Another funny story is Nokia. They started as a paper company or something like that. Wikipedia page has a photo of Nokia-brand toilet paper rolls.
Overall, this kind of business shift is not rare.
It's good to be reminded from time to time though, that businesses change over time. Same goes for other institutions (say, universities, countries...). Puts things in perspective.
I am honestly shocked about the gaming industry size thing though. No joke, are videogames more influential in pop culture than film and music now? I really have a hard time picturing that. But when I was growing up, being a nerd would get you bullied. How does it work now?
Finally, regarding the downfall of legacy media: it's very simple, the way I see it. Back then, you only had two sets of conversations: (1) the people you personally knew, and (2) the one in the legacy media. So the legacy media had a huge power over the official narrative. People always trusted (1) more, but it was very limited in scope. With the rise of the Internet, discussion forums such as this one, (1) started to include conversations with people all over the world, so people ditched (2) in favor of that. As that got to big, we started to get astroturfing etc... that's where we are now.
Overall, this kind of business shift is not rare. It's good to be reminded from time to time though, that businesses change over time. Same goes for other institutions (say, universities, countries...). Puts things in perspective.
I am honestly shocked about the gaming industry size thing though. No joke, are videogames more influential in pop culture than film and music now? I really have a hard time picturing that. But when I was growing up, being a nerd would get you bullied. How does it work now?
Finally, regarding the downfall of legacy media: it's very simple, the way I see it. Back then, you only had two sets of conversations: (1) the people you personally knew, and (2) the one in the legacy media. So the legacy media had a huge power over the official narrative. People always trusted (1) more, but it was very limited in scope. With the rise of the Internet, discussion forums such as this one, (1) started to include conversations with people all over the world, so people ditched (2) in favor of that. As that got to big, we started to get astroturfing etc... that's where we are now.
Cool article.