Thirty years ago, the internet came on the stage, and it took less than a decade to scale it to mass adoption as a general-purpose technology. People quickly embraced it as another instrument shortening the distance between them and allowing them to communicate in real time.
Now, for the first time in history, a person located in the US can send an email to someone in Japan, and the message will be received instantly without the need to use the services of a courier or post stamps. It is as simple as clicking a button and the message arrives in the recipient's inbox.
Then of course, a lot of other amazing use cases have followed the birth of the internet.
People started creating informational websites, watching videos online, going on the internet for location services, communication with friends and colleagues, exchanging files, ordering food and shopping online, along with countless other applications that are emerging even to this very day.
How many industries have been completely reshaped in the process? Let's find out now.
Traditional libraries and encyclopedias aren't the go-to source for information anymore. Everybody uses Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, Quora, and other online services to find answers to their questions.
When we say map, we don't think of actual paper maps, but refer to Google Maps—the popular GPS location service seen in the following diagram:
Blockbuster, the world's largest video rental company, went bankrupt because it failed to adapt to a changing environment where online streaming and digital distribution became the prevalent form of business. On the other hand, Netflix managed to build a superb business model that was well positioned for the opportunities offered by a digital world.
People do not buy music tapes anymore, but they subscribe for services such as Spotify and Pandora, which, similar to Netflix, managed to come up with the winning formula.
The examples of industries that have been completely reshaped by the internet are countless. And the companies that managed to win big are the ones that embraced the new technology and built their business models around it.