Abstract :
Anyone can profit through aggregation and integration, You only need to understand the new economics of information. The message is neither the medium nor the surprise. And it isn´t in the breadth of information available on the Web. Rather, the message is in the aggregate. Value is added by organizing bits for easier consumption, by combining messages in such a way that consumers expend less effort. Information in the form of bits is no longer defined as the probability of ones and zeros. Instead, information is a kind of value add-on created by aggregating and integrating these bits. Companies that understand this receive higher market cap valuations than other companies. This is why AOL, Yahoo, Excite, and Amazon.com stock prices are rising. Whether conscious of it or not, investors understand the real value of information. In their financial world, content aggregation leads to large numbers of users, and the more users you have, the more you get. Web businesses that integrate one or more links in a value chain gain market share advantage, and the bigger your market share, the more it grows. Aggregation and integration feed increasing returns. The next Microsoft could very well be the company that best masters the new art of aggregation and integration
