Movement into adjacencies always is a key competitive issue within any ecosystem, as it turns former customers into competitors. That happens with chipsets, applications, access, transport, advertising and other support services.
Also, the most-dangerous competitors are those from “outside” the traditional domain. Skype,, Amazon, Alibaba, Netflix, Google Fiber, cable TV entry into voice and business services, XBox, PayPal, M-Pesa, Amazon Web Services and iTunes are among the obvious examples.
Some now think a big further move in the e-commerce business will happen, as logistics functions perhaps are internalized by the likes of Alibaba and Amazon.
No ecosystem now seems safe from movement into adjacencies. In the U.S. mobile market, entry by Comcast and other cable TV operators will be an important example. In the high speed access, growing presence of Google Fiber and other third party Internet service providers is going to challenge prevailing notions of how many providers are sustainable, long term, in the fixed network business.
We once widely believed the answer was “one.” Over the last couple of decades, the number has become “two.” What Google Fiber and others pose is a new question. In some markets, is the viable number actually “three?”
That would represent a major business model challenge for the incumbent suppliers, as any major change in market structure always entails.
In addition to the urgency of creating new revenue sources, operating costs have to be taken down even more than had seemed possible in the past.
No comments:
Post a Comment