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Do we have a term for this phenomenon yet? Airbnb is a great example. Uber is another. Regulatory loopholes are the way that these companies actually make money
by allknowingfrog 1y ago
Do we have a term for this phenomenon yet? Airbnb is a great example. Uber is another. Regulatory loopholes are the way that these companies actually make money, but they call it "technology" and everyone kind of shrugs.
- cvs268 1y agoOne term for it is "Regulatory Arbitrage".
- consumer451 1y agoThis has been my favorite SV euphemism for years.
- taberiand 1y ago[flagged]
- forgotTheLast 1y agoThat term has a very specific meaning and I wish people stopped using it to mean "big tech doing something bad"
- wazdra 1y agoWell, doesn't that specific meaning apply here? I mean, the lack of protection for end-users is at first compensated by investment money (low prices and huge effort on support). Once network effect is reached, the unregulated nature of the platform shows, end-users are wronged, only providers profit from the lack of regulation ... Or maybe I don't understand the meaning of enshittification?
- stevage 1y agoIt means something very different from your definition.
- elteto 1y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification
- verdverm 1y agoMy understanding is it is more tied to crafting UX that maximizes profit. Many cases involve both enshittification and regulatory arbitrage (as a peer comment so eloquently put it)
- tsimionescu 1y agoNo. The whole point of enshittification is that it is an intentional process, a bait-and-switch. You get a cool free service, you become dependent on it, and then they start monetizing it and limiting it.
- taberiand 1y agoYes I know, which is why I looked up the Wikipedia definition to make sure I was using it correctly. Stripe provides a trusted service to its users, has a great reputation, then implements changes that will degrade that service by avoiding regulations designed to protect the consumer. Adding blockchain is enshittification.
- wouldbecouldbe 1y agoAirbnb was a bit more then a regulatory loophole, it at least started out as a new way for private homeowners to monetize one of their greatest asset. So it was much more an unused potential that was being tapped in. The regulation that came after has in my personal experience privatized airbnb and now it's hard to find a private renter, when I started using it that was the standard.
- ethbr1 1y agoOnce Airbnb became systemically harmful, regulation followed. Nobody cares about small tech companies breaking the law for a few users. Everyone cares about {insert bad outcome from mass regulatory avoidance}. (Also, of the 3 airbnb founders, one has delusions of being the next Steve Jobs and turning it into an everything app (Chesky), another now works for DOGE (Gebbia), and the last is sucking up to Chinese government data requests (Blecharczyk)... so, yeah, not exactly the sort of folks that should be trusted with light regulation)
- wouldbecouldbe 1y agoI know many many friends who were able to survive an expensive city because of it. Cities that are largely messed up due to the governments stupid games with taxes and interest
- runarberg 1y agoIn my circles we have been calling it unregulated free market capitalism, or laissez faire capitalism. More examples include Uber to bypass taxi regulation, and generative AI to bypass copyright regulation (as well as consumer protection regulation in both cases as well as labor protections).
- School-Cotton 1y agoWhat we're talking about is a much more specific phenomenon than "unregulated free market capitalism". In fact, in an unregulated market, there would be no regulatory arbitrage opportunities, by definition (e.g. Uber would have no reason to exist since taxis would already be unregulated).
- runarberg 1y agoThe idea of the argument (or more accurately the joke) is that Uber is unregulated free market capitalism. It is what happens to the taxi market if they would lift all regulations. Uber’s whole “innovation” was to find a way to be unregulated while most of their competitors were still regulated.
- bongodongobob 1y agoHow does a user use AI to bypass copyright?
- runarberg 1y agoBy training models on unauthorized work and allow users to request them back. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43573156 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43573156
- runarberg 1y agoI need to clarify, parent asked how does a user use AI to bypass copyright. But I answered how an AI company uses AI to bypass copyright. I am under no illusion that if a user of AI requests an image of Indiana Jones and uses it in their art, the rights holders will issue a takedown an would succeed. The AI company that owns the model that generated the model will however not face any consequences, and have therefor successfully have bypassed copyright protections.