I was particularly drawn to TaiwanChallenges’ point about Nicholas Taleb and the winner-takes-almost-all nature of the web. And wondered whether we should build this up into one of the big themes of the series.
It is compelling that the web, despite being so fluid, porous, open, an apparent free-for-all, is dominated in effect by a handful of monopoly brands. Let’s face it, there’s only one search engine that matters, one bookshop, one encyclopaedia, one micro-blogging portal (I don’t even have to name these do I?) and, if current take-up numbers are to be believed and the trajectory continues, in a few years Facebook will be the social network with clout.
In part these brands rose to dominance because they formulated the right strategy at the right time to blaze a trail into - to borrow Taleb’s phrasing - the web’s unknown unknown commercial territory. Google ‘got’ how to monetise search before anyone else. Twitter created a whole new utility. But is that the whole story?
