- #1
- 23,522
- 10,863
- TL;DR Summary
- "We may be at this point in tech, where supposedly revolutionary products are becoming eerily similar to the previous offerings they were supposed to beat."
https://www.businessinsider.com/tec...-cloud-computing-2023-8?utm_source=reddit.com
This article laments the fact that rideshare services, streaming and cloud services prices are going up, eliminating their upside. This was inevitable, as the companies/services were previously unprofitable or unreasonably below the market, and everyone knew it. The business model is a half-twist on the old early 20th century monopolies: enter a new marked by undercutting the market prices, grow market share, then raise the prices. Except instead of starting off as monopolies, startups start with billions in venture capital and a decade grace period before investors wanted to see a profit.
My girlfriend (database administrator) keeps saying that technology has become cyclical and the cloud is the new mainframe. Data reliability might be somewhat better with cloud computing, but that's not why people are switching to it; it's all about cost.
Netflix was the only game in town for a shockingly long time, but it was inevitable that other streaming services would join the party, and the pandemic cemented that. RIP my Netflix DVD service. I'd hoped the spinoff a few years ago would keep it going, but nope, they just spun it off so they could later kill it. Still....maybe it'll come back? Either way, the fight for viewership is far from over, but the playing field is leveling-off between streaming and cable. I never cancelled my cable anyway....though I'm worried about where football is going.
Uber is the worst, as we've discussed here previously. The business model was never viable. It always relied on predation to grow market share: Enter a new market, break a few laws, but as long as you have a billion dollars worth of lawyers and several billion in loss tolerance you can negotiate and stall your way out of that. And now Uber drivers are starting to realize they are just underpaid non-unionized taxi drivers.
Tesla, too. They've awoken the sleeping giants.
Tech companies have always been given loss grace and absurdly optimistic valuation, at least for the last 40 years since the computer/internet revolution started. But my perception is that much of the earlier tech boom was in truly new technology/services. Recently it seems like they are making incremental improvements on existing products/services but still being treated as if they are revolutionary. I'd like to think there's an end to the madness coming, but venture capitalists seem pretty insatiable, and they are the ones who make Ubers possible. But moving forward we'll just have to see how many Ubers there are left amongst the Juiceros.
This article laments the fact that rideshare services, streaming and cloud services prices are going up, eliminating their upside. This was inevitable, as the companies/services were previously unprofitable or unreasonably below the market, and everyone knew it. The business model is a half-twist on the old early 20th century monopolies: enter a new marked by undercutting the market prices, grow market share, then raise the prices. Except instead of starting off as monopolies, startups start with billions in venture capital and a decade grace period before investors wanted to see a profit.
My girlfriend (database administrator) keeps saying that technology has become cyclical and the cloud is the new mainframe. Data reliability might be somewhat better with cloud computing, but that's not why people are switching to it; it's all about cost.
Netflix was the only game in town for a shockingly long time, but it was inevitable that other streaming services would join the party, and the pandemic cemented that. RIP my Netflix DVD service. I'd hoped the spinoff a few years ago would keep it going, but nope, they just spun it off so they could later kill it. Still....maybe it'll come back? Either way, the fight for viewership is far from over, but the playing field is leveling-off between streaming and cable. I never cancelled my cable anyway....though I'm worried about where football is going.
Uber is the worst, as we've discussed here previously. The business model was never viable. It always relied on predation to grow market share: Enter a new market, break a few laws, but as long as you have a billion dollars worth of lawyers and several billion in loss tolerance you can negotiate and stall your way out of that. And now Uber drivers are starting to realize they are just underpaid non-unionized taxi drivers.
Tesla, too. They've awoken the sleeping giants.
Tech companies have always been given loss grace and absurdly optimistic valuation, at least for the last 40 years since the computer/internet revolution started. But my perception is that much of the earlier tech boom was in truly new technology/services. Recently it seems like they are making incremental improvements on existing products/services but still being treated as if they are revolutionary. I'd like to think there's an end to the madness coming, but venture capitalists seem pretty insatiable, and they are the ones who make Ubers possible. But moving forward we'll just have to see how many Ubers there are left amongst the Juiceros.
