Would you give them a chance without frowning?

Nope. Never.

Am I being naïve?

Yes.

What if someone opened a pod for businesses in Diaspora, just as someone opened one for former Google+ users?

I hope it is going to be blocked by all other pods.

Ok, thank you for your opinion. I will wait for others.

I can't imagine there even being a market for such a thing. The only users who would see their stuff would be competitors and maybe other businesses. A really great business does best when news of it spreads by "word of mouth," as they say. Positively impressed customers naturally share good experiences, but they don't look for business reviews on non-commercial social media.

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I blame people who use the web to make money and do business for ruining the web. It should be for hobbyists and educational organizations. The most important sites are LibriVox, Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive, and Wikipedia. NOT Amazon!

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I don't see anything inherently wrong with companies communicating with people (and vice-versa) on Diaspora. What makes it problematic is when companies get the ability pay for the privilege of getting into feeds. But something like that would be in the hands of the pod operator, and users can vote with their feet. Modulo migration costs, anyhow.

I actually like the idea of pod operators being able to run ads to offset the cost of running the pod. Or even to gain profit for themselves (again, if that gets obnoxious, users can switch pods). If pod admins could profit I suspect we'd have more pods to choose from. That might even motivate some marketing of Diaspora itself.

This kind of thing has been tainted by abusive practices by Facebook and the like, but if Diaspora users can migrate between pods seamlessly and painlessly then commercial behavior will only be tolerated as long as it is mutually beneficial.

Key to all of this is the ability to actually switch pods seamlessly and painlessly. I'll admit that I don't think we're actually there yet. 😀

Maybe you are right and it is just a matter of waiting.

Related, I wish more businesses would have a web presence, you know, a presence on the open web. Outside of Facebook, say, or Booking.com. Many don't, especially not smaller businesses.

I suppose owning a domain and hosting a web site costs more than it's worth when you're small, and doesn't let you communicate easily with your current or potential customers. And I suppose the "cheap" answer is going with a "free" "service".

I find this to be less of a problem at home, but it does make it harder when travelling. If these businesses were somewhere in the Fediverse, then I wouldn't have to engage with the "services" I try to avoid.