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A comment on Musk announces funding secured for Twitter buy. Parent comment

Re:Musk announces funding secured for Twitter buy by dlkf on Friday April 22, 2022 @05:44AM (#31119791)
> Imagine if Musk had tried to buy a big three automaker in order to make electric cars happen.

Bad analogy. Social media platforms are natural monopolies. The utility of a car doesn't grow with how many other people own that model. By contrast, Twitter's utility is basically just a function of the fact that all the relevant players use it.

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Re:Musk announces funding secured for Twitter buy by wwweston on Friday April 22, 2022 @09:24AM (#31121251)
> Social media platforms are natural monopolies.

If this was the case, Facebook wouldn't have needed to buy Instagram and Whatsapp. Or hell, there wouldn't have been FB because MySpace would have been king forever.

Network effects are real and they can help sustain engagement and mindshare but given how easy it is to move fluidly between multiple forums (social or no), the next competing platform is one compelling reason for engagement away.

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