Money makes the world go around?

Money makes the world go around. Oh no it doesn’t! It’s inertia that makes the world go around … until it stops.

Inertia! What a powerful influence, or at least that’s what John Donahoe, the new boss eBay, is hoping. Donahoe is raising eBay’s fees and changing its rules, and assuming that its clients won’t desert the auction site in their droves for another fleamarket.com. Some of the smaller players in this eBay ‘community’ are threatening a boycott this May Day. The activists claim that the site is favouring the big players to the detriment of the vast number of small timers.

The Internet is really fascinating. Why is it that one site (possibly two) rise to dominate each sector, and people stay loyal despite better offers appearing in the more boutique specialist competitors? Don’t give me that brand loyalty nonsense. Brand recognition, yes! Google, Amazon, eBay, Skype, Facebook/Myspace are the first points of call in their particular sectors, and so they rule their particular roosts. Do they give a superior service to their clients, or is it apathy or laziness that fuels this inertia? Is it an example of ‘better the devil you know’? Or is it the gravitational pull of a critical mass, preventing large enough numbers to break away to form a viable competitor?

Whatever the reason, it is only to be expected eventually that familiarity breeds contempt. Is eBay taking its community for granted? If so, they had better beware. Entropy is a permanent fact of every system. A ‘tipping point’ will eventually be reached where the system dives into decline, and users will move on to more favourable climes.

I wonder which of the Internet Big Boys will be the first to fail?