Readit NewsI've experienced EXACT same thing on a much larger scale
Step 1: You start paying for Ads
Step 2: You start making a certain amount of money from Ads
Ratio is very good. So it is a win win
Step 3: They drop the quality of ads/quality of traffic
Step 4: It's not worth it to you any more, so you turn off the Ads
Step 5: They kill your organic traffic
Step 6: They switch it to someone willing to pay a lot for ads
3 Problems
A) Organic Traffic is allocated based on who is willing to pay the highest extortion fee
not on quality
B) If you start growing/prospering without their ads and without their organic traffic, then they don't just let you go
Then they start pollluting your search results
When people search for you they show every @#$#$ negative thing they can
They try to kill your traffic which was ALREADY coming to you
they also kill your reach on Youtube etc
They also start putting your email newsletters into wrong folders so your email list also gets hit. Only for gmail. Yahoo, outlook etc are fine. Only gmail starts dropping your emails
C) If you are still doing fine
then astroturfing starts
People make completely nonsense false claims about you
Then it becomes #1 search result when people are searching for you
If you start paying, all of it disappears and business as usual
If you stop paying, suddenly it all restarts
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I am getting the popcorn out. Google especially and also Amazon and Facebook are going to get really @#$@#$ if there is a proper anti trust case
these companies instead of building newer businesses and better products (like Apple and Microsoft) focused all their energy on screwing over their competitors and even their partners
From the first Google result for "antitrust law market division" (https://www.classlawgroup.com/antitrust/unlawful-practices/m...)
> In almost all circumstances a market allocation agreement will be illegal under antitrust law. Federal antitrust law treats a market allocation amongst competitors as a per se violation of the antitrust laws. Other types of potentially anticompetitive behavior are only illegal if their anti-competitive effects outweigh their pro-competitive efficiencies. But per se violations are automatic violations of federal antitrust law.
when two railroads were in competition and it was killing profits, they would sign a silent partnership and one would take upstate NY and the other would take NYC to other parts of NY
both made profits
Read the biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt
he did a lot of this
I'll add a few (while including a couple from this thread)
Let's see
1) Google Facebook - why was Google+ ignored and shut down
2) Why has Facebook never launched a search engine
3) Amazon + Google
Why has Google completely ignored books and not done anything?
They grew Chrome into #1 browser using Search dominance
Why the heck have they ignored books?
Why did they buy Oyster (the first ebook subscription service for Apple devices) and immediately shut it down
paving the way for Kindle Unlimited to become the dominant
4) Why did Amazon shut down A9 its search engine? Every other area they are willing to throw billions of dollars. In search engines they didn't even try
5) Amazon + Google
why is Google ignoring Shopping
why did Google buy one of the biggest AFfiliate Networks and then close it down
6) Amazon + Google
Why is Amazon so high up in search results for every single @##$ product review and product
Does it have to do with amount of money Amazon spends on Google Ads (which would also be illegal)
or a secret/silent agreement (even more illegal)
7) When companies or organization get attacked (such as corporate organizations) how is it that it is always a PINCER attack and always at the same time i.e.
Google will 'demonetize' the site at the same time as Youtube demonetizes the ads (Youtube is still owned by Google) as Paypal will kick out the site (separate company, acts in concert) as Twitter will block accounts
So 3 separate companies and 4 separate divisions all decide on EXACT SAME DAY to go after a company or a site
This playbook is used to attack both
a) republican/conservative sites
b) companies that are growing very fast
to that throw in Facebook
8) Why do fast growing companies that are a threat to ONE out of
Amazon, Google, Facebook
all suddenly face shadow bans AT THE SAME TIME from all three companies i.e.
products dropped in Amazon Store search
organic traffic from Google drops
Facebook reach drops
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There is someone/something
World X Council or something
And some companies are apart of it
They have divided out parts of the Internet
And when someone is a threat to grow too big
ALL companies attack that fast growing companies
They have a hitlist of
10,000 or 5,000 companies to keep an eye on
and
500 biggest threats
and they go after these IN CONCERT
1. Ads cost more which raises the cost of doing business which raises the cost of goods.
2. It also makes certain borderline businesses infeasible -- there would be a whole class of businesses that don't/can't exist because they become unprofitable if you have to pay the ad monopoly/duopoly piper on top of normal expenses.
