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Comment by boringuser2 | Hacker News Reader

I just checked their YOY earnings and Etsy has increased from 100 million to 600 million in revenue over the past 5 years, with 100 million in revenue growth over the past year alone.

Companies need to be shamed for potentially destroying people's lives while simultaneously reaping great rewards for their efforts.

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I agree with your sentiment, but revenue isn't profit.

Where the money is going I'm more confused by.

Like, Etsy is based on a well-understood, popular business model - provide a digitasl storefront to sell physical goods. There are no hard or unique problems - their main advantage is name recognition in the indie-maker community.

So where is that money going?

A/B tests and their results. The industries biggest mistake…

Probably two or three key places:

- They have nearly 3000 employees, which seems like way too many

- Marketing and ads to increase reach and presence

- Acquisitions (h/t to ojbyrne in this thread)

Remember Uber was losing $2 billion a quarter, much of it going to pay for those reasons. Also I'm not sure how stock buybacks are accounted for, but Etsy did $290M in September according to this one chart:

https://ycharts.com/companies/ETSY/stock_buyback

Goodwill impairment (writing down stupid acquisitions): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38630475

But that's a non-cash expense.

> So where is that money going?

To the previous shareholders of Depop and Elo7.

Increased revenue != increased profits (or any profit at all)

See: Uber

the old joke about Amazon (which was never really true) was they lost pennies on every sale and made it up in volume. Anybody can grow revenue; the trick is to grow it faster than the cost of new revenue, and with a positive margin.

> Companies need to be shamed for potentially destroying people's lives while simultaneously reaping great rewards for their efforts.

Better yet, stop using these services.

But the long term solution is a legal change that ensures that the board of directors contains representation from employees along with share holders.

> Better yet, stop using these services.

Can't think of any service that isn't "these" service.

Private companies and mom & pop shops.

They seem to be main ones showing up protesting any wage changes here in the city.

recently

https://chicago.eater.com/2023/8/22/23842186/evanston-chicag...

They were also against raising minimum wage.

If that representation is a minority then it doesn't matter. You can't solve overspending on staff by just keeping on spending, and that's likely what that representative will always advocate for.

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