Suppose you have one hundred thousand small clients. None of those has enough decision power. Also you kinda have to cater to the needs of small users because that’s your userbase.
Now suppose you have fifty thousand small clients and 3 huge clients, where the 3 huge clients make up 50% of your revenue. The 3 huge clients have, both individually and together, huge bargaining power. But since your revenue is still 50% small clients, you can’t completely ignore their needs.
Now suppose you have 10 huge clients and ten thousands small clients. 90% of your revenue is the big clients. Your next logical step under capitalism is to try to shed the small clients and exchange them for another big client, and start or continue to vendor-lock them, because once they are fully locked in you can ask the big clients for whatever amount of money and they kinda have to accept. At this scale, small clients are completely useless to you, because the opportunity cost of serving them is greater than doing whatever another big client requires of you in order for them to choose your service, because then you can vendor-lock them too.
So every time a for-profit company signs a huge contract, all the small clients should start planning for enshittification. It might not come immediately, but it’s one step closer and building accelerating mass.
Basically because we as individuals can't compete with corporations, so when there are large corporate clients they will drive the price up for individuals. It's not guaranteed to happen, but these types of business to business contracts are usually not a good sign for us.
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The comments on fediverse assume enshittification will begin.
But isnt this just bragging about having a big new client? What has this got to do with enshittification?
Suppose you have one hundred thousand small clients. None of those has enough decision power. Also you kinda have to cater to the needs of small users because that’s your userbase.
Now suppose you have fifty thousand small clients and 3 huge clients, where the 3 huge clients make up 50% of your revenue. The 3 huge clients have, both individually and together, huge bargaining power. But since your revenue is still 50% small clients, you can’t completely ignore their needs.
Now suppose you have 10 huge clients and ten thousands small clients. 90% of your revenue is the big clients. Your next logical step under capitalism is to try to shed the small clients and exchange them for another big client, and start or continue to vendor-lock them, because once they are fully locked in you can ask the big clients for whatever amount of money and they kinda have to accept. At this scale, small clients are completely useless to you, because the opportunity cost of serving them is greater than doing whatever another big client requires of you in order for them to choose your service, because then you can vendor-lock them too.
So every time a for-profit company signs a huge contract, all the small clients should start planning for enshittification. It might not come immediately, but it’s one step closer and building accelerating mass.
Ah thnx, totally unaware of this dynamic, very well explained.
Basically because we as individuals can't compete with corporations, so when there are large corporate clients they will drive the price up for individuals. It's not guaranteed to happen, but these types of business to business contracts are usually not a good sign for us.