Netscape goes public

In Tom Freidman’s book The World is Flat he goes into depth on how the world has gone through three stages and now on the third and final stage the competition is now on a level field for everyone. This means that anyone in the world has the same advantages and opportunities you have when it comes to competition in the economy. This makes competition all so much higher now, leading to new and creative ways at trying to succeed. In the first era which was from 1942 to 1800 and the most successful counties were the ones with the most “muscle”, the ones with the most horse power, steam power, and wind power. The second era was different from the first, the companies with the ability to have their headquarters in one country but still operated in others were the ones that were most successful. During this era there were two parts to it, the first half was the ones that had the most efficient transportation were the ones to succeed while in the second it changed to whoever had the best means of telecommunication. This started the third era where the competition was leveled off and where everyone had the same opportunities to succeed.

In the book Freidman goes into detail on how there are ten “flatteners” to the competition. In my opinion I believe Netscape going public on August 9, 1995 was the most important flattener out of them all. Netscape had changed the way the whole world functions that day in where everyone has the opportunity to upload, outsource, telecommunicate through instant messaging and much more at anytime of the day. This gave everyone the same opportunity to use the internet which is no different than the next person to use it to their advantage. It had finally broken all competitive barriers that were being taken place.