History of Tech - first-movers and pioneers
December 6, 2021 10:33 AM Subscribe
Before Google, there was Yahoo Search. Before Amazon, there were online bookstores. First- mover advantage seldom persists. Is there an example in tech where the first mover ended up with long-term market success?
Mercedes-Benz seems like they're doing okay.
posted by box at 10:53 AM on December 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by box at 10:53 AM on December 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
Motorola sold the first commercial cellular phone and they're still doing well in that market today.
Atari created the first coin-op video arcade games (Syzygy was first but that was also Bushnell and Dabney who then created Atari to keep making more so I'd count them together) and had long term success in that area. Depending on your definition of long-term I think they count.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 11:01 AM on December 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
Atari created the first coin-op video arcade games (Syzygy was first but that was also Bushnell and Dabney who then created Atari to keep making more so I'd count them together) and had long term success in that area. Depending on your definition of long-term I think they count.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 11:01 AM on December 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
AT&T a.k.a. the telephone company (1874-1984).
And Con Ed (a.k.a., in New York, the electric company) -- a successor to the first (ish) electrical utility company originally formed by Thomas Edison in around 1882 and still one of the largest utility companies in the world.
So one answer is yes: regulated monopolists traditionally don't have to worry much about innovation.
posted by The Bellman at 11:05 AM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
And Con Ed (a.k.a., in New York, the electric company) -- a successor to the first (ish) electrical utility company originally formed by Thomas Edison in around 1882 and still one of the largest utility companies in the world.
So one answer is yes: regulated monopolists traditionally don't have to worry much about innovation.
posted by The Bellman at 11:05 AM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
AT&T may not be such a great example. AT&T was broken into five "baby bells" (which handled local calling in their regions) plus AT&T (which handled long-distance). One of the baby bells, Southwest Bell, eventually took over AT&T and renamed itself AT&T. The crown jewel, Bell Labs, was renamed Lucent, acquired by Alcatel, which in turn was acquired by Nokia.
posted by adamrice at 11:07 AM on December 6, 2021
posted by adamrice at 11:07 AM on December 6, 2021
I don't have a good answer to your question, but your examples bug me! :)
Yahoo was a directory, not a search engine. There's a big difference. They added search later, but long after other companies had pioneered it. From my own experience in the mid-90s — was it really that long ago? — AltaVista was the first true search engine in my world, though others soon followed. They were all shit. The reason Google won is because they were fast, clean, and low ad. Yeah, hard to believe now. They started with the "don't be evil" thing and it worked for them...until they decided evil was acceptable. They weren't first; but when they arrived, they were lightyears ahead of everyone else.
There were online bookstores before Amazon, but Amazon was the first company I remember trying to be an online-only bookstore. Everyone else just had web pages for their existing brick and mortar businesses. Amazon was revolutionary in that they had a huge range of books (wider range than a regular bookstore), quick+cheap delivery, and a good interface. (ABE Books may have been around earlier, but it was used books only.) And when it became possible to order things other than books? Holy cats! Like Google with search, Amazon was the first killer online bookstore. They weren't first, but they were far better than the others around.
So, I don't think being first matters if your product isn't very good. Google and Amazon weren't first, but they were the first with truly quality iterations in their space. Does that make sense?
posted by jdroth at 11:08 AM on December 6, 2021 [4 favorites]
Yahoo was a directory, not a search engine. There's a big difference. They added search later, but long after other companies had pioneered it. From my own experience in the mid-90s — was it really that long ago? — AltaVista was the first true search engine in my world, though others soon followed. They were all shit. The reason Google won is because they were fast, clean, and low ad. Yeah, hard to believe now. They started with the "don't be evil" thing and it worked for them...until they decided evil was acceptable. They weren't first; but when they arrived, they were lightyears ahead of everyone else.
There were online bookstores before Amazon, but Amazon was the first company I remember trying to be an online-only bookstore. Everyone else just had web pages for their existing brick and mortar businesses. Amazon was revolutionary in that they had a huge range of books (wider range than a regular bookstore), quick+cheap delivery, and a good interface. (ABE Books may have been around earlier, but it was used books only.) And when it became possible to order things other than books? Holy cats! Like Google with search, Amazon was the first killer online bookstore. They weren't first, but they were far better than the others around.
