4 ms·

So how long until Cloudflare joins the hated monopolies list?

by nottorp 11mo ago

gostsamo 11mo ago
I hate them a bit already, but beyond bringing down parts of the internet from time to time and occasional captchas, they are not an everyday annoyance like Google, Microsoft, and the rest.
- cess11 11mo ago
  To me they are, using IPv6 and VPN means CloudFlare has trouble automatically identifying me and pesters me with image captcha loops.
  - esseph 11mo ago
    Funny, I use them to provide ipv6 to ipv4-only endpoints.
    - lillecarl 11mo ago
      He's talking about tunnelbroker from HE being treated as malicious traffic by Cloudflare
      - nottorp 11mo ago
        Of course, soon only cloudflare traffic will be legit because you know, everyone uses it.
MildlySerious 11mo ago
Their entire business model is effectively centralizing the web. The downtime over the last two weeks shows some of the problem with that. I have used their products and have more favor toward them than I do for the corporations you're referring to, but ultimately my question is the same.
- bitfis 11mo ago
  My guess, just a time question. Is Cloudflare publicly traded?
  - vidalee 11mo ago
    They are, on the NYSE: $NET
RobotToaster 11mo ago
I thought they were already on that list.
debarshri 11mo ago
Tech is full of ironies. 5 years ago cloudflare was held as the savior of internet. People in HN and tech in general put them on pedestal. 1.1.1.1, generous ddos protection, cdn, adn to name a few. Fastforward to today, they being hated foe bringing down the internet, compared to failing giants. I think it is a reminder that evil and good recides within oneself.
- nottorp 11mo ago
  > I think it is a reminder that evil and good recides within oneself. It's more like "organizations that attain monopoly position find themselves in a bubble that becomes disconnected from reality, regardless of the quality of their intentions". Most recent example is Google. Cloudflare next, probably.
  - debarshri 11mo ago
    Fair enough
- Rastonbury 11mo ago
  your comment actually made me think about this, cloudflare hasn't actually turned full monopolist... yet, their generous free tier has led to monopoly like market share but the pain society feels is when they go down, they haven't turned the screw to make monopoly (or hyperscaler) profits They and Prince may never go that way, as someone who occasionally picked SaaS/infra stocks, the ratio of their market share/customers metrics to revenues/profit vs other peers was always on the low side (haven't look at their numbers in a while tho)
  - wongarsu 11mo ago
    Some parallels to gmail, which similarly rose to dominance by offering a free tier that was leagues above what everyone else was offering. They were also hailed as the savior, followed by a period of disillusionment. Now plenty of competitors have caught up with almost-as-good free offerings, but the world is still much more centralized than it was before
  - 11mo ago
the_gipsy 11mo ago
They are already? See the football debacle in Spain. It's not their fault, legally and technically, but if everything wasn't centralized by them, it wouldn't happen.

So how long until Cloudflare joins the hated monopolies list?

by nottorp 11mo ago

So how long until Cloudflare joins the hated monopolies list?

I hate them a bit already, but beyond bringing down parts of the internet from time to time and occasional captchas, they are not an everyday annoyance like Google, Microsoft, and the rest.

cess11 11mo ago
To me they are, using IPv6 and VPN means CloudFlare has trouble automatically identifying me and pesters me with image captcha loops.
- esseph 11mo ago
  Funny, I use them to provide ipv6 to ipv4-only endpoints.
  - lillecarl 11mo ago
    He's talking about tunnelbroker from HE being treated as malicious traffic by Cloudflare
    - nottorp 11mo ago
      Of course, soon only cloudflare traffic will be legit because you know, everyone uses it.

MildlySerious 11mo ago

Their entire business model is effectively centralizing the web. The downtime over the last two weeks shows some of the problem with that. I have used their products and have more favor toward them than I do for the corporations you're referring to, but ultimately my question is the same.

bitfis 11mo ago
My guess, just a time question. Is Cloudflare publicly traded?
- vidalee 11mo ago
  They are, on the NYSE: $NET

RobotToaster 11mo ago

I thought they were already on that list.

debarshri 11mo ago

Tech is full of ironies. 5 years ago cloudflare was held as the savior of internet. People in HN and tech in general put them on pedestal. 1.1.1.1, generous ddos protection, cdn, adn to name a few. Fastforward to today, they being hated foe bringing down the internet, compared to failing giants. I think it is a reminder that evil and good recides within oneself.

nottorp 11mo ago
> I think it is a reminder that evil and good recides within oneself. It's more like "organizations that attain monopoly position find themselves in a bubble that becomes disconnected from reality, regardless of the quality of their intentions". Most recent example is Google. Cloudflare next, probably.
- debarshri 11mo ago
  Fair enough
Rastonbury 11mo ago
your comment actually made me think about this, cloudflare hasn't actually turned full monopolist... yet, their generous free tier has led to monopoly like market share but the pain society feels is when they go down, they haven't turned the screw to make monopoly (or hyperscaler) profits They and Prince may never go that way, as someone who occasionally picked SaaS/infra stocks, the ratio of their market share/customers metrics to revenues/profit vs other peers was always on the low side (haven't look at their numbers in a while tho)
- wongarsu 11mo ago
  Some parallels to gmail, which similarly rose to dominance by offering a free tier that was leagues above what everyone else was offering. They were also hailed as the savior, followed by a period of disillusionment. Now plenty of competitors have caught up with almost-as-good free offerings, but the world is still much more centralized than it was before
- 11mo ago

the_gipsy 11mo ago

They are already? See the football debacle in Spain. It's not their fault, legally and technically, but if everything wasn't centralized by them, it wouldn't happen.