SoftBank’s losses reveal Masayoshi Son’s broken business model

Re:SoftBank’s losses reveal Masayoshi Son’s broken business ... by panick21_ on Monday August 29, 2022 @07:29AM (#32636877)

This seems to be a case of the market working as intended.

The are making risky plays to establish monopoly but the market actually doesn't reward that unless the government helps to solidify those monopolies.

Thus they use billions with this strategy.

Its questionable if the consumers are hurt, as basically SoftBank is subsidizing the consumers.

Now one can argue that in this process society is hurt in some more subtle ways. But that's hard to quantity. And we also get decent netflix shows out of all that wasted investment.

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Re:SoftBank’s losses reveal Masayoshi Son’s broken business ... by Hendrikto on Monday August 29, 2022 @08:20AM (#32637280)

> Its questionable if the consumers are hurt, as basically SoftBank is subsidizing the consumers.

This subsidization is not free though. They are distorting and ruining markets in the process. Driving actually profitable competitors out of business, then collapsing themselves.

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Re:SoftBank’s losses reveal Masayoshi Son’s broken business ... by JumpCrisscross on Monday August 29, 2022 @08:25AM (#32637308)

> are distorting and ruining markets in the process

Which markets did they ruin?

Ride sharing and food delivery are bustling at the local level. The one who got screwed tried to match Son’s scale.

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Re:SoftBank’s losses reveal Masayoshi Son’s broken business ... by The-Bus on Monday August 29, 2022 @10:09AM (#32638460)

Ride sharing has largely been unprofitable over the last few years. The food delivery apps take a gigantic (Apple App Store) cut from local restaurants.

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Re:SoftBank’s losses reveal Masayoshi Son’s broken business ... by katbyte on Monday August 29, 2022 @12:11PM (#32639916)

Housing. Airbnb has been disastrous for housing costs in places

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Re:SoftBank’s losses reveal Masayoshi Son’s broken business ... by panick21_ on Monday August 29, 2022 @12:09PM (#32639892)

Not sure who markets are ruined for the long term. If the subsidizing stops, the market will reestablish itself. There is nothing destroyed inherently here.

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Re:SoftBank’s losses reveal Masayoshi Son’s broken business ... by lossolo on Monday August 29, 2022 @04:49PM (#32643381)

Tell that to all the normal people that went out of business and lost life savings because they couldn't compete with loss-leader.

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Re:SoftBank’s losses reveal Masayoshi Son’s broken business ... by panick21_ on Tuesday August 30, 2022 @04:55AM (#32648139)

Yeah and many normal people beyond drivers also made money and consumers gained, while some existing producers and Uber investors lost.

The market always producers winners and losers, there is nothing that can really be done.

You can't really make it illegal to invest in growing companies that lose money.

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