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Comment by nickjj | Hacker News Reader

Can't this be summed up with making it super attractive for sellers (or the content creators) early on, grow really fast and then completely screw your content creators after you're somewhat established?

This is what it seems like for just about every marketplace. Marketplaces seem like one of the most corrupt / shady / backstabby lines of businesses I've ever been a part of. This is coming at it from a content creator on some video course platforms in the past.

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Can you give some examples? I feel like that's not the case: eBay, AirBnB, etc are some of the iconic marketplaces and create massive income opportunities to people who didn't this option before the platform existed.

> eBay, AirBnB, etc are some of the iconic marketplaces

I know several eBay merchants. They all gripe at the high fees, ever-changing UI and rules, etc.

Recently ebay bucks was reduced from 2% to 1%, and now sales tax is collected across all purchases.

> create massive income opportunities

Are you a shill, or do you believe all the PR?

TripAdvisor. I deal with small business (owner-operator) resorts every day and what they all seem to have in common is a hatred for TripAdvisor.

What do they hate about it?

Public accountability for terrible guest experiences, at least somewhat.

I've only been on the visitor side of things, but I've come to not trust ratings on TripAdvisor. People come in with a set of expectations based more on past experiences than their current destination. The reviews reflect this (sometimes wild) mismatch and there's often nothing a hotelier/restaurateur can do about it. The gap is biggest when there are cultural and economic gaps between visitors and hosts.

It's not unique to TripAdvisor, but they're a 800lb gorilla in that market.

Food Delivery services. The lure family restaurants to the platform in small towns, the ease of accessibility cause footfall to fall but this is replaced by delivery revenue. But now the family restaurants are beholden to the delivery services who slowly jack up the cut, they can't quit or they lose all the delivery revenue that has replaced walk-ins.

This is even before considering how they squeeze gig economy riders.

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