This Is What Liberated the Power of the Internet, and Why It Matters
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The earliest internet was built by the military, designed to help scientists around the nation gain access to those rare room-sized computers located at MIT, Stanford, and a few key institutions.
Use of the early ARPAnet was slow, cumbersome, and awkward—that is, until Marc Andreessen created Mosaic, the first widely-accessible internet browser.
When Mosaic launched in 1993, there were only 26 websites.
In 1994, there were 10,000.
By 1998, there were millions.
Mosaic (later Netscape) was a “user interface moment.”
A user interface moment is the instant when a technology goes viral—when a simple interface allows unfamiliar users to build revenue-generating processes on top of a previously convoluted, inaccessible system (e.g., the early internet).
In this video, I highlight user interface moments and how to capitalize on them as an entrepreneur.
Other User Interface Moments
As discussed, Mosaic wasn’t the only important user interface moment in recent history.
Fortran, one of the first programming languages, allowed average users to use complex IBM computers.
The iPhone’s app store allowed individuals to write programs that can instantly download into the hands of hundreds of millions of users.
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Since just 2008, some 300,000 developers have written over two million apps that have been downloaded over 140 billion times.
Developers on the Apple app store generated over $20 billion in revenue in 2016 alone.
As an exponential entrepreneur, it is your job to look at the exponential roadmap ahead and identify user interface moments.
If you’re not building them, learn to recognize them, so you can capitalize on them when the moment presents itself.
Join Me
Abundance Digital Online Community: I’ve created a digital/online community of bold, abundance-minded entrepreneurs called Abundance Digital.
Abundance Digital is my ‘onramp’ for exponential entrepreneurs — those who want to get involved and play at a higher level. Click here to learn more.
Stock Media provided by Vladimir Timofeev / Pond5
Diamandis is the founder and executive chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, which leads the world in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions. He is also the executive founder and director of Singularity University, a global learning and innovation community using exponential technologies to tackle the world’s biggest challenges and build a better future for all. As an entrepreneur, Diamandis has started over 20 companies in the areas of longevity, space, venture capital, and education. He is also co-founder of BOLD Capital Partners, a venture fund with $250M investing in exponential technologies. Diamandis is a New York Times Bestselling author of two books: Abundance and BOLD. He earned degrees in molecular genetics and aerospace engineering from MIT and holds an MD from Harvard Medical School. Peter’s favorite saying is “the best way to predict the future is to create it yourself.”
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