What are the doors left open by digital giants?
History has shown that each time a giant company emerged under the digital ocean, it opens at the same time at least one door for another to emerge.
Apple and Microsoft have opened the door to Netscape who in turn has opened the door for AltaVista. Amazon has opened the door to Paypal. PayPal has opened the door for many other e-commerce platforms like Amazon. It’s a strong trend that everytime you see a successful digital company, chances are that it left behind itself a door for you to get started and grow. Viewed like that it seems that success in the digital world is like keys which pass from hands to hands and hopefully this transition is somehow more democratic that it seems to be in real life politics. So the questions, for us who want to be part of the future impact companies, are What are the doors left open? Which one of them is easiest for us to enter?
Like developers or hackers, we are challenged to find bugs in the system or to put a viral backdoor into it. I am using a trendy but real phenomenon which is virality. Some say that it’s a misunderstood phenomenon or something which relies on hazard or trial errors. Whatever is virality, the Internet is a like a big bacterial or nuclear environment where big elements (startups, platforms, ideas, companies, brand ...) behaviors can make rapidly other big elements come into life without the effort or the resources that they normally would need for that(API). Sometimes the emergence of one big digital success isn't only a door opened for others but also a myriad of skills and cultures for people to profit from. This past decade, We have seen born a lot of valuable skills and job titles and curiously the world in terms of employment was never worse. Today, if our parents Look at jobs boards online, they will never find a job offer with the same job title they had in their careers. To say that things have changed obviously.
what about our two questions? I am not saying that I have the correct answers. if I had them, I would be certainly managing a big company like Google or Facebook but I will give a try. Just tell me if I am wrong in my answers and it’ will be an opportunity for discussions and the open of another one of the billions of doors that internet opens second by second. before answering these two questions, let me tell you that an idea, a brand or a company is a message and a message needs a medium for spreading. We get what we can call a ‘viral’ message if we cannot avoid to share it with people around us (or in our networks). A message which is instantly shared by people like if they were more and more in trouble as long as they keep it secret. Isn’t it an amazing tool for entrepreneurs or marketer? of course it is and it’s what every one of us is looking for.
The most interesting doors are the ones which let us build and spread easily this kind of message. if we take the example of Netscape, Microsoft and Apple put the personal computer on the hand of “everybody” so it was more easy for Netscape to come and offer a better navigator while those two bigs were focused on improving their OS and hardware core functionalities on behalf their respective navigators. In this example, we have seen two big elements (internet and PC) colliding for creating a new competitive space which is Browsing solutions (a door). This kind of door is what I am tempted to call a Usages Door because it involves exploitation of possible use cases of one or the composition of preceding solutions (exploited doors). If Netscape was talking to big companies with mainstream IBM computer, will they be able to introduce their offer to those companies? They certainly would fail if it was the case because IBM had a strong barrier and a word to say. Here I highlighted other doors which are the Access Doors which are doors that make it easy for us to reach our target. For Netscape, it was easiest to target people( or employees) directly than companies establishment. Access Doors are very important because without them we cannot spread our ideas, brands or companies. They are Mediums. In the case of the composition of Personal computer and internet, lot of usages Doors have been exploited by others in forms of software or hardware. We can give Hotmail like another example of a company who exploited a usages door.
As you can see I am just talking about the type of doors and not still answering the question what are the doors are left open?. There are a lot of types of doors to describe before answering the question because it will be easy for you to view exactly the door that you can take now and build the idea, brand or company you want. Don’t think that I am selling you a get rich quick solution. it isn't one. But if it interests you pry god to keep us alive and in peace until my next article into which I will dive more into our subject.
IF YOU HAVE THE SHORT ANSWER PLEASE LET ME KNOW!
THANK YOU FOR READING SEE YOU NEXT TIME
