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Ambitious, VC backed business has grown a few amazingly successful businesses, while many more have hopelessly dashed on the rocks. Do consumers ultimately win

Ambitious, VC backed business has grown a few amazingly successful businesses, while many more have hopelessly dashed on the rocks. Do consumers ultimately win from this kind of king-making and gamesmanship? Within the ecosystem of a company, we certainly receive lots of benefits: * Services we don't pay money for - Github, Google Search, Facebook Messenger * Services we receive a hefty discount on (for now) - Uber and Lyft rides * Ambitious projects that require hefty upfront investment - SpaceX, Tesla (all of the above) On the macro level, I'm not qualified to say whether we could end up getting these benefits from self-funded or lifetime profitable businesses in the same sphere. But I fundamentally agree that not every entrepreneur needs to take over the world. Making your "dent in the universe" by providing a sustainable, considerate and quality (paid) service is a meaningful achievement and worthy goal.

bandrami 10y ago
So, this isn't a popular view here, but I think things like Google Search and Facebook Messenger are a large part of why the Web is a much worse place now than it was fifteen years ago. If you don't see the past decade and a half as a regression, then I could see agreeing with your argument. But I definitely do see it as one.
- mshenfield 10y ago
  Someone's got to pay the piper eventually. "Pay with your soul" services like Facebook and Google are not without their tradeoffs.
- piva00 10y ago
  Define what is "worse" in that context for you. Without a proper definition I can't agree with you at all. Worse regarding privacy concerns? Of course it is, I would never disagree with that. Worse as an end user? Hell the fucking no. Before Google it was terribly hard to really find what you were looking for, I can't even imagine how many man-years humanity would have lost without Google Search.
  - bandrami 10y ago
    It's absolutely worse as an end user, privacy issues aside. Everything loads slowly. My cursor jumps around and I'm never clicking what I intend to click. Things that should be paginated instead infini-scroll, and things that shouldn't be paginated are ("These five amazing photos will translate into 15 page impressions for us because you have to click next three times for each!")

bandrami 10y ago

So, this isn't a popular view here, but I think things like Google Search and Facebook Messenger are a large part of why the Web is a much worse place now than it was fifteen years ago. If you don't see the past decade and a half as a regression, then I could see agreeing with your argument. But I definitely do see it as one.

mshenfield 10y ago
Someone's got to pay the piper eventually. "Pay with your soul" services like Facebook and Google are not without their tradeoffs.
piva00 10y ago
Define what is "worse" in that context for you. Without a proper definition I can't agree with you at all. Worse regarding privacy concerns? Of course it is, I would never disagree with that. Worse as an end user? Hell the fucking no. Before Google it was terribly hard to really find what you were looking for, I can't even imagine how many man-years humanity would have lost without Google Search.
- bandrami 10y ago
  It's absolutely worse as an end user, privacy issues aside. Everything loads slowly. My cursor jumps around and I'm never clicking what I intend to click. Things that should be paginated instead infini-scroll, and things that shouldn't be paginated are ("These five amazing photos will translate into 15 page impressions for us because you have to click next three times for each!")