Yeah, I still remember when the web was only a product of Web Inc., and how long it took for independent webserver implementations to take off.

Or, before then, do you still remember when email was this walled garden where everyone had an account with Electronic Messaging Solutions Inc.? It took decades until sendmail, exim, qmail, postfix, and so on came along, largely thanks to Google's help in breaking open the former monopoly, and people could finally host their own email servers!