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How do Hypercorps compete?

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Mon, 2010-07-26 05:24
#1
sufferian sufferian's picture
How do Hypercorps compete?
Should we generally assume that all the hypercorps listed in the book have the largest percentage of the market, but that there exist other minor hypercorps that directly compete them? Or do they find ways to compete with each other without necessarily offering the same product to the same set of consumers? Do the hypercorps maybe have some overlap in their respective portfolios? Just curious as to how you guys drum up the intrigue there.
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Mon, 2010-07-26 09:25
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: How do Hypercorps compete?
I tend to assume they are just the biggest ones and that there are plenty of competitors. Cognite might be the big cognotech company, but Examente, Noosys, Hebb Pharmaceuticals, Eudoxus-Zhuan, Sander & Avando Gmbh and Million Monkeys are giving them plenty of competition. Sure, the Menton is the standard "smartmorph", but Noosys has a pretty nifty thinkbox synthmorph for a lower price. S&A makes some very good psychosurgery software that even Cognite affiliates use in their work. And so on. It is always more fun to have many competitors around, both for local colour ("Oh, I wouldn't touch a Skinthetics morph now when I have tried a Camimbu!"), for intrigue (the small corp doing weird alliances to outmanoeuvre the big one, or vice versa) and for realism - on a fluid market it is hard to maintain monopolies.
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Extropian
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Mon, 2010-07-26 10:04
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: How do Hypercorps compete?
Arenamontanus wrote:
It is always more fun to have many competitors around, both for local colour ("Oh, I wouldn't touch a Skinthetics morph now when I have tried a Camimbu!"), for intrigue (the small corp doing weird alliances to outmanoeuvre the big one, or vice versa) and for realism - on a fluid market it is hard to maintain monopolies.
The post-scarcity environment goes a long way to preventing monopolies as well. It is very difficult to maintain control over a concept when anyone with a nanoassembler can reproduce your product. Furthermore, the advent of artificial intelligence and forking makes it possible to own and operate an entire hypercorp with but a single paid employee. Moreso than at any other period in history, entering the market is a relatively easy affair.
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Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]
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