It feels like one of those timeless patterns of history where a ruler in any domain — whether an Emperor, a Founder CEO, or even a teacher in a classroom — initially serves his people, but when that ruler acquires too much power over a long period of time, he starts to believe the people serve him. I’m sure there’s a wise Confucius proverb describing precisely this…
Highly recommend: https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/how-web-platforms-collapse-the-facebook
Direct quotes:
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Why do I need to log in to Reddit to read comments? Why can’t I fix a spelling error on Twitter? Why can’t I find the names of the band members on Spotify? Why is the whole first page of Google search results sometimes filled with paid advertising? Why does TikTok send all my private data to China?
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It’s obvious that these companies didn’t do focus groups or market research before making these decisions. Or if they did, they must have ignored what they learned.
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I’ve focused here on Facebook, but there’s a larger lesson here. Web platforms don’t fail because of the competition. They don’t self-destruct because they are weak. The collapse comes because they are strong. They lose the thread because of their dominance and power, which gives their leaders the mindset of authoritarian rulers.
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The solution is simple: *Serve the users, instead of manipulating them*