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Comment by americandesi333 | Hacker News Reader

I couldn't agree with you more. What you just said reminded me of how IBM first reacted to personal computers. The crux of innovation is disrupting the existing model. Thats what Apple did with its iPod and iTunes product.

The author has mentioned very few education companies outside of the standardized tests/textbooks/tutoring model. Companies like Wireless Generation, Khan Academy, P2PU are the ones that are really disrupting how education is delivered. Another education company called Zinch which was purchased by Chegg turned the admissions process on its head. These are the type of innovations that education industry will have. It will be sad if we all sit around with our arms crossed thinking that it can't be done for the next 20 years because the technology is ripe and so is adoption...

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It's not at all clear to me that Khan Academy is really "disrupting education". They may be awesome and all, but when an industry is disrupted something more fundamental is at work -- other businesses are displaced and shut down, people lose their jobs, and billion-dollar market segments get turned into million-dollar market segments (or eliminated completely).

To compare, look at what's happening in the music or book industries right now. It's hard to find a retailer that sells CDs today because that business has been disrupted.

It's far from clear to me that KA is actually having that "disruptive" effect, or that they will be able to do that in the future.

Khan Academy - I point out the demographics in my post. It supports my point. Also note that it's free and a nonprofit, not a VC backed company.

Wireless Generation - They have been around for 10 years and were not profitable at the time of sale. http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2010/11/23/news-corp-deal-for...

Zinch - didn't really get off the ground. I know the founder and others on the team. Really great folks doing some great work. Part of the reason they sold is that getting any serious traction and turning it into a large business is going to take many many more years.

Put it another way. In the same amount of time that Wireless Generation was founded the rest of the Internet got: Facebook, iOS, YouTube, Wikipedia, DropBox, and much more.

There is a big difference between an industry being nascent (as the PC industry was in the 70s) and the fundamental dynamics in the industry creating certain types of companies (as is the case with education and some other industries).

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