I am pleased that trust busting is back in fashion
This Baby Boomer was much influenced by Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered, a collection of essays published in 1973 by German-born British economist E. F. Schumacher.
Peter Thiel, who is vastly wealthy, wrote in an otherwise great book (Zero to One) that “competition is for losers”. If you are a tech entrepreneur you probably like competitive markets, as they enable your company to thrive.
Digital economics is different. In the analog age, competition was measured by prices and as long as there was some competition, economies of scale meant a dominant firm could offer good prices.
Digital economics is different in two main ways:
1. The dominant player usually has market share of 90% or more which is really a monopoly - just ask anyone who tried competing. This happens due the power law aka the more people who use a service the more valuable it is.
2. The digital monopoly often makes money by owning your data and attention. The analog firm has to advertise to get your attention.
These two differences explain why trust busting has been in and out of fashion. During most of the time when trust busting was out of fashion, there were few digital monopolies but today is different and as a tech entrepreneur I like competitive markets. That is why I am very pleased that trust busting is back in fashion.