this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
2265 points (97.7% liked)

Technology

60041 readers
1902 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Tech's broken promises: Streaming is now just as expensive and confusing as cable. Ubers cost as much as taxis. And the cloud is no longer cheap::Some tech is getting pricier and looking a lot like the older services it was supposed to beat. From video streaming to ride-hailing and cloud computing.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's not even that; those services were subsidized by investors money on this idea that once you get a user base, you can then capitalize on the user base.

Those promises were made at a loss which later had to become a profit. It's like Discord, there's no way hosting literal hundreds of thousands of servers for free and killing all the competition can and will continue indefinitely. I wouldn't be surprised if their monetization gets even more aggressive because transmitting all of that audio and video is not cheap.

That's not even a "capitalism" thing, that's just a "someone's got to do the work thing" and the majority of gamers went "yup that somebody can not be free!" And what always happens does, the existing solutions lost tons of revenue and became increasingly stagnant because they can't compete with "free".

That's why I've started paying for stuff (even when there's a "free" option or paying more for domestically produced goods -- even when there's a "cheaper" option). Cheap isn't cheap when it comes to manufactured goods (i.e., cheap imported junk), and free isn't free when it comes to online services. Ultimately, somebody's gotta make "free" happen (even if it's a government, and then that really means the tax payer).

The race to the bottom only exists because that's what people vote for with their wallets. If it wasn't rewarded with sales, it wouldn't happen.