rate related, and Musk is trying to pull all of the enshitification levers at the same time.

Part is that CEOs generally don’t have a fucking clue about their products or what they are doing (it’s a circuit job about who you know/blow, not what you know), so once one CEO starts firing/enshitifying, the rest just copy them so as to not be left out.

traveler01 ,

I wouldn’t blame them being pure greed on capitalism honestly.

RIotingPacifist ,

It’s not pure greed though, if companies do not push down costs & push up revenues enough, they get replaced by those that do.

It is capitalism doing what it does “best”, here’s a clip from I’m A Virgo that explains it better than me: youtu.be/lpagmvYZKRc?t=84

There are niches where companies can hide out for a while, especially if they provide a service that needs local implementation, but social media isn’t one of those niches, if you get outcompeted, your toast, no matter how big you peak, MySpace, Tumbler, Digg, Slashdot, etc, this is the monopolization effect of markets.

Skooshjones ,
@Skooshjones@vlemmy.net avatar

Capitalism is a system built on greed as a foundation to function. In a capitalist system, you must always continue to grow, expand, engulf, absorb, and acquire. This is why it is such a toxic and destructive system. Capitalism will always incentivize companies to get the most people possible to spend as much as possible on as little as possible, that’s literally the core principle of maximizing profitability.

It’s why enshittification keeps happening, the system isn’t broken, it’s working exactly how it’s supposed to.

jwagner7813 ,

Wouldn’t capitalism be relatively fine without the function of the Stock Exchange? I feel like the stock Exchange is what causes the issue with the need for continual growth. I feel like capitalism without the overarching need to continuously grow due to the demands of the stock exchange system, could work perfectly fine as you wouldn’t need to continuously grow but to maintain a profit and adjust for inflation where needed.

Skooshjones ,
@Skooshjones@vlemmy.net avatar

Capitalism codifies the acquisition and control of capital by an owning class separate from the workers (employees). The owners always want to see their profits grow, because in a system that is zero sum, where competition is glorified as the primary mechanism for fair pricing and business success, if you aren’t growing, then other competitors will eventually extinguish you.

Capitalism mimics evolution in that way, where all organisms compete against each other in a winner-takes-all setting. Talk to any hardcore Capitalist and they will talk about Capitalism being the “natural order”, “human nature” etc. I know, I used to be a hardcore free market capitalist.

A system that places profit and private ownership of capital above all else will always result in the kinds of oppressive systems and company practices we see today.

It’s like how fundamentalist religious institutions are having abuse scandals over and over for literal centuries. They are built in such a way that makes abuse easy to get away with. Even if it starts out perfectly clean, safe, and incorrupt, eventually the very structure of the organization itself will cause abusers to join or allow already abusive people to commit those acts without significant consequences. It is a negative feedback loop that perpetuates itself until it collapses totally or is extinguished by an outside force.

BoastfulDaedra ,

“Enshitify” is my new favorite word, right after “Polymascotfoamalate”.

GoodKingElliot ,
@GoodKingElliot@feddit.uk avatar

Well, I hope the Fediverse works out. Otherwise I think were gonna have to go back to hand printing zines.

Chalky_Pockets ,

You joke, but Reddit did something to piss me off a few months before the current fuckery, and I decided to find an alt and there weren’t really any, like I found Mastodon but that’s more of a Twitter replacement, never encountered this site while searching. What I ended up doing was downloading a bunch of books and putting them on my phone, then putting the books app where my Apollo app used to be on my homescreen. Now, more often than not, when I go to scroll, I end up just opening a book. I’ve got a little over 40 on there, they keep my progress, even across devices, and they work when there’s no signal so I no longer have to fear public toilets with shitty cell signal lol.

Ithi ,

That’s a good idea. There’s so much stuff I should/could be reading in the time I’m browsing social media.

Especiallybas a software dev with all the new tech that is coming out, will hopefully get myself to do the same (with Lemmy as a backup of course)

Chalky_Pockets ,

Yeah, I did download a few SW engineering books, but I haven’t gotten to them. I’ve been reading Chris Hadfields books, the Apollo Murders and and Astronauts guide to life on Earth, a few cooking books like The Food Lab, The Wok, Salt Fat Acid and Heat, Mi Cochina, and some books on playing pool like The Pleasures of Small Motions.

Thymos ,

The Pleasures of Small Motions

That’s such an awesome title. I just wish it wasn’t about pool but more like a meditative guide on how to enjoy life through slowing down and relishing everyday things or something.

Chalky_Pockets ,

Having read the book, if you read it for that purpose, it would work, it just uses playing pool as a medium for that.

