Mullenweg: Shopify and Facebook are not true platforms, will rug-pull developers
Matt Mullenweg · Matt Mullenweg on the future of open source and why he’s taking a stand · Mar 2, 2025 · at 37:51
Matt Mullenweg, co-creator of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, critiques proprietary platforms for cutting access once third-party developers become lucrative.
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“And proprietary services can create platforms. You know, Shopify has a third party ecosystem and things like that. But it's never a true platform. And not a true platform. It's when your ecosystem makes more money than the core does. And so many times, whether it was the Facebook, you know, platform, I'm putting that in air quotes, or the Shopify platform, you know, companies build on it, and then they get the rug pulled out from under them, because they're too successful, and then the sort of thing you're building on decides, oh, we want that money, or we want that growth, and they sort of change the API, or remove your access”
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