this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2026
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I wanna talk to other Overseas Chinese but they are all either on:

  • WeChat
    or
  • Reddit
    or
  • Discord
    or
  • Facebook Groups

Or some other evil corporate platform

WHYYYYY 😭

So sad... 🥺

idk where else to post this, I hope this is the right place to discuss this... this issue of normies all using authoritarian-controlled platforms...

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[–] tal@lemmy.today 2 points 3 months ago

WHYYYYY

Because social media platforms are systems subject to network effect. The value of one increases as something like the square of the userbase, which means that it's hard to displace incumbents.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect

In economics, a network effect (also called network externality or demand-side economies of scale) is the phenomenon by which the value or utility a user derives from a good or service depends on the number of users of compatible products. Network effects are typically positive feedback systems, resulting in users deriving more and more value from a product as more users join the same network. The adoption of a product by an additional user can be broken into two effects: an increase in the value to all other users (total effect) and also the enhancement of other non-users' motivation for using the product (marginal effect).[1]

Network effects can be direct or indirect. Direct network effects arise when a given user's utility increases with the number of other users of the same product or technology, meaning that adoption of a product by different users is complementary.[2] This effect is separate from effects related to price, such as a benefit to existing users resulting from price decreases as more users join. Direct network effects can be seen with social networking services, including Twitter, Facebook, Airbnb, Uber, and LinkedIn; telecommunications devices like the telephone; instant messaging services such as MSN, AIM or QQ;[3] or even Wikipedia itself.