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Comment by Justin_K | Hacker News Reader

Staying away from the politics, anybody who has a business model completely dependent upon a single service’s algorithm should question what kind of business they have.

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I'm sure you have the same sympathy for Coal workers, Steel workers, Mom & Pop Retail, right? or is this specially reserved for people who make a living out of content creation, just because you don't like it

Many successful businesses specialize in a niche. Mastering the algorithms of a single, popular platform can be a strategic advantage. Think of SEO experts or social media marketing firms.

This can be true at the same time the parent comment is. Advantages can be short-lived. I suppose the key is just not to take them for granted, or be surprised when they disappear.

Correct in theory, false in practice. Case in point : google adwords / adsense. It’s been close to 20 years and counting, and lots of the online ad economy is still relying almost exclusively on it.

Not sure what your point is. If you rely heavily on Google search traffic or ads, and get banned you are in the same boat. Id say it’s still correct, because the point OP was trying to make is, don’t run a business that can fail entirely because of another entities whims.

Yes, but that is pretty terrible advice.

It might make sense if you have tons of profitable business options and you have to choose one, but that is rarely the situation.

There are billion dollar companies that run on AdWords, and the owners are far better off than if they refused to run a business with a single point failure, and worked at a coffee shop.

Hundreds of billions of dollars flow through AdWords to businesses that would NOT be better off without the revenue.

And if all these Google-dependent companies had diversified a bit, put some money in other ad networks as they grew (even if small amounts), then maybe Google wouldn't dominate all ad revenue. But that would require leaving a small amount of money on the table, so nope, I guess.

yeah! especially those farmers, taking advantage of the algorithm of plant in the spring, harvest in the fall. what fools!

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