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Imagine being so good at delivering value to both users and advertisers that even the President of the United States is jealous of the amount of money you make

Imagine being so good at delivering value to both users and advertisers that even the President of the United States is jealous of the amount of money you make for his own country and wants to spitefully end all that. Sent from my $100 Android phone bought off Amazon through Google Chrome after my friend told me about it on Whatsapp. Alex Jones never delivered that type of value to me and you are free to listen to his content on his website, which I do from time to time.

Apocryphon 8y ago
Are they truly the best at delivering value, or are they simply good enough that their second-mover advantages, coupled with network effects, prevented potential future entrants from shaking up the market and providing better value? Ask '90s Microsoft that.
- anoncoward111 8y ago
  My phone is South Korean. I use an open source desktop operating system developed mostly by French and German volunteers. If anyone ever makes replacements to Android and Whatsapp that are better, I will use them, even if they are North Korean or Siberian or whatever they may be. 90s Microsoft certainly was a big monopoly that has now faced a lot of competition. But I, as a freeloader, sure did write a lot of essays in Word. I just never paid for a copy.
dbmikus 8y ago
Trump definitely speaks like a lunatic, and I can't parse if any of his opinions come from a place other than feeling slighted, but I see the issue with big tech is that they keep buying up or copying and exterminating competitors. Yes, we derive a lot of value from them, but who's to say that we would not have gotten greater value from a proliferation of social services or from Google not directly harming other specialized search products. That line of thinking falls on the EU end of the spectrum, where they value market competition versus the US where they look at things just through the consumer lense. It's hard to say which is better.
- MBCook 8y ago
  We’ve had discussions along these lines before on hacker news. There is a definitely a contingent of people, myself included, who think they should’ve been regulated or broken up quite a while ago. Unfortunately that’s not the motivation behind this story. So doesn’t really seem worth discussing now.
aokiji 8y ago
What is coordinated censorship by multiple tech giants? What are dark patterns and patenting technology such as a loan desirability ranking based on one's social circle socioeconomic standings? What is crushing your employees under brutal work conditions until they faint? What value do you provide as a giant multinational tech corporation when you are subverting the country where you spawned by opening the door to fifth-column Chinese interest groups? What is the value of a Google top executive demanding that anonymity be destroyed online and elsewhere? For who are you shilling?
- dang 8y ago
  We've banned this account for breaking the site guidelines and ignoring our request to stop. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
krapp 8y ago
Trump isn't jealous of these companies because of the money they make, he's a billionaire himself and probably owns more stock in them than you or I could afford. He believes they're part of a liberal conspiracy to silence him and is using antitrust as a pretense to threaten them.
- aokiji 8y ago
  It has been proven that conservatives and supporters of Trump are being censored and shadow-banned. What is your point?
- anoncoward111 8y ago
  That is absolutely correct, but you would probably agree that he also wishes to use his political power to bring that revenue stream to an entity or group of entities that are alligned to him in some way. He wouldn't just destroy that revenue stream and let someone else swallow it up. I'm not joking, don't be surprised if some consortium of right-wing businesses start getting subcontracting rights over this stufff
  - krapp 8y ago
    >but you would probably agree that he also wishes to use his political power to bring that revenue stream to an entity or group of entities that are alligned to him in some way Oh, definitely. That's the one thing I trust him to be competent at.
    - anoncoward111 8y ago
      The classic Trumpian move-- destroy value for others in exchange for personal financial gain, logic be damned.
      - Chris_Chambers 8y ago
        I’m sure you can provide at least two clear past examples of this “Trumpian move”.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
noobermin 8y ago
What point are you trying to make, also why are you bringing Alex Jones into this story?
- anoncoward111 8y ago
  Alex Jones was kicked off of all these platforms. Trump is decently close with Alex Jones. It's not a coinsidence that when AJ was kicked off a week or two ago, Trump suddenly came out to say that someone could consider breaking up these companies via Federal action.
golemiprague 8y ago
The problem with Alex Jones is not the value, it is that facebook, twitter et al are the de facto city square and the only city square of our times and the first amendment should be applied to them like any other public space. It is also not fair that some small bakery was forced to bake a cake for a gay couple wedding against their religion but those big companies get away with discriminating who they serve and who they don't, not even doing some specific thing to an Alex Jones event, just serving him in general. It is even worst because this bakery is a personal business and was forced to actively participate in something against their religion and believes while facebook is a corporation with different people and different believes so nobody can attribute what Alex Jones is saying to someone specific. What Trump is about and always was about is standing against the oppression of the American people by a small elite which apply two different laws to them and the rest of the country.

