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It's acquihires all the way down.

Sounds like the beer industry. Five companies own half the world market. And new breweries are easy to start. If yours gains traction, you get acquired.

And that's in an industry where the products are close to fungible, without depending on network effects.

People go to the store and exchange money for beer. You seem to be missing the point.

I take offence to the notion that beers are fungible.

That's how most industries are. Pharma/biotech is all about this

I guess the one upside about tech is that ideally you're in a field with technology that can tie together disparate products into one ecosystem, so it's not simply about making megacorps that are essentially giant holding companies that own random products and patents.

On the other hand, one binding ecosystem with disparate products can easily become either walled gardens or badly-fragmented loose confederations, so it's not the best situation, either.