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I used to think similar about AOL Instant Messenger, the Wintel monopoly, SEGA and Internet Explorer.


The Windows is still a near monopoly (Mac at 8-10%, Linux at 1-3%) in the desktop globally. On mobile, they never had a stronghold.

As for SEGA, AOL, and IE, they never had any real stronghold (like a lock-in), they just had the users - those are easier to switch to something new. Games for example go stale, and you don't care that much for your older played games - you want the new shiny. A browser, you switch over, and you have everything you did before, including your bookmarks. AOL, had it's stronghold when the internet was 1/100 of what it is now.

I can see the internet going 100x larger now (except if it goes to 80 billion people out of the 8 billion on Earth).


>The Windows is still a near monopoly (Mac at 8-10%, Linux at 1-3%) in the desktop globally. On mobile, they never had a stronghold.

right, Windows didn't lose their position because someone out-competed them in their area, but because a whole new category of device (smart phone) and a new category service (search) rose to prominence. (Also fears of legal problems tampered their normal behavior)


For a lot of those things, competitors have a viable path to profitability if they make a better alternative. With Youtube, even if you make a better alternative, you're still loosing a ton of money due to costs of serving video and scaling (especially if you want to let people watch and upload for free).


Those were different times, old man.


As these moments will be, some day. :)


None of those have the network effect and an existing community. Maybe MySpace would be a better counter example.




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