it is debatable what function means. The Digital Economy created these years principally based on technology created by subsidizing their costs internally by ad

it is debatable what function means. The Digital Economy created these years principally based on technology created by subsidizing their costs internally by ads is far greater than what is lost. If the market is segmented in thousands of competitors it might sound good but it will stagnate because noone will have the power to really innovate. The example of mail and Maps was not accidental. we had Thousands of mail providers before and all it brought us was 5MB mailboxes, maps were out of reach for the average consumers and costed hundreds of $ for each country you wanted to have access too (updated maybe once in 2-3 years and only route information and very few POI). The market was segmented and noone had any real interest or the power to push the envelope.