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Comment by freejack | Hacker News Reader

Companies compete, users win.

The press nearly always gets this wrong and the viewpoint has taken root in our collective thinking.

Competition is about customers, not competitors. With competition, customers should get better stuff, more stuff and cheaper stuff.

I've seen very little "users losing" in the past 10 years, despite continuous reporting to the contrary. Were this not the case, we wouldn't even have a twitter, facebook or instagram - we'd all be using the same thing provided by the same company and it would most definitely be outmoded and suck.

Competition works. Get used to it, change sucks.

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> Competition is about customers, not competitors.

Who are FaceBook's and Twitter's customers? Certainly not the users. So it's still possible that users lose.

No, but what they're competing for is audience size. And their audience is their users.

I've seen very little "users losing" in the past 10 years, despite continuous reporting to the contrary.

To take an example relevant to the OP, what about Twitter shutting down third party clients? How was that a win for the user?

It opens the door wider to competitors like app.net. The more restrictive twitter gets, the less competitive they will be and the larger the opportunity for competitors will get. This all benefits users in the long run.

What better/more/cheaper stuff do IG users gain from this? No comment from IG.

When companies "compete" by buying out the competition and shutting down trade, there is a loss of choice and utility and a loss to consumers.

There is a loss of choice and utility available from Instagram, which create an opportunity for a competitor in the market. This increases choice and utility for consumers. In the long run, the market always wins and consumers benefit.

(granted, this is a simplistic view and subject to the whims of regulatory distortion and other externalities - I think my core premise is sound though. Even though these specific companies might be limiting options that just creates more opportunity for competition and stronger benefits for customers...)

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