Feweroptions ,

What app? I could use that for sure

HamalaKarris ,

I would also love to know the app! I actually did the exact same thing except I used my To-Do list app where Reddit is Fun used to be and it has honestly helped already.

mapiki ,

I used Libby. (Just go grab a local library card and see if you can dig up any old library cards from anywhere else you’ve lived… You can have multiple libraries linked.) Also great for audiobooks.

markovianparallax , (edited )

Yes! That’s awesome. Come join us in !bookclub to discuss books!

0xDEADBEEF ,

It always boils down to corporate greed unfortunately

Pup ,

Because the days of just shoveling money into various silicon valley projects in the hope that maybe they’ll turn a profit eventually is over. Big investment firms now want an actual return from their investment, and because of that, tech companies are desperately trying whatever they can to turn a profit from these massive services that are also very expensive to run. That usually comes in the form of changes that makes things harder for the users, but is significantly more profitable for the companies that run them.

Contravariant ,

For some more context, this is probably tied into at least two things. One is that the bubble was starting to be recognized for what it was. The other is that interest rates became positive again, so the bar for a good investment suddenly went from “I’ll be happy if I get my money back” to “I want to be paid back double within 20 years”.

wizel10 ,

I’m just waiting for the ads bubble to explore. There is very little real ROI. As a user, my eyes and mind are well training to avoid seeing any ad that traverses the adblocker, I never clic on any PROMOTED content nor on any link of the ad-top results. Always REJECT cookies I’ve the option. The advertising companies pay on what they believe I’m seeing, but on what I really see (and care). Just waiting for the day they realize and stop wasting money and disturbance.

MyNameIsIgglePiggle ,

I agree with you, but recently started a Distillery and I’m able to get a positive Roi from Facebook ads. To be fair, I have a very compelling offer. Also to be fair, it’s the first time I’ve ever made something that can generate a positive Roi so your point stands.

The hard part for advertisers is there’s very few options to get your message out these days as traditional media has died and people spend so much if their lives on their phones.

Also I think it’s worth noting that if you are on Lemmy you are probably in a class of more savvy and - dare I say - intelligent than the average bear scrolling Facebook.

Feweroptions , (edited )

People like you and I are very rare. Advertising is effective. About 5% of people buy something because of any given ad (if you think about it, even we can probably admit to buying something now and then after seeing an ad). If you pay a little to reach millions of people, that converts into a really good ROI.

meldroc ,

Seeing that so much of the traffic on the big social media sites these days is bots, I’m thinking the day that bubble pops is close. Advertisers tend to get upset if they’re spending good money to serve ads to bots that will never buy anything. That, and ad-blindness like you mentioned, and blowback because ads are getting really fucking obnoxious right now. And with Elon’s platforming of hate, and Reddit’s nerfing of moderators, advertisers are going to see their ads displayed next to some nazi toxicity, and that’ll make them upset.

The advertisers will run their analytics, and find that the ads they’re paying for are doing less and less in terms of actually getting people to buy,

KD_14 ,

No ROI?? Google 60b, Apple 99b, msft 72b. You are delusional.

wizel10 ,

I’ve expressed wrongly. My intend was to refer the companies paying for the ad not the ones ma amazing the ads. Also ROI wanted to refer to the return for the investment on ads.

givesomefucks ,

Yeah, it’s not just the current state that’s the problem.

If these companies didn’t spend 20 years not worrying about making a profit, they’d have had sustainable growth and be able to stand on their own long ago.

At this point no one could turn them around, it’s too late.

And it’s not just the lack of big money. The entire startup business model is the main investors immediately selling very small chunks to normal people. With the whole economy in the shitter, the big investors after an IPO are going to have to hold for a while before they can sell without nosediving the price.

hi117 ,

Because users are not the customer but the product for others. And with network effects meaning there’s less competition (ie no place to go to), then they no longer have to attempt to appease the product and can focus on appeasing customers.

Zithero ,

They forget the users are their base, not their employees, or are bought by idiot billionaires who think they can turn the platform I to another money printer (or tax write-off)

Spez in particular saw Twitter and thought that would be a great idea.

I don’t think he understands he’s about to be CEO of Tumblr 2.0

MyNameIsIgglePiggle ,

Or famously digg

Redknots ,
@Redknots@lemmy.world avatar

I think part of it has been watching Twitter just completely abandon any attempts at treating users and developers well, and seeing that people are still active there. Reddit sees Twitter completely fuck over third party devs, and realizes they can do the same and weather the storm, and have it all work out well enough for them.

Wisi_eu ,
@Wisi_eu@sh.itjust.works avatar

Money.

peinnoir ,

Time for a open-source youtube alternative, I haven’t yet been convinced that Odysee, Rumble, Nebula are it.

firewyre ,

The problem is hosting costs for all those video files.

jordanlund ,

They haven’t yet realized that a platform dependent on user created content and user run moderation, is infinitely replaceable. See Fark and Digg.

Reddit and Twitter and just the latest to learn the lesson. Without your users, you may as well be MySpace.

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