[zupreme]

I would say that a primary difference is the investment runway the successful players have enjoyed. Some of them are still not objectively profitable to this day, but their massive topline revenues, scales of operations, and levels of name recognition makes many of them remain attractive investment targets nevertheless.

[askafriend]

> I would say that a primary difference is the investment runway the successful players have enjoyed.

No. The market size expanded exponentially for each of these opportunities - changing the economics of the business models and making them viable at scale.

The internet was nothing in the 90s. A place for mostly nerds in first world countries.

Today we've connect 4 billion+ humans around the world.

[alluro2]

For better or for worse. When you say "connect", that means get them in front of a couple of hundred platforms (globally, comes down to couple dozen in the west) to transact on and generate revenue for those market players. It's like we took the 32bit color animated GIF internet and made it a 128 color static PNG of mostly similar shades of 10 colors.

[askafriend]

I don't think the implications of connecting 4B+ people should be downplayed.

It is an absolutely massive accomplishment that has many many far reaching positive effects that far outweigh the negatives.

Don't let cynicism be your only guide.

[an_opabinia]

> No. The market size expanded exponentially for each of these opportunities - changing the economics of the business models and making them viable at scale.

Maybe. Labor in China and the Chinese market absorbing inflation also helped.

My expectation is grocery delivery just barely missed the boat, because of import malfeasance crackdowns since April that is affecting everything.

[JumpCrisscross]

> primary difference is the investment runway the successful players have enjoyed

Mobile phones and data didn’t hurt.

[pbreit]

One of the biggest differences is no mobile in 1.0

[MattGaiser]

Indeed. The willingness of VCs to fund a big vision is a game changer from companies having to incrementally bootstrap themselves.