4 ms·

US antitrust turning a blind eye towards the aggregation into FAANG (or was it conflict of interest?) also made this possible. Specifically, Google's acquisitio

US antitrust turning a blind eye towards the aggregation into FAANG (or was it conflict of interest?) also made this possible. Specifically, Google's acquisition of DoubleClick alone (then the largest ad network) created a monopoly and closed vertical supply chain network along with AdWords/Google Search. But then Google also controls TV (YouTube), devices (Android), and browsers (via Chrome and subverting weak and financially dependent puppet orgs for web standardization and advocacy), and also many services found via Google Search. Something's gotta give.

safety1st 3y ago
I think it might be the web that gives. If you look at the birth of the web and how it became such a phenomenon, what we had back in those days as the dominant platform for end user applications was Win32. It was OK for its time but had limitations the web didn't have, one of the biggest was - you had to get a user to install stuff locally. So what was necessary for the web to take off as an application platform was first some scrappy startups that saw the potential, Netscape creating Javascript was the first real opening salvo. And then when Microsoft realized the threat it went into overdrive and invented DHTML and arguably put more resources into the Web than a startup ever could, and then all this stuff started getting standardized and we got to enjoy 20 years of a new application platform where there was competition to control it and things were somewhat standardized and not totally monopolized. Notably most people just forgot about Win32 and quit building apps with it, which would have been considered unfathomable at the time. Win32 had had its day and faded into something comparatively niche. I don't see why we wouldn't have the same dynamic now if the Web eventually becomes as monopolized and stagnant as Win32 was. Or at least, I think this may be more likely than the Web somehow getting rescued by regulators or anyone else.

safety1st 3y ago

I think it might be the web that gives. If you look at the birth of the web and how it became such a phenomenon, what we had back in those days as the dominant platform for end user applications was Win32. It was OK for its time but had limitations the web didn't have, one of the biggest was - you had to get a user to install stuff locally. So what was necessary for the web to take off as an application platform was first some scrappy startups that saw the potential, Netscape creating Javascript was the first real opening salvo. And then when Microsoft realized the threat it went into overdrive and invented DHTML and arguably put more resources into the Web than a startup ever could, and then all this stuff started getting standardized and we got to enjoy 20 years of a new application platform where there was competition to control it and things were somewhat standardized and not totally monopolized. Notably most people just forgot about Win32 and quit building apps with it, which would have been considered unfathomable at the time. Win32 had had its day and faded into something comparatively niche. I don't see why we wouldn't have the same dynamic now if the Web eventually becomes as monopolized and stagnant as Win32 was. Or at least, I think this may be more likely than the Web somehow getting rescued by regulators or anyone else.