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They've been able to do it to the tune of a tens of billions of dollars valuation. So has Airbnb. Why change now? They'll get their IPO before anyone has to
by JonFish85 11y ago
They've been able to do it to the tune of a tens of billions of dollars valuation. So has Airbnb. Why change now? They'll get their IPO before anyone has to answer for anything, so investors & founders will be happy. Keep running the marketing machine with the "sharing" moniker right until the check clears, and after that, it's the shareholders' problem.
- Frondo 11y ago"Why change now?" Because what they're doing is wrong, and doing something wrong because you can get a lot of money for it is pretty awful.
- Drakim 11y agoThat is how business and capitalism works. Being immoral can hurt your profits, because customers might be repulsed and boycott you. Breaking the law can hurt your profits, because the government might take action against your business. Those are the sole reasons why you would avoid doing immoral and illegal things. If the benefit outweighs the negatives, then businesses will do those things. If they don't do it, they will lose against other businesses that are willing to do it. Fortunately, the downsides can be quite big, which means that most of the time businesses will "stay in line". A huge boycott from the people or hard damaging actions from the government really hurts profits, so it's very rarely a profitable thing to be immoral and break the law.
- Frondo 11y agoOf course people can be moral actors in the business world. "Because you might get caught" is by no means the only reason to do the right thing, even if it means leaving money on the table. What you're describing is a sociopathic greed.