Quote:
Originally posted by grandmascrotum
I guess it's one of those industry consolidation things. The little guy is squeezed out by big corporations, but it means the consumer ultimately loses out because there's less choice.
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Hey Grand'ma !
You just mentionned helped me clarify my previous post's vision...
It's very tempting to equating e-space with meatspace, thinking that e-Wal-Mart of porn will emerge and squash everyone.
But...
In meatspace, the client base is fairly captive for geographical/commuting reasons. In e-space, it is different. I'm not sure the above prediction will realise itself.
While there is some consolidation in e-space, I think that one reason for so many failures of small operators is that they were akin the gold rush operators: most of them seeked surface gold. Now that the surface gold is done, you need education (an engineer's or geologist education) to understand where to find the gold, because no surface gold exist to be easily found. These people tend to be employed in larger businesses, agreed, but tehre is still plenty of room for wildcatters, solo operators exploiting precise knowledge to make money in more narrowly defined trades. Yet, many mom-and-pop consulting business do exist and thrive, many single-owner retail shop live well and nicely. If they offer the same stuff as wal-mart, they'll die. If they don't, they'll thrive.
Another point. Novel payments system, like micro-payments might open an entirely new way of doing business.
Remember ten years ago when calling Europe was 35 cents per minute? Each calls were done in a hurry, etc. Now, you can pay only a few cents. This changed the relationship between small distributors and small suppliers, between purchasers of service and outside contractors.
Innovation never ceases, and change always happens. The universe is a dynamic entity. How many mice can move freely going their own business in between two elephants? (OK, the metaphor might be defective for reason of specie's choice...
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