As far as I understand how things like facebook or reddit work they:
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offer an unpaid service to mass consumer
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harvest data of the people who use the service
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offer paid advertisement space to companies
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companies buy advertising because the vast data promise precise targeting
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precisely targeted ads convert into sales for companies
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the ROI (profit gained to cost of ads) when buying social media ads is greater than ROI on tv or whatever other ads
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social media expand on the profits gained from ad space sold to companies
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social media corp announces a brand new feature and we return to point 1)
Which step is the closest to breaking? Where are limits of growth and who hits them first? Is there a cap on marketing budgets beyond which companies won’t afford social media ads and tech corps won’t afford expansion and maintenance? A cap on how much data (=how precise ads) can they harvest from us? A lower threshold of general wealth below which ads won’t convert into more profit because people are too poor? A breaking point of enshittification at which user count (=ad visibility) plummets?
The recent apeshit of tech companies after the raised interest rates made me feel that the entire thing is quite fragile and ripe for falling… But I’m not a financial advice so maybe I’m completely clueless.
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