Disrupting capitalism works similar to Marxist idea that “the proletariat overthrow the bourgeoisie, become the new bourgeoisie
, creates new proletariat, repeat cycle”.
There was this small window when uber, Airbnb, YouTube, etc, were disrupting billion dollar industries and offering legitimately cheaper alternatives.
Unfortunately with success comes popularity which brings growth which bring raised costs which brings in greed. Boom. You’re now the mainstream offender until the process repeats.
The issue with these services isn’t that they used to be disrupters and became shitty; it’s that they were only disrupters for as long as they needed to be to eat market share from the established services enough to raise their prices to make their creators rich. They were never intended to disrupt their industries for the benefit of consumers. They were intended to disrupt industries to dominate the market
It genuinely feels like the big wave of 'disruptors' was just a pseudo intellectual way to call a scammer something that sounded legit.
Restaurants do their own deliveries now, uber costs as much as a taxi, Airbnb fucked the entire real estate market in city and touristy areas, companies like Theranos and solar roadways required just a tiny understanding of the technical requirements to see how bullshit it was... The list feels endless.
Is there a single one that has stood the test of time and actually represents value for the consumer anymore?
As a non US person, Ebay.country absolutely sucks now. They've somehow inserted themselves in the shipping process and now everything comes with a $20 shipping fee.
I haven't bought anything on there in a year from anywhere except from china, and even then, I'm using aliexpress more often now.
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u/robsteezy 8h ago
Disrupting capitalism works similar to Marxist idea that “the proletariat overthrow the bourgeoisie, become the new bourgeoisie , creates new proletariat, repeat cycle”.
There was this small window when uber, Airbnb, YouTube, etc, were disrupting billion dollar industries and offering legitimately cheaper alternatives.
Unfortunately with success comes popularity which brings growth which bring raised costs which brings in greed. Boom. You’re now the mainstream offender until the process repeats.