monopoly, born slippy.

here's a (somewhat obvious) thought i had this morning in the shower (again, where some of my best thinking occurs, a shame i can't write in there):

the internet breeds innovative, yet monopolistic services.

let that sink in.

when you think about it, for *almost* each & every web service we use (search, video, direct shopping, online auction), pretty much one brand has dominant market share.

oh sure, you, the reader of this here bloog might think yourself a bit more independent, different, "savvier" than the teeming masses.

"i share/watch video at Vimeo," says John. "i buy my books & dvds on Half," says Hamid. "i prefer to search with Yaho...," ok, that one's pretty much not true. everyone in their right mind uses Google (~70% market share of search in the US).

to this i respond, get over yourself. you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.

Google. YouTube (owned by Google). Amazon. eBay. you get the picture.

but why is this? shouldn't a capitalistic society breed healthy competition, with at least 2 dominant market players vying for each other's throats?

for every Coke there is a Pepsi. for every Nike, there is an Adidas (although once Reebok). for every McDonald's there is a Wendy's (or Burger King, depending on who's doing worse). how is the internet any different? well the internet is a marketplace of sorts...of ideas. and usually, one comes in and changes the game - drastically, in terms of (quality of) service.

online shopping was always around, but Amazon took to the next level with massive selection, personalized recommendations and ease of use. online video sort of existed, but YouTube picked up a viral/bootleg traction that others could only TRY to replicate.

with the interweb, i think it is the first GOOD product to market often takes the cake. and the other smaller players struggle to catch up with their own "me too" strategy. the only ones that succeed are the one's that take the existing monopolized service and put a dramatically different spin on things (thus inventing a new interweb service). better products in the same field are definitely around, and constantly popping up (ie, Vimeo's tech is way better than YouTube), BUT it's often too little, too late. the market leader's user base isn't about to shift their habits. it is human nature.

so what are the exception(s)? social networks are clearly one, as it's been more of an evolutionary process. Friendster was the original innovator in the space (enabling me to meet some cool people when i moved to Cincinnati). MySpace brought in music + film (and adult predators). but then Facebook made it a socially utilitarian and relevant (but now everyone and their mom is there, almost literally).

now there's a vast amount of fragmentation in the social media space. but frankly? the walls have to come down (similar to when the internet's "walled gardens" of AOL, Compuserv, etc gave way to the MSN + Yahoo's of the world, we now see the advent of things like API's + Google Open Social, but that is another post altogether).

so did this blow your mind? if not, this will.

otherwise, you can watch a video of dancing Transformer girls (?!?), sung to the tune of a cover (by the band of the guy working on my most favoritist comic EVER) of my favorite song from Trainspotting: