4 ms·
Easy to criticize but to be consistent you'd also have to consider non-VC-backed products dumped at below price by regular companies too, and that would get unc
by revelio 3y ago
Easy to criticize but to be consistent you'd also have to consider non-VC-backed products dumped at below price by regular companies too, and that would get uncomfortable real fast:
- Chrome
- VS Code
- LetsEncrypt
- Everything open source
etc. Sometimes I wonder how much this practice distorts the software industry, preventing new innovations from happening. The industry settled on this approach without being forced to, so I wouldn't want legal changes to prevent it either, but it's worth a bit of self-reflection on how much we all love free stuff.
- arcticbull 3y agoRecovering your costs through advertising isn't really dumping. Chrome definitely makes Google way more money than they put into it.
- Andrex 3y agoAlso, outside of Opera, all browsers (that I know of) have been free for over two decades.
- revelio 3y agoI recall that it wasn't seen that way when Microsoft used Windows revenues to push IE and crush Netscape. It was called product tying back then. You don't hear much about it anymore.
- wmf 3y agoChrome and IE did not have the same business model. If we look back at Netscape vs. IE they both had predatory nonexistent business models.
- revelio 3y agoNetscape was payware in the beginning? Not sure how that's non-existent? Even after they were forced to go free by Microsoft, they were selling servers which are the compliment of browsers.
- HDThoreaun 3y agoChrome and vscode are integral parts of Google's and Microsoft's strategy and absolutely make them tons of money via increased usage of their main product(search and enterprise productivity suite).
- revelio 3y agoHow does VS Code increase usage of Office?
- spondylosaurus 3y agoBy "enterprise productivity suite" I assume they meant GitHub.