This is something I have been thinking about. I don’t like regulation, but imagine a small, surgically focused requirement that says, for example, “you are obligated to provide an API covering the entirety of your platform’s GUI features if you serve more than N users”.
As a consequence:
1) fully-featured third-party cross-platform client software allows users to transition across platforms more easily,
2) platforms start bleeding users,
3) platforms start charging for service,
4) platforms become pipes.
There are implications, though:
1) big tech might find ways to pretend to be smaller entities;
2) this does not guarantee that user data privacy is respected, but ideally this creates a scenario in which the user is free to choose a more ethical provider;
3) client app security & ethics will become paramount, client apps will become valuable targets;
4) downgrade to pipes will end of the age of cool Web 2.0 platforms and grand social startups. Unfortunately, I don’t see any other way—this business model is user- (society-?) hostile yet addictive, and there seems no other way around it apart from WeChat-like nationalization which is objectionable for a whole other chunk of reasons.
A pipe is like a mobile provider: it provides an infrastructure for data to flow, but not necessarily the terminals. Here too, if platforms open up full APIs they’d be liable to become more like pipes for social data to flow through, to be displayed by third-party client of user’s choice. They can still offer a GUI and develop new features, it just has to be covered by an API. It’s an interesting thought experiment.
As a consequence:
1) fully-featured third-party cross-platform client software allows users to transition across platforms more easily,
2) platforms start bleeding users,
3) platforms start charging for service,
4) platforms become pipes.
There are implications, though:
1) big tech might find ways to pretend to be smaller entities;
2) this does not guarantee that user data privacy is respected, but ideally this creates a scenario in which the user is free to choose a more ethical provider;
3) client app security & ethics will become paramount, client apps will become valuable targets;
4) downgrade to pipes will end of the age of cool Web 2.0 platforms and grand social startups. Unfortunately, I don’t see any other way—this business model is user- (society-?) hostile yet addictive, and there seems no other way around it apart from WeChat-like nationalization which is objectionable for a whole other chunk of reasons.