CHAPTER FIVE
COMMERCIAL TRANSFORMATION
Rewriting Business and the Economy
INFORMATION, INTELLIGENCE, AND SPATIAL EQUIVALENCES are reshaping commerce and the economy at large. Tom Goodwin’s now-famous observation encapsulates just how thoroughly the rules are being rewritten:
Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening.1
The worlds of business and finance are changing rapidly: online retailing, the sharing economy, freemium business models, streaming media, crowd-sourcing, peer-to-peer lending, virtual ...
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