Micro companies need mega corporations

My previous post highlighted the rise of the micro company - this post will look at the flip side of this trend - the consolidation of power in mega corporations.

For every cottage 'power seller' there has to be an Ebay, for every stall in the 'market place', an Amazon, for every millionaire bedroom software developer, an App Store

The lubricants in the micro company economy are concentrated in the hands of the internet giants. To take an example

• John sells his screen-printed T-shirts on Ebay.
• His customers, if they don't find him there, stumble across his Etsy store on Google.
• They pay by Paypal.
• The goods are shipped by Fedex.

The paradox of network effects in the modern internet architecture is that structural power is most successfully achieved by devolving power to the masses. The platform is the power.