the money is drying up, gotta find new ways to monetise
gringo_papi@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The internet has gotten 3x shittier in the last 12 months.
gnuplusmatt@startrek.website 1 year ago
snaggen@programming.dev 1 year ago
All these services turning into shit, are the services without a viable business model to begin with. What I find interesting is that it is obviously possible to become leading in a field, just by burning investors money.
PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee 1 year ago
It wouldn’t matter if they were drowning in money, if you told them they could have a few pennies more from each customer, they’ll do it. It’s how greed works.
GladiusB@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Covid kindness is over. Buckle up buckaroos.
CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 1 year ago
There’s a reason for it, people don’t push back enough. We all need to push back more than we have been.
They’re noticing the pushback so far, but they’re thinking they can break through it and come out victorious on the other side.
Do you really want to pay a monthly fee to be forced to watch commercials?
The whole point of commercials was that you didn’t have to pay otherwise to watch the show.
Blastasaurus@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I’ve cancelled everything in my life that requires a monthly payment (asides vehicle and rent).
It’s not that I can’t afford it, it’s that I’m fucking sick of it.
FordPrefect@startrek.website 1 year ago
^ This.
CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 1 year ago
And that’s how they win, it’s what they count on. It’s a death by a thousand cuts for us and more profits for them.
Don’t give up now, you won’t just fail yourself, you’ll fail everyone, if you do.
cyberpunk007@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Apparently this is how cable started, and then they did the same thing lol
CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 1 year ago
That was in back before the Internet though.
cyberpunk007@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The internet was invented in the 60s
PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Partly, this is because “the free market will solve it” is just a neoliberal lie. Sometimes, there’s simply no other choice as corporations race each other to the bottom.
So this streaming service might have gotten shitty, espensive or unethical, but you can move to another right? Oh no, looks like they’re shitty and unethical too, just slightly differently.
Then in six months time, they’ve each absorbed one another’s shitty, greedy practises anyway, ensuring consumers are fully exploited with nowhere else to go.
But the true power of neoliberalism lies in its giant book of premade excuses, so neoliberals (or neoliberals in disguise) will of course read from the next page:
“Oh that’s just because there isn’t enough competition. We just need to deregulate heavily and allow companies to do whatever the streaming equivalent of dumping toxic by-products in the river is!”
But of course, that won’t ever come true either. The companies that already exist will grow more profitable polluting the river and new entries into the market will be either stamped out, bought and stripped for parts or enshittified by the same greed over time.
Following the flowchart taught at exclusive, expensive schools the world over, the next excuse is to blame the consumers.
“Oh if people really cared, they’d simply stop buying things entirely. But they don’t, because these companies continue to bring in record profits. So secretly, consumers actually love their chocolate being picked by child slaves”.
While they do fight back with boycotts, public outcry and (in this case) things like password sharing and piracy, it’s nothing companies can’t crush if it looks like it might actually dent their profits.
At some point, consumers need to pick their misery and the choices are bleak but obvious.
They can accept the minor misery of advertising, even as they pay a subscription, just like the corporation knew they would.
They can escalate their own misery further by boycotting the entire platform or industry.
But the moral high ground doesn’t make spending your few hours of personal time each day staring at the wall suddenly as entertaining as whatever content you’re no longer watching.
Also, the company doesn’t care. That was part of their calculations and they’re still making even more money.
Or finally, they could maximise their misery and actually do something, like busting out the guillotines or becoming a politician that opposes neoliberalism yet is somehow allowed power.
So anyway, people are tired. The fight never ends and some people have fought it for 50 years already. Encourage them to take the third option by all means, but don’t shame them for taking the first option.
They might already be miserable enough.
CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Honestly don’t mean this as an insult, but you might want to consider being more concise, so that your point comes across better.
I’m not purposely trying to shame people, but I’ll definitely get on their cases if they don’t push back and let this crap continue.
It’s called consumer advocacy, and it shouldn’t be shamed away and not done. Those who are causing the problems in society would benefit the most if this happened.
If we all work together, it’s been proven that it does turn things around.
It’s not my fault they’re that way, it’s the fault of the people making society horrible so they can selfishly make more money for themselves, which must be fought against.
The ones making Society horrible definitely win when no one pushes back.
PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I’m cool with ranting. I enjoy the act of writing, blogs are long dead and it’s important to articulate why so many things in the world are fucking shit.
When?
They also win when people do push back, because thats how the game has been rigged. The extent of the public’s power is making them win slightly less.
The only way to stop companies doing unethical things is strict regulations, ruthlessly enforced. The only times “consumer advocacy” ever works is when the government steps in, which is why the ultra wealthy go to so much effort to ensure they never do.
One good person in politics, with power, is worth a million people boycotting.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
And the thing is, the product everyone’s got their butts in a bunch over is garbage television. Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, Maytag Plus, there’s nothing good on any of them.