I've been exploring this for close to 10 years now and the biggest barrier is not lack of companies that can provide platforms to "unite" other verticals but rather an outright resistance to make what seems like big changes to those moms and pops businesses. It's quite difficult to find the right balance between the bare minimum each of these businesses needs to change/update to make it viable to create the platform and what seems like too tall of an order for them - instead they will just print more flyers, work double shifts, come up with nearly "at cost promos", etc.
The salary increase part or just the constant pursuit to be better than your coworkers? I always found development to be less competitive field than others - what are your experiences of the past 5 years?
Because we don't need yet another domain to host a .js file or a nifty way of displaying something. HN is polluted with "Look guys, I made a jQuery plugin over the weekend, so instead of linking my Github you can check it here yetanotheruselessdomain.io". I might be bitter though, since whenever I want to register a domain for a genuine product/service it is usually taken with a "Buy this domain" link on it and nothing else. Too many domains are being used for silly purposes while taking them off the market from those that could give them much bigger potential.