Digital Darwinism (Hardcover)

by Evan I. Schwartz (Author) "When Charles Darwin presented his theory of evolution in 1859, he described a world in which only the fittest survive, a world in which species..." (more)
Key Phrases: value bundle, affiliate networks, dynamic pricing, New York, United States, America Online (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Over the last few years, the big bang of the World Wide Web has shaken the realm of commerce. Today on the Internet, you can get everything from phone numbers and dancing babies to golf clubs and custom-built computers. Some of these Web sites are businesses that found their genesis in the advent of the Web itself, while others are longstanding companies trying to adapt to the reality of this new digital marketplace. Who will survive and who will be rendered extinct? That's what Evan I. Schwartz tries to answer by dipping into the Internet's "primordial soup" to discover the characteristics of the winners that will eventually emerge.

In Digital Darwinism, Schwartz identifies seven strategies that will separate the winners from the losers. These include building a brand that stands for solving something, elastic pricing, affiliate partnerships, and integrating digital commerce with every aspect of business. Schwartz buttresses his arguments with analysis of dozens of companies already competing on the Internet, including Yahoo!, Peapod, Priceline, E*Trade, Dell Computer, and Recreational Equipment, Inc. Schwartz views these early years of the Web as largely "irrational," but anticipates a general rationalization. He writes, "As each successive generation of Web commerce passes, there will be more rational companies and fewer irrational ones, more fit business models and fewer unfit ones. In the future, there may be no such thing as an Internet company. The Internet is becoming so important that all companies will eventually become Internet companies."

Like his previous book, Webonomics, Digital Darwinism is succinct and easy to read. His analysis of the current state of Internet startups, their stock prices, and their probable fate is provocative, especially when viewed from a Darwinian perspective. For managers, investors, and anyone interested in Internet commerce. Recommended. --Harry C. Edwards

Review
"Darwin was a remarkable observer of change, and the Web is forcing remarkable change upon every business. Digital Darwinism defines market leadership methodologies that work in the complex world of Web commerce. In the end, the fittest will be those who read this book. -- Jeffrey Taylor, founder and CEO, Monster.com

"If the early momentum supported by companies such as America Online, Yahoo!, Amazon.com, and eBay is sustained, we are indeed in the early stages of 'digital Darwinism.' Evan's impressive description of the rapid business changes impacted by the evolution of the Internet is an important read." -- Mary Meeker, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter

"If the early momentum supported by new companies such as America Online, Yahoo!, and Amazon.com is sustained, we are indeed in the early stages of Digital Darwinism. Evan's impressive descriptions of the rapid business changes impacted by the evolution of the Internet is an important read." -- Mary Meeker, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter

"If you only have time to read two web marketing books this year, read Digital Darwinism--twice." -- Mark Kvamme, Chairman, USWeb/CKS

"If you only read two Internet marketing books this year, read DIGITAL DARWINISM twice." -- Mark Kvamme, chairman, USWeb/CKS

Advance Praise for Digital Darwinism:

"Digital Darwinism is a killer guide to the critical factors of success--and failure--in the Internet economy."
--Marc Andreessen, Cofounder of Netscape and  Chief Technology Officer, America Online

"Darwin was a remarkable observer of change, and the Web is forcing remarkable change upon every business. Digital Darwinism defines market leadership methodologies that work in the complex world of Web commerce. In the end, the fittest will be those who read this book."
--Jeffrey Taylor, founder and CEO, Monster.com

"If you only have time to read two Web marketing books this year, read Digital Darwinism--twice."
--Mark Kvamme, Chairman, USWeb/CKS

"If the early momentum supported by new companies such as America Online, Yahoo!, and Amazon.com is sustained, we are indeed in the early stages of Digital Darwinism.  Evan's impressive descriptions of the rapid business changes impacted by the evolution of the Internet is an important read."
--Mary Meeker, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter -- Review

Anton Chekhov suggested that when writers finish a story, they should tear off the first and last pages. Readers, he believed, shouldn't have to slog through the gimmicks the writer used to get into and out of the story. Had Evan Schwartz followed Chekhov's advice, he might have spared his readers a misinterpretation of Darwin that makes his otherwise sound book feel like a gimmick.

In the opening paragraph of Digital Darwinism, Schwartz erroneously attributes to Darwin the ideas that organisms must "learn with whom to cooperate and with whom to compete" and must "develop new skills and traits or perish." The problem with the first assertion is that the traits on which Darwin focused are inherited, not learned.

As for the second, sharks have developed no new skills in 400 million years. Nor have they needed any. They evolved a good way to eat, and since then have had the field pretty much to themselves. No other fish has tried to copy the shark in order to put out a more efficient version.

In the business world, of course, copying others can be essential. One could argue that Bill Gates has made it his life's work.

Fortunately for the reader, Schwartz confines his Darwinian musings almost entirely to the introduction and epilogue. It's also fortunate that he knows much more about the Internet than he does about natural selection.

He illustrates an examination of dynamic pricing, for example, with well-chosen anecdotes about Band-X, a market for data-network capacity; Priceline.com, which offers customers a way to pick up leftover airline seats; and eBay, the now-legendary auction site that began as a way to help the owner's girlfriend trade Pez dispensers.

