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> That's crazy. Etsy is not the market, it is a market. If you don't like it, you move somewhere else. Sufficiently big _a_ thing becomes _the_ thing because o
by glogla 7y ago
> That's crazy. Etsy is not the market, it is a market. If you don't like it, you move somewhere else.
Sufficiently big _a_ thing becomes _the_ thing because of economies of scale, network effects and "the software is eating the world" effects.
See Google, Paypal, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, and so on.
- WalterBright 7y agoAll those companies are well aware that the worse they treat their companies, the more likely competitors will appear. It happens all the time. Big, unstoppable companies become sloppy and complacent, and suddenly find themselves in free fall.
- TheOtherHobbes 7y agoIf by "all the time" you mean "once every couple of decades, often after antitrust intervention", then possibly.
- WalterBright 7y agoSears, Kodak, GE, etc.
- massysett 7y agoHeck, even eBay. In the small-business-to-consumer market, it’s a shadow now compared to Amazon. Ok, at least Amazon does fulfillment so it’s not exactly comparable to ebay. But Etsy? There’s no reason eBay couldn’t be dominating that category. Didn’t take a couple of decades or antitrust intervention to destroy ebay.
- jacknews 7y agoThese were because technology changed, not because of better competitors doing the same thinig
- WalterBright 7y agoThey did the same thing as far as the customer was concerned, only better, thereby offering a better deal to customers, who switched.
- jacknews 7y agobut it negates your point that lazy incumbents will get disrupted by nimbler competitors. That mostly happens when the 'nimbler competitors' are in fact armed with a completely new technology, business model, etc. ie, innovation is the key to change, not just decay of the old making way for more of the same, but more vigorous.
- rcxdude 7y agoThen another huge company grows out of the competitors and begins doing the same thing. Just because the company on top switches out occasionally (and during the transition there is a viable option which isn't abusive), doesn't mean the system is working.
- WalterBright 7y agoPeople switching to another company means it works.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- rcxdude 7y agoJust because the abuser eventually gets replaced, doesn't mean the abuse stops (as mentioned, the replacement then settles into the same behaviour until another competitor comes along). If there's a non-abusive option 20% of the time, and 80% of the time there's only an abusive option, that doesn't strike me as 'working'. I would say the ratio would need to be 90% to 10% (i.e. any company starting to abuse its position loses it very very quickly, and the replacement does not engage in such behaviour for a while), in order for such a system to be anywhere near acceptable.
- fiblye 7y agoI don't want to be condescending here, but I know it'll sound like it. Etsy is small potatoes compared to those companies. It's the most easily avoidable of the bunch. If Etsy makes a truly stupid decision and sellers revolt, they'll be on life support before the year is over.