Ghost of Midnight

Russell C. Horowitz offers today that the Internet has…

seen four major consumer- and/or merchant-focused movements that have created or transferred hundreds of billions of dollars of value.

They are…

1. Communications. Businesses that primarily focused on the consumer, navigating online, email and messaging.
2. Commerce, which massively impacted both consumer and merchant-driven markets.
3. Search, … exponentially expanded merchants’ ability to acquire customers more efficiently.
4. Social networking. While we have yet to see how the model evolves, it is obvious that these businesses are impacting online consumer behavior.

Local will be the fifth – and it will impact consumers and merchants alike.

Each of these movements has created hundreds of billions of dollars of company value and Local will be at least as transforming. Local will not be winner take all and will be realized through the collaboration of many companies.