The Internet does not support monopolies: it’s a web, not a single highway … The mass market has lost its power: Value is found in personal service. Therefore, a company like Microsoft will not control the new market. It will make a lot of money, but it won’t make monopoly rent. That’s why government involvement would be wrong. Don’t cure a disease until you’ve got the disease.
Predictor: Dyson, Esther
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article she wrote for Inc. magazine, Esther Dyson, president of EDventure Holdings in New York and an active member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, writes about the potential threat of a Microsoft Internet monopoly: ”On the Internet, bottlenecks are hard to create because the market finds a way of going around anything that stands in its way. The Internet does not support monopolies: it’s a web, not a single highway. A company with a bottleneck finds itself cut off; it does not control the flow. Customers that don’t like a product can easily find an alternative, because it is a very efficient and fluid market. No one company can control it, because standards don’t apply. On the Internet, companies and people are rewarded for creativity and innovation and diversity: things that are distributed to millions aren’t as valuable as things that are distributed to individuals. The mass market has lost its power: Value is found in personal service. Therefore, a company like Microsoft will not control the new market. It will make a lot of money, but it won’t make monopoly rent. That’s why government involvement would be wrong. Don’t cure a disease until you’ve got the disease.”
Biography:Esther Dyson was founding editor of Release 1.0 and a consultant and expert on computing and high-tech applications. She served as the president of EDventure Holdings. She founded the PC Forum, an annual conference and industry event. She had the highest profile of the women of technology in the 1990s. (Futurist/Consultant.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Role of Govt./Industry
Name of publication: Inc.
Title, headline, chapter name: High-Tech Markets
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Falcone, Peter P.