Jabes Twitter Musings - May 26th
The Internet Rainforest
While listening to a podcast years ago, I heard an analogy that has stuck with me ever since. Ben Thompson compared the internet to a rainforest.
A quick google search sets us up nicely for this analogy:
"Plants need sunlight to survive; the thick vegetation of the upper layers of the forest allows little sunlight to reach the rainforest floor. Rainforest plants must either adapt to living with little sunlight under the forest canopy or grow quickly and find ways of reaching the sunlight above the canopy."
Replace plants with companies and sunlight with attention and we have described content in today's internet rainforest.
In a winner-takes-most world, you need to either have scale and breadth (be the tallest tree) or have focus and depth (be the vegetation on the ground).
It is my belief that the internet is bifurcating everything. With so much to choose from, you can move on to the next thing the moment you lose interest. Either you'll aimlessly scroll Instagram, or you'll seek out a specific newsletter to catch up on the latest in your industry.
Since anyone can distribute content, the winners have thrived by aggregating attention and winning on discovery. But we’ve also seen the opposite work. Some companies and individuals have a direct relationship with their audience. They are the place that people go to directly because of the personalities or high quality content.
The internet cuts out the middle just like the rain forest. To survive the rainforest, you need to be the tallest tree in the canopy or adapt to living with little sunlight. Get caught in the middle and you just might die.
In a future post, I’ll expand on the platforms which are helping the bottom feeder plants survive without sunlight.
-Jabe