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I agree. Having trillion dollar valuation companies dominate the internet is akin to letting Standard Oil dominate a resource, or monopolies dominate the emerg
by noetic_techy 8y ago
I agree. Having trillion dollar valuation companies dominate the internet is akin to letting Standard Oil dominate a resource, or monopolies dominate the emergence of railroads. You have to recognize these technological emergence's when they occur, because typically they will be unlike anything we've seen before. I would argue Social Media is one of those emergence's. Smartphones arguably another.
Ideally, I would like to see tech giants split into 3 companies, with 2/3 residing outside of SV so as not to be subject to the group-think of that region. This coming from someone who grew up in the heart of SV, got into tech, and eventually left.
- growtofill 8y agoWhat's wrong with smartphones?
- Balero 8y agoI think the problem is not with smart phones, but with the ecosystem around them. Eg, Apple, and iTunes. Android, and google docs
- neaden 8y agoI think a good example is cars. Imagine having a Ford car that you could only get repaired at Ford dealerships, that only took Ford bumper stickers or other accessories, and only could get filled up with Ford gas at Ford gas stations. I think most people would agree that would be a problem, and we are getting dangerously close to that with smart phones.
- sovnade 8y agoWe're going in that direction with cars as well (EVs specifically).
- bilbo0s 8y agoWhat do you think of Tesla as a business and car company?
- neaden 8y agoI'm not super keen on it, though I like Electric cars. I think that they will, or at least should, transition to being more open as electric cars become more common and in a larger variety.
- noetic_techy 8y agoYou only have 2 choices for mobile OS, dominated by Apple and Google.
- jcadam 8y agoI'm willing to admit now that I actually liked Windows Phone and wish it had become a viable platform.
- noetic_techy 8y agoSame here. I was disappointed when they scrapped it.
- jdmichal 8y agoI'm on my Lumia 920 right now, due to my Nexus 5x finally biting the dust. I still love the OS. Most of the apps no longer work, my signal is crap, etc. But I still like the OS.
- maxxxxx 8y agoI think we generally should discourage growth of any company beyond a certain size. I don't see any societal value in these large companies but a lot of disadvantages.
- jimmaswell 8y agoWould a bunch of small companies have invented the smartphone? I feel like you often need to have concentrations of a lot of capital at once for big things to happen.
- purple_ducks 8y agoWhat 1 big company do you think invented the smartphone?
- maxxxxx 8y agoA bunch of small companies invented the smartphone. Who do you think invented it?
- rock_hard 8y agoI’d say a bunch of companies tried to invent the smartphone...but Apple actually did
- maxxxxx 8y agoThat's nonsense. Apple looked at what everybody else was doing and packaged it very well.
- ngngngng 8y agoApples stock price is over 16x higher today than it was when the iphone was released. By todays metrics, I might call 2007 apple a small company.
- Apocryphon 8y agoApple was not nearly the giant it is now when it invented the smartphone. What revolutionary ground-breaking products has that company produced now that it has become a giant?
- bepotts 8y agoSilicon Valley is responsible for most of the world's innovation, so as a consumer I'd rather we not dictate where firms wanted to set up shop.
- wazoox 8y agoSilicon Valley was essentially funded by the US state, and particularly the military. GPS, ARPANET, computers, microwaves, networking, radio transmissions, all of this has been invented for the military, financed and pushed ahead by them. SV isn't a libertarian paradise. Read the series https://steveblank.com/secret-history/ https://steveblank.com/secret-history/
- bepotts 8y agoWhich doesn't change my statement in the least. In the internet era, Silicon Valley has been the crown jewel.
- paulddraper 8y agoFacebook is responsible for most of the world's social networking, so as a consumer, I'd rather not dictate how it wants to run its shop.
- zbentley 8y ago> as a consumer, I'd rather not dictate how it wants to run its shop. Think about that statement. Think about it carefully. You're a consumer. You and people like you are the entire means by which this company earns its money. You really have no interest in how it does so? Even when it has massively significant (statistically speaking--if not you then hundreds of millions of people like you) influence on your life?
- notacoward 8y agoSilicon Valley is not responsible for most of the world's innovation. Not even within tech. If the internet started any one place it was at BBN around Boston. The web started at CERN. Microprocessors started at Bell Labs and Texas Instruments. Cellular phones started at Motorola, Ericsson, Nokia. Amazon's up in Seattle, next door to Microsoft, and even Facebook is an import. SV isn't even a player in biotech, clean tech, materials science, etc. The cult of Silicon Valley is getting ridiculous.