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"The web that many connected to years ago is not what new users will find today. What was once a rich selection of blogs and websites has been compressed under

"The web that many connected to years ago is not what new users will find today. What was once a rich selection of blogs and websites has been compressed under the powerful weight of a few dominant platforms. This concentration of power creates a new set of gatekeepers, allowing a handful of platforms to control which ideas and opinions are seen and shared." I think that now this isn't an internet only phenomena. It seems its bleeding over into other markets as well. Amazon has already taken over much of retail, and even traditionally non tech companies (see Unilever or Pearson) have, through mergers, acquisitions, and other traditional business processes taken over massive portions of their respective markets. This is just something, as a sideline observer I think could be happening, still chance observations, general stock market watching, and news articles are horrible guides for understanding what's really going on. Does anyone know what the research says? Do we have, in general, a convergence of markets into oligopolies dominated by a few big players like what's happened in much of the tech world?

aikinai 9y ago
> Amazon has already taken over much of retail Amazon only covered 4% of US retail in 2017. I couldn't easily find the global figure, but it would obviously be much much smaller. As for the overall idea, I think it depends on the time scale you look at. Compared to the late 20th century things do seem more consolidated now, but if you go back any further we're still probably in one of the most distributed modern economies ever.
- jfaucett 9y ago
  > Amazon only covered 4% of US retail in 2017. Where did you get that statistic? Was that before the wholefoods acquisition? That seems very high to me, especially when you consider what retail covers. [1] > I think it depends on the time scale you look at Thinking about the time scales provides an interesting perspective. I think the core question is whether or not consolidation is a net positive or net negative for features we want in society (like innovation, freedom of choice, ability to self actualize, efficiency, productivity, etc). Even then it most likely depends on how we weight those feature priorities. 1. https://www.thebalance.com/us-retail-industry-overview-2892699 https://www.thebalance.com/us-retail-industry-overview-28926...
alatz 9y ago
Tim Wu's The Master Switch gives a good historical overview of the consolidation of power that happens in various media/technologies. Long story short, he says what's currently happening with the internet has happened before. New mediums follow "The Cycle", which means they progress from decentralized to centralized.
chongli 9y ago
I think that now this isn't an internet only phenomena. Of course it isn't. It happens to pretty much everything. Pareto's Principle in action. It's so frustrating that this happens but I see no way of fixing it.

aikinai 9y ago

> Amazon has already taken over much of retail Amazon only covered 4% of US retail in 2017. I couldn't easily find the global figure, but it would obviously be much much smaller. As for the overall idea, I think it depends on the time scale you look at. Compared to the late 20th century things do seem more consolidated now, but if you go back any further we're still probably in one of the most distributed modern economies ever.

jfaucett 9y ago
> Amazon only covered 4% of US retail in 2017. Where did you get that statistic? Was that before the wholefoods acquisition? That seems very high to me, especially when you consider what retail covers. [1] > I think it depends on the time scale you look at Thinking about the time scales provides an interesting perspective. I think the core question is whether or not consolidation is a net positive or net negative for features we want in society (like innovation, freedom of choice, ability to self actualize, efficiency, productivity, etc). Even then it most likely depends on how we weight those feature priorities. 1. https://www.thebalance.com/us-retail-industry-overview-2892699 https://www.thebalance.com/us-retail-industry-overview-28926...

alatz 9y ago

Tim Wu's The Master Switch gives a good historical overview of the consolidation of power that happens in various media/technologies. Long story short, he says what's currently happening with the internet has happened before. New mediums follow "The Cycle", which means they progress from decentralized to centralized.

chongli 9y ago

I think that now this isn't an internet only phenomena. Of course it isn't. It happens to pretty much everything. Pareto's Principle in action. It's so frustrating that this happens but I see no way of fixing it.