Digital Davids, global Goliaths, and the Web3 sling

The Web 2.0 digital economy, centered on dominant platforms, generates substantial opportunities for managers and entrepreneurs yet creates critical dependencies. Platform-dependent businesses engage in competitive actions—rivalrous, competitive-cooperative, and relational—vis-à-vis digital platforms to gain a fair share of economic value. While the (supposedly) trustworthy custodians of digital data have captured a disproportionate share of revenue and profits, Web3 promises to tilt the balance away from dominant platforms by providing mechanisms that replace centralized organizational trust with decentralized technological trust. Here, innovations such as blockchains and smart contracts complement antitrust laws and regulations in limiting platform power. Furthermore, this study suggests that end users, peers, and regulators may play an important role in helping businesses draw investors’, users’, and customers’ attention away from Web 2.0 platforms. To effectively leverage decentralized trust as a novel aspect of competitive actions, business leaders must pursue Web3 technologies that are reliable, high-growth market segments that are credible, and ventures that are investable.