> The new mobile app-centric order hasn’t been a problem for Instagram, WhatsApp, Vine, Secret, or dozens of other new companies.

I don't know what Secret is, but Instagram, WhatsApp, and Vine aren't companies. They are divisions within Facebook and Twitter.

In fact, we should question why there are no big companies that have risen from the app-world that come close to the web's most successful companies: Amazon, Google, Facebook, even Yahoo.

That should tell you something that all of the app companies wind up being bought by web companies.