We are hitting a ceiling
Posted by Brian Wong on Apr 17, 2009, under AerThoughts
I’m going to be incredibly uncreative and call it the “web ceiling”.
What I mean by this is as active, connected users, we have a group of useful tools that we regularly use. And yes, the companies that provide these tools will and can become massive in size and very successful. I’m talking about the Facebooks, the Twitters (now), and the Googles. There is, however, a limit to the amount of these regular tools that we use: a ceiling.
There is not enough attention and time available in our busy lives to devote to another jesus-tool. The switching costs increase every day we use these things, because we are building our lives around it. Younger people will attest to this. And yes, I will probably never stop using Google as my main tool for e-mail and search, but hey, never say never.
In any case, I believe that the big question now should not be, who is going to be the next Twitter? – we should instead be asking: how can we, as unique individuals, find the next niche tools that we can use for our specific situations? I call it micro-niching; and similar to Seth Godin’s “tribe” concept: this is now related to product development and marketing.
As we micro-niche, we build a concept of how a company can create multiple micro-niches of a similar theme but utilize the technology available today to customize tools to a situation.
For instance, as an entrepreneur, a business owner, a graphic designer, a hockey player, and an addicted traveler: what tool can bring all my services together in a meaningful, semantic way, and what product will not just simply add to my already full roster of “regular” large and bulky tools, but can be nimble and evolving with my needs?
Just a thought.
