As we’ve seen with recent social media companies turning the screw to fleece money out of business customers and force adverts on the rest of us, relying on third party websites or platforms for your business can be disastrous. Here are some reasons you must own your business platform in 2025.
The “Enshittification” cycle
Big Tech platforms aren’t here for our benefit – even though they are free to use it has a cost. Platforms exist to deliver value to owners and shareholders and our needs as business or personal users of the platform come last. Cory Doctorow coined the term “Enshittification” to describe how companies set up platforms for free, get everyone using it and then gradually squeeze money out of everyone until the platform dies.
If you are relying on a social media platform or other website to run your business, you run the risk of being locked out of contacting your followers/readers/clients/customers. Companies are buying each other up and new owners usually means money grabbing tactics. Here are some examples of how this has happened to platforms that people rely on.
Etsy
What used to be a lovely marketplace for hand made items is now drowning in AI content and mass produced tat from the Far East. Sellers are hit with high fees and extra fees if visitors find them via paid advertising, making the platform near useless for sellers and buyers alike.
Amazon
It used to be cheaper to buy things on Amazon, but now it’s full of no name brands and rumoured to be awash with fake goods as well. Prices are no longer competitive as they increase their profits at everyone’s expense. Many small brands have found Amazon copying their products and undercutting them until the smaller seller can no longer afford to sell on Amazon.
https://ilsr.org/articles/fact-sheet-how-breaking-up-amazon-can-empower-small-business/
Twitter/X
Users, brands and advertisers are now fleeing Twitter/X due to increasing ads, terrible algorithms that manipulate what we see and lack of effective moderation. Years spent building up a following on Twitter have been wiped out and many accounts are starting afresh on a new platform like Bluesky.
Owning your platform
So what does it mean to ‘own your platform’? In short, don’t rely on using any third party platforms or websites to run your business. For example instead of just having a Facebook page that you update and talk to people through, create and update your own website and create a mailing list of people interested in your products or services. Then update your social media pages to gain new followers, but put the most effort into the systems that you control.
Build your business, not someone else’s
The more time and energy you put into other people’s systems, the more value you create for them and their shareholders. Constantly talking to people on social media isn’t guaranteed to result in sales, as people are often unpleasant and argumentative on social media. Why not spend that time building value in your own business!