#switchingcosts — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #switchingcosts, aggregated by home.social.
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A minor point: We need to take care to distinguish #NetworkEffects versus #SwitchingCosts.
A “network effect” is often good for the people affected (more people in the system makes it more appealing to join that system) and we typically want that effect.
A “switching cost” is typically bad for the people affected: Anyone already in the system, must give up something when they try to leave.
We need to *lower* the hostile switching costs, and retain the beneficial network effect.
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CW: Long thread/9
For most of the history of consumer tech and digital networks, fire was the norm. New platforms - PC companies, operating systems, online services - would spring up and grow with incredible speed, only to collapse, seemingly without warning.
To get to the bottom of this phenomenon, you need to understand two concepts: #NetworkEffects and #SwitchingCosts.
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