Komoot's Fall: A Capitalist Trap for Community Platforms

This article recounts the story of the popular route-planning platform Komoot after its sale to a private equity firm. Komoot's founders broke their promise, selling the company and leading to 80% of employees being laid off and millions of users suffering losses. The author argues that Komoot's experience is not an isolated incident but a manifestation of the capitalist value extraction mechanism, revealing the broken relationship between corporations and communities. The article calls for the creation of open-source, non-profit platforms to combat capitalist exploitation and protect digital common resources.