Techemistry Blog

Facebook, Amazon, and Google going the way of Rome?

1/28/2013 8:18:00 PM -- Ted Krapf

I just ran across an interesting article on Gizmodo that cited John Naughton at the Guardian's story about dominating e-giants eventually out living their dominance and becoming irrelevant in the market.  I thought both were fascinating articles.

It always teases the back of my imagination.  I agree with Mr. Naughton that eventually a giant like Facebook could easily fall due to it's privacy balancing act swinging too far towards the favor of shareholders and advertisers.  At the same time, I seems like at least once a week I see a Google+, or Path, or new MySpace, or other social network pop up that promises privacy and social media reinvented.  I do not seeing any service that is currently live making a noticeable dent in Facebook membership (cough, Google+), but it doesn't mean that it couldn't happen.  Simply look at what happened with Kodak and the introduction of the digital camera.

The facet of this story that is really exciting to me is innovation.  While companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon race every day to stay relevant, I'd wager that there are 100,000+ others looking for that better online social experience, a better way to search, a better way to shop, and just a better mouse trap in general.  All of those bright minds and ideas inside the giants, and outside the giants are constantly striving.

While some days an Entrepreneur,  like myself, can be easily discouraged by what others have done.   But we all have to remember there are likely countless and exciting niches that a simple idea could wedge into that could potentially unseat a giant.



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