The early internet was a magical place because it was driven by people and their creativity. Builders knew that whatever they made, they owned — a simple promise that established the right incentives for the technology to flourish. But now, the internet is stagnating and it’s harder than ever for new apps to break through.
Consider the app stores: almost all the products that consistently appear on leader lists were founded more than a decade ago: Facebook (2004), YouTube (2005), Twitter, now known as X (2006), WhatsApp (2009), Uber (2009), Instagram (2010), Snap (2011) and even Tiktok’s parent ByteDance (2012).
Big Tech consolidated its control of the internet around 2010. Just a few gatekeepers now determine who or what will succeed online. Restoring a vibrant internet means breaking this power and putting users back in the driver’s seat. The key to doing that is creating new networks that cannot be easily usurped — ideally, those built on blockchains.