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The Winner-Take-All Trend In Tech (newyorker.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A pair of articles about the tech industry serve to highlight a growing trend. First, Om Malik writes in The New Yorker about the failure of ride-sharing company Sidecar, backed by Richard Branson, and how it's one more example of the winner-take-all tendency with modern tech firms. "This loop of algorithms, infrastructure, and data is potent. Add what are called network effects to the mix, and you start to see virtual monopolies emerge almost overnight. ... The more we use it, the more data we give the company, and the more it is able to control where we turn our attention."
The second article is from Jacques Mattheij, who notes a different side of the trend toward one winner and a whole lot of losers: unnecessary reliance on cloud-based components to force vendor lock-in. "In many of these cases if you look a bit more closely at what is being sold you'll realize that these are just instances of a business-model that was grafted on as an afterthought onto something that would have worked really well stand-alone but where the creators weren't happy with a one-time fee from potential buyers." Companies who hit it big early can't help but stay dominant if they force users to rely on their servers.
The second article is from Jacques Mattheij, who notes a different side of the trend toward one winner and a whole lot of losers: unnecessary reliance on cloud-based components to force vendor lock-in. "In many of these cases if you look a bit more closely at what is being sold you'll realize that these are just instances of a business-model that was grafted on as an afterthought onto something that would have worked really well stand-alone but where the creators weren't happy with a one-time fee from potential buyers." Companies who hit it big early can't help but stay dominant if they force users to rely on their servers.
I think you missed something. I don't agree with your Capitalism thingie.
I drive a Ford, not listed as one of your only car manufacturers (I actually have 2).
I don't drink beer, another of your monopolies I manage to miss.
Don't know if my computer was made by FoxConn.
I don't have any Apple products because of walled gardens.
I DO have to report my health insurance to Obamacare and it has to meet those requirements.
Funny, you listed capitalism as forcing you to do business with specific individuals. I can manage to avoid it. Your implied solution, more government, is the only monopoly I can't avoid and it is total crap.
Odd how reality seems to be opposite of your political rant.