Schwartz has spoken with the right people, and his clear prose navigates well the complex conditions of the Web. As he details the concepts to which the Web has given new life – affiliate marketing, bundling, customization – Schwartz shows what's necessary to take a business to the top.

He also shows how hard it will be to keep it there. More than any other quality, he emphasizes constant vigilance. Baseball great Satchell Paige told those who sought to duplicate his longevity, "Don't look back – someone might be gaining on you." Schwartz' message is colder: On the Web, someone is always gaining on you. Watch them, or die.

---

OTHER NEW TITLES OF INTEREST

Code Breaking: A History and Explanation by Rudolf Kippenhahn (Overlook Press, $28)
Adetailed, if disjointed, series of code-breaking escapades, ranging from the work of such famous cryptographers as Julius Caesar, Thomas Jefferson and Edgar Allen Poe to the modern era of computer- mediated encryption.

Smart Business: How Knowledge Communities Can Revolutionize Your Company by Dr. Jim Botkin (Free Press, $26)
If knowledge is power, knowledge withheld is power, too. Smart Business explores the source of a company's knowledge base, and finds it at every level in the chain of command.

Civic Space/Cyberspace: The American Public Library in the Information Age by Redmond Kathleen Molz and Phyllis Dain (MIT Press, $30)
American libraries get more than a billion "hits" a year from a public that, as this book explains, increasingly needs "organizers and navigators, consultants and guides to the new information age." -- From The Industry Standard

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1st edition (June 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767903331
• ISBN-13: 978-0767903332
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,505,864 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Just a General Guideline, December 1, 1999

By	Eric Chuang (Taiwan) - See all my reviews

I consider this book to be a general guideline for new comers to the networked industry. This book does not provide thorough examinations drawn from successful and/or unsuccessful examples, nor does it give the reader critical analyses to back up the writer¡¦s own point of view. What we get from this book is a set of rules, reminders, and assumptions which is not practical enough in my opinion, and perhaps only good enough for those who first come to the newly developed internet industry.

The idea to link biological Darwinism with industrial Darwinism to explain how the fittest survives in highly competitive business environment is not a new thing. People who have had a certain degree of understanding about it will be disappointed as the writer goes all the way to explain what they have already known. People who have been close enough to the development of the internet industry will find this book uncreative. People who have already been in this business for some time will not be inspired by this book, but most likely be bored by its dragging explanation of how ¡§the fittest survives¡¨¡Xa concept these people probably have already known.

Although this book only provides a set of generalized ideas, ¡§7 Breakthrough Business Strategies for Surviving in the Cutthroat Web Economy¡¨ as its subtitle describes, it can be seen as quite a handy book. At the end of every chapter is a brief reminder of how certain problems can be solved. This may be a streak of help when the manager is buried by overloaded work and forgets where he stands. This book is helpful, too, for those who newly come into contact with the industrial side of the internet.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars e-commerce, shme-commerce, August 17, 1999

By	Unfrozen Caveman Bookseller "diskwento_libro" (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews

The catchy title is just a title, and it drew me in to a fun and fantastic read. A bright spot is the examples of entrepreneurs (the real E in e-commerce) finding the Web as an ally in contrast to examples of subsided businesses that relied solely on the Web and Web hype (those with a hammer always seeking a nail; those with a computer seeing business as data). Includes keen admonishments toward certain companies that tout the Web yet deny Web-users access to their products or services (initials are B&N, CompUSA). The lesson delivered is not in the list that frothed to the top but the personalities behind the steps, along with some vernacular mixed in with good narrative. (Dell newbies attentive to low badge numbers; Seven Cycle chapter alone could inspire someone to just start a business; REI chapter makes me want to try out their store.) Nowadays companies with Web sites scream customer-service-this, customer-service-that.... The brightest spot in this book is the back-to-the-future (back to the past?) notion of customers driving business, people service, craft, artisan and manufacturing jobs instead of automation--people can do this kind of thing since the Web allows efficiency (customized products) so companies aren't concerned so much about stocking warehouses as entrepreneurship. Nowadays companies with Web sites tout "customer- service-this, customer-service-that." This book will show why that phrase appears on some companies as a glossy add-on, and why on others it stands for delivering to the customer.

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What was the point?, March 3, 2000

By A Customer

With a title like Digital Darwinism: etc. etc. one is set with the expectation that this book is a kind of silver bullet. But the question is for whom? Throughout the book I had a constant feeling of a big so what? Who is the audience here? Certainly not me and I am not a player in the web economy. Yet. I certainly neither absorbed nor abstracted anything more that I have from the examples that proliferate through reading profiles in quality business journals or talking to business colleagues. Perhaps maybe an artsie-but non-techno-literate-I-wanna-know person would find it appealing?

Aside from this, the book is written in a style that is supposed to engage through permitting the reader to abstract it's key messages from storylines. I felt that it uses a set the scene, stream of consciouness, I am going to tell you a story style that makes Europeans sometimes nauseous and feeling "just get to the point please, the book is small enough!".

Go for a book that's not hyped-up from the start and delivers a simple structure for your mind to frame concepts, remember points for further reference and doesn't state the obvious.