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It's 1994 again

peterzakin.com · 780 words · saved by 1 readers

The better part of the 2010s was mostly unkind to consumer internet companies. While there are several factors that discouraged consumer opportunities (e.g. Facebook withdrew APIs, turned cannibalistic on its partners, and then proved it could successfully fight off, copy, or acquire would-be threats….), the simplest explanation is that the 2010s lacked the kind of technological unlocks (crypto might be an exception) that motivated previous bursts of consumer opportunities. It’s pretty clear that we have entered a new period of consumer opportunity–something reminiscent of 1994-1998, 2003-2007, and 2008-2012. Where should we expect new breakthrough consumer apps? A few ideas: The sunny side of automation is that services become very cheap. The dark side of automation is what happens to the humans whose labor made those services expensive. Let’s consider the sunny side. At some level of AI capabilities – not far away! – I expect we will see products that look like synthetic experts. The

It's 1994 again It's 1994 again August 25 2024 The biggest consumer internet companies have been started in the wake of technological unlocks. Birth of the web browser (Nexus started in 1991, Mosaic in 1993, Netscape in 1994): Yahoo (1994), Amazon (1994), Ebay (1995), Craigslist (1995), Expedia (1996), Paypal (1998), Google (1998). Expansion of high-speed internet: LinkedIn (2003), FB (2004), Youtube (2005), Reddit (2005), Twitter (2006), Spotify (2006), Dropbox (2007). FB Platform (2007) + iOS App Store (2008): Airbnb (2008), Pinterest (2009), Whatsapp (2009), Venmo (2009), Uber (2010), Insta

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