Amidst massive optimism regarding the internet, Timothy Wu retains a critical view of the development of the internet by examining social attitudes of innovations in communication technology in the past.

In an interview with the Guardian he describes some of the main ideas of his new work, The Master Switch.

With the introduction of a communication technology there is a lot of competition, and the ecology around the innovation is decentralized.  Soon a company dominates, centralizing the technology.  Examples include the telephone and radio industries.  When these technologies came out,  people  were exuberant thinking of the utopic possibilities, just as we do now with the internet.

With regards to the web, its still an open question- will it become centralized?  Economic network effects create monopolies of our time- Facebook is the dominant social network.  There are a few enormous companies built on the web.

It may seem that people are averse to centralized control- but human nature also plays a role to allow it. Initially people like a diversity of content, but soon want something ‘safer and secure’, encouraging more control on products.

Throughout history there are counter waves between centralization and decentralization of technologies.

10 years down the line Wu sees one of two possible futures.  In one, people stop thinking of the internet as a decentralized platform, and instead the internet is a few companies, Google, Facebook, etc.  Another future is that the current centralization is just a phase, and the internet will be a platform for new entrepreneurial ventures, new companies will arise and old ones will fade out.