# The Internet Transformation (Talk Outline)

**Published by:** [Continuations](https://continuations.com/)
**Published on:** 2010-03-05
**Categories:** internet, transformation, industries
**URL:** https://continuations.com/the-internet-transformation-talk-outline

## Content

Today at noon I am giving a talk to the Japan Business Network in New York – an informal get together organized by my brother-in-law, Charles Danziger. The topic is the fundamental transformation of industries that the Internet will bring about. I am planning to use the following outline. Some background on Union Square Ventures - about $300 million under management across two funds - invest exclusively in the Internet - based in New York but national mandate (and some international investments) - mostly lead first institutional round - well-known investments include Twitter, Zynga, Etsy, Foursquare Fundamental USV thesis - The Internet will change everything - This will go on for a long time (decades) - Will provide significant startup and new investment opportunities along the way First story: Newspapers - these were big and mighty businesses - they existed for a long time (100+ years) - highly profitable for a long time Along comes: the Internet Step 1: Unbundling of economics (online classifieds) - job classifieds: HotJobs, Monster - for sale: eBay - dating: various sites - all of the above: Craigslist -> result: major source of profits removed Step 2: Unbundling of content - the rise of blogs - specialist publications - user generated content -> result: splitting of audiences Net result: newspapers everywhere are struggling Second story: Disrupting the disruptors Job classifieds: HotJobs, Monster - 1:1 translation of offline model to online - listing for a fee - really just playing on cost advantage Along comes: Indeed Vertical search for jobs - find jobs wherever they are - can only be done on the Internet - native revenue model: keyword advertising Third story: The new news businesses Blogs - Blogs have low cost structure - Many blogs don’t need to make money directly (side project, lead generation, etc) - Targeting specific audiences - Highly varying levels of analysis / original thinking / reporting Aggregators: Techmeme - Analyze link structure - Analyze social media / real-time web - Run software in the cloud – all variable cost - Small team Extrapolating - Not just the news business – all businesses - Why? Many other businesses with huge information/content components - Education - Healthcare Education example What about manufacturing? - 3D printing - separation of model making and “printing” - lot size 1 - mass customization But goes deeper: fundamental fabric of organizations - Modern corporation now > 100 years old - Command and control structure - Trade-off between motivation and cooperation/information sharing - Transition to “small pieces, loosely joined” (like architecture of the Internet) Doesn’t stop there: governments? We are in for an exciting ride into the future.

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