From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Tue Dec 21 1999 - 23:26:13 MST
Brian Atkins wrote:
>
> Actually Ebay does have something, it's called a critical mass
> of buyers/sellers.
In other words, they have a competitive advantage that lasts until
someone develops a transparent central registry.
Ebay's a mediator. The Internet is about disintermediation. They're
doomed. Maybe not until post-Singularity, in real life; but in a
straight-line projection, their current primary business model will disintegrate.
Foolish venture capitalists, trying to apply physical paradigms to
Websites. Portals? Who needs an Internet mall? Whe needs everything
in one place, when going from one place to another is instantaneous?
Selling at a loss to build market share? What market share? Customers
can move from one seller to another instantaneously, the instant prices
go up. In an inertialess market, current market share has no causal
connection to tomorrow's market share.
That's the perfect-rolling-sphere version, but it's where the reality is going.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/beyond.html
Typing in Dvorak Programming with Patterns Writing in gender-neutral
Voting for Libertarians Heading for Singularity There Is A Better Way
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