So, I don't think being first matters if your product isn't very good. Google and Amazon weren't first, but they were the first with truly quality iterations in their space. Does that make sense?
posted by jdroth at 11:08 AM on December 6, 2021 [4 favorites]
Apple created the first modern touch screen smart phone and the continue to be a dominant player in that market. Granted, it's been less than 20 years, but it's not like they invented the technology and then fell by the wayside.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 11:08 AM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Winnie the Proust at 11:08 AM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Disney's Snow White was the first feature-length animated film (excluding stop-motion). Disney still dominates that field.
posted by kickingtheground at 11:14 AM on December 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by kickingtheground at 11:14 AM on December 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
Also, Levi's.
posted by kickingtheground at 11:14 AM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by kickingtheground at 11:14 AM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
One of the baby bells, Southwest Bell, eventually took over AT&T and renamed itself AT&T. The crown jewel, Bell Labs, was renamed Lucent, acquired by Alcatel, which in turn was acquired by Nokia.
Everyone thought Bell Labs/Lucent was the crown jewel at the time, that's for sure. But AT&T now owns Time Warner (and HBO - yes, Game of Thrones is brought to you by AT&T) and the wireless business and its market cap is more than 5 times Nokia's so . . . Who's to say?
posted by The Bellman at 11:15 AM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Everyone thought Bell Labs/Lucent was the crown jewel at the time, that's for sure. But AT&T now owns Time Warner (and HBO - yes, Game of Thrones is brought to you by AT&T) and the wireless business and its market cap is more than 5 times Nokia's so . . . Who's to say?
posted by The Bellman at 11:15 AM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Kodak had a lot of firsts in photography and remained a dominant player for like a century.
In digital photography... not so dominant.
posted by Kabanos at 11:18 AM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
In digital photography... not so dominant.
posted by Kabanos at 11:18 AM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
AT&T may not be such a great example. AT&T was broken into five "baby bells"
That's why I listed the years. Nothing lasts forever, and "long-term market" success is a completely ambiguous metric.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:24 AM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
That's why I listed the years. Nothing lasts forever, and "long-term market" success is a completely ambiguous metric.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:24 AM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Microsoft has done pretty well: according to this, they still have about 3/4 of the desktop operating system market. Of course, that's a shrinking share of total computing systems.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:35 AM on December 6, 2021
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:35 AM on December 6, 2021
eBay was the first mover in person-to-person online auctions and still dominates the field.
posted by zsazsa at 11:45 AM on December 6, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by zsazsa at 11:45 AM on December 6, 2021 [6 favorites]
eBay was the one I thought of too. I was just thinking the other day how impressive it is they stuck around.
posted by potrzebie at 12:10 PM on December 6, 2021
posted by potrzebie at 12:10 PM on December 6, 2021
Before Google, there was Yahoo Search.
Technically, the first released-to-the-general-public-worldwide search engine was W3Catalog. My fave back in those days was WebCrawler, which also pre-dates Yahoo Search.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:22 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Technically, the first released-to-the-general-public-worldwide search engine was W3Catalog. My fave back in those days was WebCrawler, which also pre-dates Yahoo Search.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:22 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Frank J. Zamboni invented the first ice resurfacing machine. The Zamboni name is synonymous with the machines of course. But the company has remained market leader, challenged only by Resurfice Corporation. "The companies are, in effect, the Boeing and Airbus of ice resurfacing."
posted by Kabanos at 12:50 PM on December 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Kabanos at 12:50 PM on December 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
Apple created the first modern touch screen smart phone
IBM Simon would disagree.
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:02 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
IBM Simon would disagree.
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:02 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Union Pacific when it comes to transcontinental railroads.
posted by nickggully at 1:57 PM on December 6, 2021
posted by nickggully at 1:57 PM on December 6, 2021
Also - I don't think anyone was allowing allowing the public to easily upload and share videos before YouTube.
posted by kickingtheground at 2:12 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by kickingtheground at 2:12 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Also - I don't think anyone was allowing allowing the public to easily upload and share videos before YouTube.
It depends on your definition of "easily": There were dozens, if not hundreds of startups working on the same thing at just about the same time YouTube started; a friend worked on one of them, and his group was shocked when YouTube grew so quickly, because they thought it was technically crappy. But it was good enough technically, and easy to use, so the network effects caused it to take off: You want to post your videos where people will see them, so you choose the most popular video hosting site, even if others are better in other ways. That make the next user more likely to use YouTube; repeat a few billion times. They are therefore emblematic of the benefits of first-mover. Ebay is similar: You list your item where you get the biggest audience.
