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Naive article.

Demand-side scaling is one approach to lock-in. Others include APIs, open/closed data policies, utility, interaction with other services, ease-of-use, and more.

Hal Varian and Carl Shapiro's Information Rules is a far more complete look at various elements of lock in from both a provider and consumer perspective. http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=978-0875848631

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Great book - thanks for mentioning. Agree with you that there are multiple ways of locking in customers but the point of the post was rather that the web has changed the relative importance of the different barriers to entry. Most have decreased in their importance (among others lock-in effects) but the clear winner are demand-side economies of scale.

I'd forgotten how great this book is, and that it was published in 1998 is incredible. Time to re-read.

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