Umair Haque / Bubblegeneration

Friday, February 10, 2006

Game Over: How To Kill Your Industry

Don't innovate; extract value instead of creating it, by building iron curtains around the valeu chain; focus on synergies (read: marketing economies of scale and scope). Then, when the returns from the above are played out, do what anti-innovators throughout history have done - vertically integrate (ie, acquire the creative).

The ongoing games industry tragicomedy gives us a latest textbook example.

Did you hear that? That's the sound of an entire industry imploding (while radical innovators steal tomorrow's customers from right under their nose).

I really hope the usual media suspects (yes, even you, Yahoo + Goog) are taking notes.

-- umair // 1:38 AM // 2 comments

Comments:

maybe WoW would be a better example than SL?

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john // 9:28 AM

Speaking of Yahoo and Google and killing industries....

1. Who is honestly shocked that Google Desktop is basically a spy intent on knowing and collecting everything about you?

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/b4976c70-9a3d-11da-8b63-0000779e2340.html

2. Yahoo's web beacons track you inside and outside the Yahoo network to share info about who you are, what you do and where you go with thier partners. The opt-out procedured is deeply burried inside their privacy policy text and applies only to the browser you're using, not your Yahoo account. So you have to opt-out on each browser you use, everytime you access your Yahoo account.

How's that for disrespecting your users?

http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/?

http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/us/beacons/details.html

Is this the kind of treatment users can expect whenever thier beloved little online tool gets bought up by one of the big guys?

Really, I don't think these are quite industry killers, but as people become more sophisticated about technology and communication how much longer will companies be able to get away with these sorts of abuses?

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niblettes // 1:28 AM