[swflptig] Preventing lock in

A company offers a service, which if a consumer joins, the consumer will become locked into the service, unable, or finding it difficult, to migrate to a better service should one come to be.

Consumers face the game theoretic decision: should I join this service?  If the consumer joins, it helps contribute toward keeping this firm alive, preventing competitors from coming into existence, so it is less likely for there to be regret in joining and becoming locked in.

Thus, the market is an insufficient mechanism for causing optimality -- encouraging competition -- in an industry where lock-in plays an important role.   Regulation is called for. What should this regulation look like?

However, a great many businesses thrive on lock-in, and prohibiting it will be a vast change.  The near entirety of Facebook's stock value is its locked-in members.