Re:Facebook wants up to 30% of fan subscriptions vs Patreon’...
by speedplane on Thursday February 28, 2019 @03:10AM
(#19269830)
> There's probably some economical theory around this that I don't know ... competition is good for the consumer when ...
Yes, there is a pretty standard economic proof that much of capitalism is based on. It says that an economy is most "efficient" (you can take a class on that word), when three pre-requisites are met:
1. Perfect information: Everyone knows the value of everything.
2. Commodities: Products created by competitors are equivalent. This works well for oil and bananas, but not so well for much else.
3. Access to Capital: This means new competitors can start competitors and enter markets easily. This isn't so easy when there is regulation, monopolies, or network effects.
In short, there is a set of circumstances when things work really well. However, in the real world, those circumstances rarely arise.
Yup. Competition is good for the market in general, and for consumers in a more indirect way, but balkanization of content space and having to deal with the crappy apps of me-too competitors is a real pain.
(There's probably some economical theory around this that I don't know, but my gut-feel classification is this: competition is good for consumer when competitors are providing the same, or at least directly substitutable, goods and services. Individual video games - and music, movies, books - are not substitutable goods, so the competition is useful only to the extent you can get the same game/movie from any of the competitors. Exclusive publishing deals make competition harmful to the consumer.)