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To: Bill Harmond who wrote (56986)	5/17/1999 2:05:00 AM
From: KeepItSimple	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

> by comparing those to the returns coming from eBay and Yahoo. Yahoo and Ebay have larger profit margins than IBM or Microsoft or Intel, however it is extremely unlikely that those profit margins can ever expand to produce billions of dollars in PROFIT, like IBM and Microsoft and Intel produce. The reason Intel can't have profit margins like Yahoo or Ebay is simple: Intel would have to charge 10 thousand dollars for a CPU, and everyone would instantly switch to AMD products. Microsoft would have to charge 10,000 for their OS, and everyone would switch to linux. Unless a monopoly is government-sponsored, you can't raise prices to infinity. And even then, government-sponsored monopolies ALL have price regulation. So in essence, there are no "true" monopolies in existence. Yahoo and Ebay have little to no barriers to entry, unlike developing an operating system or producing gigantic chip fabrication plants. Yahoo and Ebay have "first mover status" as their SOLE competitive edge. And I maintain that that edge will greatly diminish over time as more and more competition hits the scene. Or does more competition equal increased margins in your fantasy land?