capitalism is the fundamental problem
I disagree, unprofitable sites becoming popular then being destroyed by aggressive monetization ultimately resulting in their failure and the loss of loads of useful information isn’t something to strive for.
These sites need to not hemorrhage money, they shouldn’t be milk cows either. The problem is unnecessary overhead, for example reddit having 1,400 employees.
We’re not arguing against profitability. However, making growth and profit central to social platforms is the culprit.
Tatar- is correct. “growth” is the problem inherent in publicly traded corporations. Growth sounds good. Living things grow!
But growth in this case means expansion,literally unlimited (in theory) which is how you take something quite viable (coffee, food, net service) and turn it into a monster that needs to endlessly grow, cut corners, cut salaroes, etc.
Growth has little to do with profit. Public corps are sold (shares) and to maintain/increase value of those shares, get monetarily bigger.
The whole “IPO” thing is a model based on this expectation of future growth.
Not profit salaries and goods, like a corner store. THAT could be sustainable.
That’s the reason the product exists for. They have to increase the value for their shareholders.