I love that post from Mitch Joel ‘A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Disruption‘ that started from the issue faced by publishers over last Christmas: loss of capacity in printing shops made many popular books unavailable.
Internet disruptors have reached a disruption stage where their decisions have so much impact in the physical world that they now have to intervene in that world.
Mitch Joel quotes “Tom Goodwin (of Zenith Media) and his well-worn/well-used quote from 2015: “Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening.”“
“What many people don’t know, is that Tom updated that quote this year to read: “The world’s largest taxi firm, Uber, is buying cars. The world’s most popular media company, Facebook, now commissions content. The world’s most valuable retailer is now Amazon, and has more than 350 stores. And the world’s largest hospitality provider, Airbnb, increasingly owns real estate. Things change.””
Things change indeed, and also show how internet disruption really impacts our daily life now. This may lead to another deep transformation of our economic setup: as internet companies will have to own much more physical assets, their business model will also transform.
