this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2024
152 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

37603 readers
516 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
alyaza@beehaw.org
TheRtRevKaiser@beehaw.org
gyrfalcon@beehaw.org
rs5th@beehaw.org
coldredlight@beehaw.org
Los@beehaw.org
SemioticStandard@beehaw.org
TheRtRevKaiser@kbin.social
remington@beehaw.org
152
Does enshitification happen because companies are publicly-traded? (beehaw.org)
submitted 4 months ago by hedge@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
70 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Isn't that a prerequisite for enshitification? Publicly-traded companies are required (by law, I think) to maximize profits for their shareholders, even if that means utterly ruining their original product (Reddit, Boeing, etc.), yes? What do you think?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Enshittification happens due to greed and power; It's just the process of removing the false mask of mutually-beneficient business that Capitalism uses to hide its true self.

First you make users think you're beneficial to them, so they get locked in,

then you make businesses think you are beneficial to them, and get them locked in,

then you give up that facade and admit you don't care about benefitting anyone but yourself.

You can enshittify something even as an individual; it's not being publicly traded that makes it easier or more likely, it's that being a large enough business to be able to successfully enshittify without losing all your customers probably means you're publicly-traded.