Winner take all vs. local

Rule 1: If there's no really good reason for a business to be done locally, it will migrate to the web.

Rule 2: Businesses that migrate to the web often have economies of scale, and those businesses quickly coalesce into just a few (or even one) winner.

The winning strategy for the local business or freelancer, then, is:

a. provide a product or service that truly works better when it's local, and

b. do it in a way that works better when it's small, custom, connected and not in search of economies of scale.

via sethgodin.typepad.com