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Comment by rubiquity | Hacker News Reader

Gee,where have I seen this strategy of using private capital to subsidize a deliberately unprofitable business just long enough to drive all of its competitors out of business so they can form their own duo/monopoly before? VC yielded like this it isn’t creating innovation or anything of value, it’s perverting the spirit of capitalism.

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I agree this is not how capitalism is supposed to work in the spirit of the version that many democratized nations were sold. But I also agree with another downvoted post, in that this has become the expected behavior. I guess the point is that VC didn’t start this fire, it’s just the latest incarnation of what seems to be the endgame of capitalism. Proponents of capitalism sell a version of it where innovation and efficiency are rewarded through a kind of economic Darwinism where the fittest survive. But it isn’t hard to find examples that show it is capital itself that drives success and allows the unhealthy and unfit to prosper at the expense of superior competitors or even entirely alternative industries.

I think the problem is that “fitness” now includes governmental regulatory capture, mass-media manipulation, and human rights abuses.

> not how capitalism is supposed to work in the spirit of the version that many democratized nations were sold

AKA: people were misled.

How does one drive out all of your competitors from a low barrier to entry business and expect to win the endgame?

By raising prices after the competition is gone.

Google did it with Reader, Photos, and is almost finished doing it with email.

Google isn't expecting to win any endgame with gmail. They're already monetizing it and as a consequence, it is profitable already and has been for quite some time.

You just literally stated what the end game was: monetize all uses of email, everywhere.

Remember what Google's overarching goal is supposed to be? "Organize the world's information," IIRC, with the subtext of "... and monetize it." This is literally what gmail is to email.

Google has not driven out all competitors with GMail. They have a (very) comfortable business in GMail with a plurality not even a majority of the market.

https://techjury.net/blog/gmail-statistics/

That's where the "end" in "endgame" comes from. They're not there yet.

Is gmail gaining market share?

Also, YouTube. It was ad free for a long time, and they've slowly turned up the dial with ads now that there is no real competition.

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