Very happy with Stripe. A customer for 3.7 years now
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
I'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
This is 100% identical to the illegal stuff robber barons used to do
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
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.
This is 100% true -> (Wouldn't it be crazy if Google+ being neglected and then shutdown was a part of the negotiations between Google and FB?)
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
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
it is interesting to see all the justifications people are giving for Tesla's completely irrational valuation
Solar Roof/Solar Energy -> Solar City was going bankrupt and had to be bought by Tesla to save Musk's cousins (Rive) and his ownership stake in Solar City
Electric Cars -> Check out what is happening on Europe. People keep saying Tesla is doing very well in China, without understanding that Tesla has a very small share of China and BYD is the largest EV maker in China
Battery Storage -> So something that is a very small share of Tesla revenues will magically one day become a massive business?
It's one thing to say - It will add $50 billion to the company
Completely different thing to say it will add half a trillion
Self Driving and Robotaxis - This has been the dream for the last 5 years
Tesla said 1 million robotaxis by end of Dec 2020
Where are they?
The combination of messianic leader who claims he is doing it only to save the planet and the human race
combined with Fed printing money like its going out of fashion and investors desperate for returns
This: am also suspecting that the level-off will happen one layer higher. I.e. the economic relevance of the current incumbents within the US economy will not drop, but the global relevance of the US will. For a perspective, you can look at the German economy that is dominated by companies founded 100+ years ago.
Because US government is getting in bed with Amazon, Google, Facebook
it is causing a double effect
A) They are letting them keep growing their monopolies in return for surveillance of Americans and non Americans
Which makes them stronger
B) US innovation is slowing down
For Example: Now most of US technology is around showing ads, surveillance, and basically treating people like stupid ATMs
They might be able to make it work for another 10 to 30 years, and then there will be big breakdowns
A good example is what is happening to Amazon in countries like China and India
In particular -> It occurred to me that in some situations, it might actually be more efficient _not_ to batch. The complexity of attempting to batch at the warehouse must be very high, and take up quite a bit of warehouse space, and slow down dispatch significantly.
How is this different from Amazon or Wal Mart -> This is a business built on top of cheap Chinese goods, subsidized shipping and low customer expectations. High transaction volume with very low margins, and totally exposed to the winds of international trade policy.
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