3. You could also argue that FB's continued dominance is another societal harm stemming directly from the alleged actions. If there wasn't an ad cartel, it would be easier to start new ad-based social media companies. (Wouldn't it be crazy if Google+ being neglected and then shutdown was a part of the negotiations between Google and FB?)
Lots of presumptions in the above, but I think a strong case could be made for each.
Same for
Amazon closing down A9 search
Google buying up Affiliate Networks and closing one down and basically banning affiliate from most of Google Search and
doing @#$#$-all with Google Shopping
100% Division between
Amazon - shopping Google - search Facebook - social
with outward illusion of 'rivalry'
Bezos is 4th angel investor in Google
Qunicy Jones in an interview says he used to have a weekly dinner with
Elon Musk, Google founders, Bezos
It's Qunicy Jones so no idea how reliable. But wouldn't that be interesting - if Google and Amazon founders were doing dinner every week or every other week
stuff like
astroturfing
click fraud
fake submissions on forms
etc
They basically operate completely recklessly
We are getting a lot of attacks from Google. I took screenshots just today of them doing fake submissions and they don't even hide it. From Google servers
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Basically, their modus operandi is
A) Silent Agreement between Amazon, Google, Facebook and a few other companies (not sure which) to divide internet among themselves
B) Use any and all method to slow down any company growing fast
Usually this is 'plausible deniability' methods such as removing apps from app stores, kicking you off your payment processor, dropping you in organic search, shifting your adwords to 90% fake clicks, etc
C) If above methods don't work then they start using illegal methods i.e.
modifying search results when people search for you hacking attacks using gmail to hide your emails to customers and/or not deliver your invoices to new customers click fraud on other ad networks (Bing, etc) fake submissions
Contrast the HUGE number of enterprise side and B2B companies that are going public
now compare with how few customer to business companies are doing the same
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It's not random
any customer facing company that is begining to do well has to face
Google disappearing them from Search Facebook disappearing them from Facebook and Instagram attacks from a few other Silicon Valley Companies
There is going to be A LOT of candy in the sofa
It's going to be Snowden level stuff
There will be a list of
Top 10,000 companies to kill off
and also
Top 500 threats
And there will be a playbook of all the methods to use to wipe them out
There will be even totally crazy stuff like
sending spy employees Trojen Horse VC Investments
etc
It's a hill I'd be happy to die on. I feel like 6/10 engineers wouldn't care to have that fight, let alone risk their job over it. I'm lucky to be in a position that I am even able to. So many are not. Yet another example for the banality of evil.
They sent millions of 'complaints from users' which turned out to be all the exact same template
They are a special kind of scum
1) Their customer service has been good. However, I've never had to use it for anything serious
2) Their API is awesome
3) Their level of complexity is slowly increasing. This is something very dangerous for them and they need to look into it. Their biggest advantage is/was - super simple to set up everything
4) Like many others, not happy that costs are slowly increasing.
5) Perhaps I'm the only person who falls into the camp that Stripe doing things like Atlas and Stripe Capital is somewhat unnecessary and takes away from their focus on Payments
6) Don't really understand why they are doing the whole Platform of Platforms thing i.e. Stripe customers can now offer stuff like Bank Accounts to their customers
Seems like adding needless risks and complexity
7) Anyways, I miss having Stripe be really simple and really focused on one thing. Hope they can at least be like Apple and Microsoft where they keep laser sharp focus on their money makers/core competencies and have dedicated teams and the best people on it
and they don't shift over their best people to pie in the sky stuff like Platform of Platforms