Eugine_Nier comments on Open Thread February 25 - March 3 - Less Wrong

8 Post author: Coscott 25 February 2014 04:57AM

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Comment author: Eugine_Nier 09 March 2014 09:40:21PM -1 points [-]

Coscott was talking about a "a natural drift towards a monopoly".

Comment author: EGarrett 10 March 2014 11:48:38AM *  -2 points [-]

Unless OKCupid is hiring the government or people with guns to threaten other websites out of existence, there won't be a drift towards a monopoly.

A monopoly isn't created by one company getting the overwhelming majority of customers. A monopoly is only created when competitors cannot enter the market. It's a subtle distinction but it's very important, because what's implied is that the company with the monopoly can jack up their prices and abuse customers. They can't do this without feeding a garden of small competitors that can and will outgrow them (see Myspace, America Online, etc), unless those competitors are disallowed from ever existing.

You can keep downvoting this, but it's a very important concept in economics and it will still be true.