What’s with social media companies trying to destroy themselves recently? ( kbin.social )

It’s honestly really sad what’s been happening recently. Reddit with the API pricing on 3rd party apps, Discord with the new username change, Twitter with the rate limits, and Twitch with their new advertising rules (although that has been reverted because of backlash). Why does it seem like every company is collectively on a common mission of destroying themselves in the past few months?

I know the common answer is something around the lines of “because companies only care about making money”, but I still don’t get why it seems like all these social media companies have suddenly agreed to screw themselves during pretty much the period of March-June. One that sticks out to me especially is Reddit CEO, Huffman’s comment (u/spez), “We’ll continue to be profit-driven until profits arrive”. Like reading this literally pisses me off on so many levels. I wouldn’t even have to understand the context behind his comment to say, “I am DONE with you, and I am leaving your site”.

Why is it like this? Does everyone feel the same way? I’m not sure if it’s just me but everything seems to be going downhill these days. I really do hope there is a solution out of this mess.

Edwardo_Elric ,

It's called enshittification of platforms. The article is not about Reddit, but applies just as well.

vtez44 ,

Most of them aren't profitable, especially twitter and reddit. YouTube is also doing it now, they're going after adblocks. They even threatened invidious recently.

But tbh discord change is for good. It's easier to invite someone, especially if they have special chars in nickname.

IntendantTradwife ,

Simultanous enshittification. If they see that the competitors are enshittifying, then it's the perfect opportunity to enshittify themselves without the risk of losing significant market share to the competitors! Every gets worse; no one loses except the users, and who gives a shit about those poors? /s

Quik2007 ,

Twitter and Reddit both want to get profitable fast - which doesn’t work, as both companies have never been profitable and don’t have any experience with actually making money.
The reasons behind this are different (Elon just wants to make some money after he bought Twitter, Reddit wants to be somewhat presentable for an IPO), but the effects are similar and make me question if we’re at the end of the "free corporate social media" era of the internet.

Discord has two possible reasons for that specific change. For one it wants to get more mainstream and therefore loses parts of what made it special as a social network (e.g. the special username system).
I also think Discord (over-)reacts to its spam/scam problem here and tries to make usernames more distinctive.

Chozo ,

I feel like the VC/investor money that's kept huge swaths of the internet afloat for the last 20 years is finally starting to run dry. All these huge platforms who have been in "burn mode" since they were founded never figured out how to become profitable earlier on, and are now scrambling to keep themselves sustainable.

It's hard to feel sorry for them, even in the midst of their downfall. They've all had plenty of time to prepare for the day the their corporate sugar daddies leave them, and instead sought short-term profits over long-term sustainability.

I do feel bad for the communities, though. We've basically seen the Walmart-ification of the internet, where a few big corporate entities moved into the neighborhood and basically took over the landscape with their presence, effectively strong-arming smaller competition out of existence. So it'll be good to see more homegrown communities sprout back up in their place again.

Maybe we can see something like this happen with actual Walmarts soon, too. :)

DooshDoosh ,

It seems as if there is a bubble about to pop tbh. Along with twitter/reddit, it seems that even youtube is desperately trying to squeeze profit from a dried lemon by testing to see if users will stop using adblockers.

Tashlan ,
@Tashlan@kbin.social avatar

I think the dirty secret is that social media is both an incredibly vital part of people's lives and businesses, but it's free and ad revenue doesn't really make anyone the crazy profits their valuations suggest it should. That it's happening all at once is I think partly attributable to financial tightening -- higher interest rates mean people have less patience with money they've floated, partly that Twitter going weird gave everyone else cover to do the same, and my personal opinion, the Writer's Strike gives a little room for the companies to do dumb shit without having to worry about getting roasted on late night.

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