Apocryphon 8y ago

Are they truly the best at delivering value, or are they simply good enough that their second-mover advantages, coupled with network effects, prevented potential future entrants from shaking up the market and providing better value? Ask '90s Microsoft that.

anoncoward111 8y ago
My phone is South Korean. I use an open source desktop operating system developed mostly by French and German volunteers. If anyone ever makes replacements to Android and Whatsapp that are better, I will use them, even if they are North Korean or Siberian or whatever they may be. 90s Microsoft certainly was a big monopoly that has now faced a lot of competition. But I, as a freeloader, sure did write a lot of essays in Word. I just never paid for a copy.

dbmikus 8y ago

Trump definitely speaks like a lunatic, and I can't parse if any of his opinions come from a place other than feeling slighted, but I see the issue with big tech is that they keep buying up or copying and exterminating competitors. Yes, we derive a lot of value from them, but who's to say that we would not have gotten greater value from a proliferation of social services or from Google not directly harming other specialized search products. That line of thinking falls on the EU end of the spectrum, where they value market competition versus the US where they look at things just through the consumer lense. It's hard to say which is better.

MBCook 8y ago
We’ve had discussions along these lines before on hacker news. There is a definitely a contingent of people, myself included, who think they should’ve been regulated or broken up quite a while ago. Unfortunately that’s not the motivation behind this story. So doesn’t really seem worth discussing now.

aokiji 8y ago

What is coordinated censorship by multiple tech giants? What are dark patterns and patenting technology such as a loan desirability ranking based on one's social circle socioeconomic standings? What is crushing your employees under brutal work conditions until they faint? What value do you provide as a giant multinational tech corporation when you are subverting the country where you spawned by opening the door to fifth-column Chinese interest groups? What is the value of a Google top executive demanding that anonymity be destroyed online and elsewhere? For who are you shilling?

dang 8y ago
We've banned this account for breaking the site guidelines and ignoring our request to stop. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

krapp 8y ago

Trump isn't jealous of these companies because of the money they make, he's a billionaire himself and probably owns more stock in them than you or I could afford. He believes they're part of a liberal conspiracy to silence him and is using antitrust as a pretense to threaten them.

aokiji 8y ago
It has been proven that conservatives and supporters of Trump are being censored and shadow-banned. What is your point?
anoncoward111 8y ago
That is absolutely correct, but you would probably agree that he also wishes to use his political power to bring that revenue stream to an entity or group of entities that are alligned to him in some way. He wouldn't just destroy that revenue stream and let someone else swallow it up. I'm not joking, don't be surprised if some consortium of right-wing businesses start getting subcontracting rights over this stufff
- krapp 8y ago
  >but you would probably agree that he also wishes to use his political power to bring that revenue stream to an entity or group of entities that are alligned to him in some way Oh, definitely. That's the one thing I trust him to be competent at.
  - anoncoward111 8y ago
    The classic Trumpian move-- destroy value for others in exchange for personal financial gain, logic be damned.
    - Chris_Chambers 8y ago
      I’m sure you can provide at least two clear past examples of this “Trumpian move”.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

noobermin 8y ago

What point are you trying to make, also why are you bringing Alex Jones into this story?

anoncoward111 8y ago
Alex Jones was kicked off of all these platforms. Trump is decently close with Alex Jones. It's not a coinsidence that when AJ was kicked off a week or two ago, Trump suddenly came out to say that someone could consider breaking up these companies via Federal action.

golemiprague 8y ago

The problem with Alex Jones is not the value, it is that facebook, twitter et al are the de facto city square and the only city square of our times and the first amendment should be applied to them like any other public space. It is also not fair that some small bakery was forced to bake a cake for a gay couple wedding against their religion but those big companies get away with discriminating who they serve and who they don't, not even doing some specific thing to an Alex Jones event, just serving him in general. It is even worst because this bakery is a personal business and was forced to actively participate in something against their religion and believes while facebook is a corporation with different people and different believes so nobody can attribute what Alex Jones is saying to someone specific. What Trump is about and always was about is standing against the oppression of the American people by a small elite which apply two different laws to them and the rest of the country.