Platform Decay

[Deep Dish]

I recently learned about a theory of platform decay. It applies to social media, but also Amazon, Spotify, and ride sharing apps.

First, a platform is good to users, to draw people in.

Then, once enough people are locked in, they will screw over users to cater to business users. Once businesses are locked in, they will screw over business users to seize all value for itself.

Then, the platform dies.

Cory Doctorow, who calls this ensh*ttification, has said this is the inevitable consequence of a dual buyer and seller market.

This just happened with Spotify which now will not pay royalties to musicians who are deemed to not generate enough listens, screwing over small musicians.

 

[Serenity]

It's the consequence of practically being a monopoly. What alternative is there? There are competitors, but they can't really compete.

For social media an alternative platform is worthless if their friends and followers aren't even on it. On Spotify users won't switch because no other platform can offer that much music, the artists won't switch because no other platform can offer that many listeners. YouTube also has this problem, viewers stay because that's where their favorite content creators are, the content creators stay because that's where their viewers are.

What all these platforms have in common is that they don't produce anything, they just facilitate a very convenient way for buyers and seller to meet in one place, while leeching a cut from everyone. Their entire value lies in a lot of people using their service, which is also why it's near impossible to compete. It's a catch-22, to realistically compete you need a ton of users to give value to your platform, but you need value on your platform to get a ton of users.

 

[SW15]

Caleb Jones (Alpha Male 2.0, formerly Blackdragon) had a similar model discussing platform decay with online dating platforms.

How To Be Successful With Online Dating FOREVER - Alpha Male 2.0

Every online dating technology, whether it’s a website, an app, or a service, goes through five phases of effectiveness. When you understand these phases and you use them to your advantage, you will no longer be worried when a certain dating site, service, or app stops working or doesn’t work as...

alphamale20.com

 

[Serenity]

It's just a new form of planned obsolescence. Capitalism at it's finest.

I would say it's the opposite of planned obsolescence. Physical products need to become unusable after a time to motivate the customer to get the new model. Online platforms seek to do the opposite, keep you using it for as long as possible while they milk as much value as they can out of you.

In most cases you're not even the customer on these platforms, you're the product to be sold.

 

[The Duke]

So what happened to Myspace? Does the decay theory apply?