In contrast, it doesn't matter how many users a search engine has, because that doesn't directly affect the quality of the search results. I remember the first time I used Google (when it was still hosted at google.stanford.edu, I believe), and it was like magic compared to Yahoo!, so I switched - it didn't matter than it had many fewer users than other search engines.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 2:32 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
It depends on your definition of "easily": There were dozens, if not hundreds of startups working on the same thing at just about the same time YouTube started; a friend worked on one of them, and his group was shocked when YouTube grew so quickly, because they thought it was technically crappy. But it was good enough technically, and easy to use, so the network effects caused it to take off: You want to post your videos where people will see them, so you choose the most popular video hosting site, even if others are better in other ways. That make the next user more likely to use YouTube; repeat a few billion times. They are therefore emblematic of the benefits of first-mover. Ebay is similar: You list your item where you get the biggest audience.
In contrast, it doesn't matter how many users a search engine has, because that doesn't directly affect the quality of the search results. I remember the first time I used Google (when it was still hosted at google.stanford.edu, I believe), and it was like magic compared to Yahoo!, so I switched - it didn't matter than it had many fewer users than other search engines.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 2:32 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Otis is still one of the biggest names in the elevator business.
posted by box at 3:29 PM on December 6, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by box at 3:29 PM on December 6, 2021 [4 favorites]
The Intel 4004 has a good case for being the first general-purpose single-chip microprocessor, and Intel these days are one of the biggest companies in the microprocessor business (maybe the biggest, if you go by revenue alone).
Texas Instruments made the first silicon transistors in the 1950s, and their competitor Fairchild Semiconductor (now part of ON Semi) made the first silicon ICs, the first op-amp ICs, etc. - both companies are still around and have a large market share.
posted by offog at 4:04 PM on December 6, 2021
Texas Instruments made the first silicon transistors in the 1950s, and their competitor Fairchild Semiconductor (now part of ON Semi) made the first silicon ICs, the first op-amp ICs, etc. - both companies are still around and have a large market share.
posted by offog at 4:04 PM on December 6, 2021
Netflix. Twice.
Their DVD-rental by mail business was novel, and there has never been a serious competitor to the "DVD's by mail, return them when you're done" to this day.
When they launched their streaming service, it too was novel, and there was also the stated goal of "Become HBO before HBO becomes us." (in 2013). They may not be the top content producer, but guess who's still the leader in direct-to-home OTT streaming?
posted by toxic at 7:30 PM on December 6, 2021 [4 favorites]
Their DVD-rental by mail business was novel, and there has never been a serious competitor to the "DVD's by mail, return them when you're done" to this day.
When they launched their streaming service, it too was novel, and there was also the stated goal of "Become HBO before HBO becomes us." (in 2013). They may not be the top content producer, but guess who's still the leader in direct-to-home OTT streaming?
posted by toxic at 7:30 PM on December 6, 2021 [4 favorites]
I would count the Apple II (1977) as the first real home PC, and I understand the company has enjoyed some subsequent success.
And though nearly all Altairs (1975) were sold as kits and you needed to be a hobbyist to have a half-decent chance of getting one working (so I'm still calling Apple the first mover), Microsoft produced the first software intended to be sold with a PC (Altair BASIC).
The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (1911) seems to still be doing well subsequent to its 1924 name change to International Business Machines. (One could try to date it to Hollerith's 1896 Tabulating Machine Company, but Hollerith's company was one of four that were amalgamated in 1911.)
posted by Zed at 9:53 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
And though nearly all Altairs (1975) were sold as kits and you needed to be a hobbyist to have a half-decent chance of getting one working (so I'm still calling Apple the first mover), Microsoft produced the first software intended to be sold with a PC (Altair BASIC).
The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (1911) seems to still be doing well subsequent to its 1924 name change to International Business Machines. (One could try to date it to Hollerith's 1896 Tabulating Machine Company, but Hollerith's company was one of four that were amalgamated in 1911.)
posted by Zed at 9:53 PM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Etsy comes to mind.
posted by MexicanYenta at 2:04 AM on December 7, 2021
posted by MexicanYenta at 2:04 AM on December 7, 2021
Hey, look! I just found an article that touches on aspects of this discussion. Might be of interest to you, OP.
posted by jdroth at 8:54 AM on December 7, 2021
posted by jdroth at 8:54 AM on December 7, 2021
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It's hard to think of other examples because the distinctions get a little blurry. Was Yahoo a search engine like Altavista, Webcrawler, and Lycos, or was it an online directory?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 10:42 AM on December 6, 2021 [1 favorite]