A new infrastructure
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2025 7:24 am
Vance draws a comparison with two previous IT booms; in the 1980s (with the rise of companies such as Microsoft, Sun and Oracle) and around the turn of the millennium. Although these periods also saw a lot of money being thrown around and a lot of money evaporating into thin air, they ultimately produced fundamental technologies: first the introduction of the PC and then a broadband Internet infrastructure. These technologies in turn proved to be the breeding ground for other companies to come up with new innovative products and services. The concern is that when the current generation of social networking companies implodes, there will be little left and all the talent and money that was available will have essentially yielded nothing for other companies to build on.
Regardless of whether there is a new bubble, the question of what exactly is behind the big money and the hype is legitimate and interesting. Is it true that no new fundamental infrastructure is being created at the moment? Is there actually investment in a 'technological legacy' that can also be of great economic value in the future? Or is the money only used to smoke the servers of companies that actually add little?
I think that infrastructure is being built, albeit in the form of something australia phone number list less tangible than PCs or cables in the ground, but in the form of data. In addition, and linked to that, we are indeed seeing the rise of a physical infrastructure with 'The Internet of Things'.
Data as infrastructure
If you look at the portfolios of large technology investors such as Andreessen-Horowitz or The Founders Fund of Peter Thiel (PayPall) and Sean Parker (Napster and Facebook), among others, it is not only the Groupons and social media companies that are being invested in. A second category of companies that they invest in is involved in software analysis and capturing, taming and making usable enormous amounts of data, which are generated by social networks such as Facebook, among others.
Regardless of whether there is a new bubble, the question of what exactly is behind the big money and the hype is legitimate and interesting. Is it true that no new fundamental infrastructure is being created at the moment? Is there actually investment in a 'technological legacy' that can also be of great economic value in the future? Or is the money only used to smoke the servers of companies that actually add little?
I think that infrastructure is being built, albeit in the form of something australia phone number list less tangible than PCs or cables in the ground, but in the form of data. In addition, and linked to that, we are indeed seeing the rise of a physical infrastructure with 'The Internet of Things'.
Data as infrastructure
If you look at the portfolios of large technology investors such as Andreessen-Horowitz or The Founders Fund of Peter Thiel (PayPall) and Sean Parker (Napster and Facebook), among others, it is not only the Groupons and social media companies that are being invested in. A second category of companies that they invest in is involved in software analysis and capturing, taming and making usable enormous amounts of data, which are generated by social networks such as Facebook, among others.