1. A cure for the disease of which the RIAA is a symptom.
Music became irrelevant.
2. Simplified browsing.
The web became irrelevant. Replaced by Wikipedia, Amazon, and Facebook (none of which YC funded).
3. New news.
Journalism never covered itself in glory, but approximately half of the separation between the NY Times and Weekly World News has been erased since PG wrote this. Reddit probably didn't have anything to do with it.
4. Outsourced IT.
5. Enterprise software 2.0.
These two items seem to be the same. It's one area where I would say startups have been tremendously successful. If you can call thought-terminating technologies like Slack successful.
6. More variants of CRM.
Interacting with customers hasn't got much better.
7. Something your company needs that doesn't exist.
I'd say this has been a success. Everything from corporate formation to payroll to office space is now plug-and-play.
8. Dating.
9. Photo/video sharing services.
The iPhone existed when this was written, but that the smartphone represented a shift at least as large as the original PC revolution is nowhere on the radar.
10. Auctions.
Everybody hates them. The last 5 times / 5 years I've used Ebay, it's been with the "buy it now" feature. I can remember at least two smartphone apps that promised to get rid of unwanted stuff through auctions, which no longer exist, but I can't remember their names.
11. Web Office apps.
The Windows desktop world was already looking dire in 2008, and its slide continued. Web apps, mostly from Google and Microsoft, picked up some of the business. Rich text documents (Word) are also a lot less important today.
12. Fix advertising.
I've been blocking them since this was written, so I'm not sure. In general, I'm skeptical that "paid human discourse" is something that can be fixed.
14. Tools for measurement.
I think he means SEO, aka "machine learning".
15. Off the shelf security.
Doesn't exist, but a lot of it is sold. Did YC get any of that action?
16. A form of search that depends on design.
?
17. New payment methods.
Apple Pay has potential but has so far been disappointing. Same with cryptocurrencies.
18. The WebOS.
Nope.
19. Application and/or data hosting.
Sure.
20. Shopping guides.
Stores are so 2008.
21. Finance software for individuals and small business.
Mint was acquired I guess, but nobody uses it.
22. A web-based Excel/database hybrid.
There was a good try at this, which existed when this was written: Dabble DB. It went under in 2011. Silk shut down in November,[1] leaving Airtable and Fieldbook...
23. More open alternatives to Wikipedia.
Doesn't exist, and at this point we're lucky to have Wikipedia. It's clear to me that our society could not presently create it from scratch.
24. A buffer against bad customer service.
While good customer service is not more common than in 2008 (see #6 above), really really bad service is much more rare. Not sure who gets credit for this. Twitter and other platforms that let word about bad service spread easily may deserve some credit.
25. A Craigslist competitor.
Pretty much every startup ever. Still no overall competitor for the general case (online classifieds) though.
26. Better video chat.
Video chat is too intrusive for many applications. Apple Facetime, Google Hangouts, and Microsoft Skype own the market.
27. Hardware/software hybrids.
?
28. Fixing email overload.
It wasn't fixed but email has become less relevant.
29. Easy site builders for specific markets.
Again, websites are less important now. Squarespace isn't more specific than Weebly.
>17. New payment methods.
>Apple Pay has potential but has so far been disappointing. >Same with cryptocurrencies.
Stripe has probably been important for a certain class of businesses. You could also argue that paying through apps more generally (e.g. Lyft) are, in a sense, new payment methods.
Music became irrelevant.
2. Simplified browsing.
The web became irrelevant. Replaced by Wikipedia, Amazon, and Facebook (none of which YC funded).
3. New news.
Journalism never covered itself in glory, but approximately half of the separation between the NY Times and Weekly World News has been erased since PG wrote this. Reddit probably didn't have anything to do with it.
4. Outsourced IT. 5. Enterprise software 2.0.
These two items seem to be the same. It's one area where I would say startups have been tremendously successful. If you can call thought-terminating technologies like Slack successful.
6. More variants of CRM.
Interacting with customers hasn't got much better.
7. Something your company needs that doesn't exist.
I'd say this has been a success. Everything from corporate formation to payroll to office space is now plug-and-play.
8. Dating. 9. Photo/video sharing services.
The iPhone existed when this was written, but that the smartphone represented a shift at least as large as the original PC revolution is nowhere on the radar.
10. Auctions.
Everybody hates them. The last 5 times / 5 years I've used Ebay, it's been with the "buy it now" feature. I can remember at least two smartphone apps that promised to get rid of unwanted stuff through auctions, which no longer exist, but I can't remember their names.
11. Web Office apps.
The Windows desktop world was already looking dire in 2008, and its slide continued. Web apps, mostly from Google and Microsoft, picked up some of the business. Rich text documents (Word) are also a lot less important today.
12. Fix advertising.
I've been blocking them since this was written, so I'm not sure. In general, I'm skeptical that "paid human discourse" is something that can be fixed.
14. Tools for measurement.
I think he means SEO, aka "machine learning".
15. Off the shelf security.
Doesn't exist, but a lot of it is sold. Did YC get any of that action?
16. A form of search that depends on design.
?
17. New payment methods.
Apple Pay has potential but has so far been disappointing. Same with cryptocurrencies.
18. The WebOS.
Nope.
19. Application and/or data hosting.
Sure.
20. Shopping guides.
Stores are so 2008.
21. Finance software for individuals and small business.
Mint was acquired I guess, but nobody uses it.
22. A web-based Excel/database hybrid.
There was a good try at this, which existed when this was written: Dabble DB. It went under in 2011. Silk shut down in November,[1] leaving Airtable and Fieldbook...
23. More open alternatives to Wikipedia.
Doesn't exist, and at this point we're lucky to have Wikipedia. It's clear to me that our society could not presently create it from scratch.
24. A buffer against bad customer service.
While good customer service is not more common than in 2008 (see #6 above), really really bad service is much more rare. Not sure who gets credit for this. Twitter and other platforms that let word about bad service spread easily may deserve some credit.
25. A Craigslist competitor.
Pretty much every startup ever. Still no overall competitor for the general case (online classifieds) though.
26. Better video chat.
Video chat is too intrusive for many applications. Apple Facetime, Google Hangouts, and Microsoft Skype own the market.
27. Hardware/software hybrids.
?
28. Fixing email overload.
It wasn't fixed but email has become less relevant.
29. Easy site builders for specific markets.
Again, websites are less important now. Squarespace isn't more specific than Weebly.
30. Startups for startups.
See #7 above.
[1] http://blog.silk.co/post/167155630197/its-time-to-say-goodby...