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by rblion 2468 days ago
DHH isn't too thrilled about this.

> “We want every website, whether it’s e-commerce or anything to be powered by WordPress” is a nasty, monopolistic goal. Listening to Matt muse about 85% marketshare dreams is a real downer. But $300m is a down payment on monopoly dreams.

full thread: https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1174695189090308096

4 comments

DHH and Jason Fried like to preach a lot. WordPress/Automattic is an awfully weak target to pick on about a monopoly. I wonder what would happen if Basecamp had 85% market share in the project management tool sector? Would they say "sorry folks we're being too monopolistic. We're going to have to kick some of you off." I don't think so.
does he know WP is open source?
He does:

https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1174702952411303936

> "Yes. Monoculture in open source is scarcely better than monoculture in closed source. Monopolies of all stripes are bad for the web."

Monopoly and open source dont mix. I can't think of an open source project that became monopoly by itself, without the continuous backing and pushing of its parent company. And there were/are plenty of monocultures in open source (apache / mysql / nodejs / Linux) that was rather a good thing than bad.
Guess he must hate Acquia is well? Not sure why DHH always has to be such a... downer.
because he has witnessed dozens of companies overtake his own in achieving mega-valuations and success without following his cargo cult advice that was born from a halo effect

his entire m.o today is to beat down anything that doesn't fit the poor and loose thesis he built a brand on -- everything from "surveillance capitalism" to "open source monopoly bad"

As far as I know, DHH isn't a big fan of investments in general.
He hate the word Unicorn, and dislike Start-up with VCs and Hyper growth, along with the mentality you need to be in Silicon Valley and get hundreds million in funding, all while working 8-8 everyday to succeed.

In other words, he is very much Anti - Silicon Valley.

He still took money from Jeff Bezos.