‘Bleed Us Dry’: Why Are Tech Platforms Facing a Rebellion?
When Jack found online marketplace Etsy, it seemed like the perfect match: a tech platform for small merchants to sell handmade items that promised to be a creative outlet and bring in handsome profits.
Five years later, Jack is one of thousands in open rebellion against what he once saw as a safe haven – part of a growing trend of users rising up against the tech platform.
The 30-year-old said, “We were lured into ‘small shop’ slogans and low fees and a utilitarian market, and then once everyone had set up their stores, they began to tighten their grip and we dried up.” Runs an online shop from Glasgow, Scotland and told not to use his surname.
New York-based Etsy, which claims sales of $5 billion per year from nearly five million sellers and 90 million buyers, expressed anger at the fee hike from its smaller merchants.
More than 10,000 of its vendors went on strike and closed their shops for a week from April 11.
This comes weeks after users of video-sharing platform Vimeo expressed outrage over the same price hike, and users of social media platform OnlyFans forced owners to drop a proposal to ban explicit content.
Amazon has had countless battles with its sellers – a recent survey in Germany concluded that nearly 80 percent were unhappy with their relationship with the e-commerce giant.
And Uber faces constant turmoil – Indian drivers currently refusing to turn on air conditioning in protest of rising fuel prices and low fares.
“We are now entering an era of rebellion and rebellion,” said Oxford University professor Willy Lehdonwirta, who tackles the power of technological platforms in his upcoming book, “Cloud Empires.”
While he believes that many of these rebounds have limited potential for short-term success, the long-term outlook is not a foregone conclusion.
The breaking point for Etsy sellers was a letter from the firm announcing that the platform would take a 6.5 percent cut instead of five percent on each sale.
According to the firm, the reason for this was to invest in marketing and attract more buyers.
Christie Cassidy, a seller of Gothic-style dress and wedding dresses from Rhode Island in the United States, led the campaign to change the new policy.
“Instead of rewarding the vendors whose hard work has enabled Etsy to become one of the most profitable tech companies in the world, Etsy abuses us, ignores us and patronizes us,” she said in a statement. The online petition reads which now has more than 80,000 signatures.
Sellers around the world rallied on her call and social media was flooded with complaints.
“I live in constant fear of putting reserves in my account,” Jack said.
Etsy can withhold or “reserve” a percentage of the seller’s proceeds for up to 90 days if they suspect the sale is not valid.
“They seem like it for whatever reason they imagine,” Jack said.
Other sellers accused the platform of allowing the market to be flooded with sweatshop-produced tarts or of implementing a tough monitoring system.
Etsy boss Josh Silverman recently told the Wall Street Journal that the firm was always listening to its sellers and only made changes to benefit them.
“When we look at our fees compared to other platforms… we think it is a very reasonably priced exchange,” he said.
Lehdonvirta has seen this pattern before, especially with Amazon and eBay.
Tech platforms create walled gardens where buyers and sellers are protected from cybercriminals and fraudsters, and standards of quality are guaranteed.
Then they become very dominant.
“We end up in a position where they are the de facto rulers of online commerce and now they are starting to turn on their people – like all autocrats throughout history,” he said.
Werner Eichorst, labor market expert at German think tank IZA, said tech firms such as Etsy, Uber and food-delivery organizations operated a “highly ambiguous” system, allowing “complete ownership and monitoring power over their customers”.
But he added that Etsy’s investors are more interested in profitability than sellers’ well-being, so he wouldn’t be surprised if the platform just raised its fees further.
However, both the analysts said that those who rely on the platform for their livelihood can emerge victorious by joining cooperatives or setting up separate platforms.
“They can get away with slowly boiling a frog, but if there is an alleged violation of norms, something that is done that is very serious, people get up,” Lehdonwirta told ATC at the time. was suggested.
Eichhorst also reached for a sad animal metaphor: “You can’t milk cows and kill them as well.”
