This is not a theory of market competition that I've heard before.

nok22kon 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

basic supply/demand

demand moves to cheaper providers, they ran out of capacity and increase price

literally why "commodities" are "commodities" - the more interchangeable a product is the more exposed it is to supply/demand mechanics

	▲	xnx an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Agree. The less "stuck" a customer is to a given provider, the more that prices should equalize between providers.

It’s also an usual use of the term arbitrage

	▲	nok22kon 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		you will not want 20 different accounts at 20 providers, you'll have one at a "token arbitrage" provider - OpenRouter drop-shipping is a form of arbitrage