> That is an oversimplification, in important respects. There are multiple competing options for most of those platforms, responsibility for them is diffuse, an

> That is an oversimplification, in important respects. There are multiple competing options for most of those platforms, responsibility for them is diffuse, and change happens very gradually. Also, at some point it's not platform, it's infrastructure. You could assume that your business will use credit cards and online payment since this is part of the infrastructure but when you are using the payment API of company MegaCorp to have those payments, you might get burned with their particular Platform. > I mean, yes, technically speaking, I am dependent on electricity. But that doesn't mean there is a $8 an hour representative at the power company whose job is to shut down 24 businesses today to preserve the power company's vision for what proper use of electricity looks like, and whose decision is beyond repeal. This isn't a good comparison. The thing is the electricity provider is much more regulated by laws, more stable and slower in changes compared to some other companies. Also -- it's infrastructure. Technically, some "power company vision" is kept since you can't actually put any two wires to make a gizmo and sell it on the market as a product. Another interesting factoid: home users have a limit on how much electricity you can consume. After a given limit you have to ask special permit from the electricity provider and probably pay extra. The trick is all these things are stipulated somewhere and public.