Mark Cuban: The Internet is Dead! Long Live the Internet!

We really like billionaire troublemaker Mark Cuban. We don’t know what it is, we just do. This could be a horrible analogy, but we sometimes think he’s sort of like an abrasive version of Steve Jobs, in that he’s really opinionated and doesn’t back down, while being something of a visionary. Think of it sort of like Jobs unveils the iPhone and then punches a reporter carrying another company’s cell phone. Anyway, in case you missed it, Cuban this week is causing a big stir around the internet with his recent post “The Internet is Dead and Boring.” In it, he says until we increase the user bandwidth in this country, the internet has stopped becoming interesting and that Web 2.0 is just a load of stagnant hype, among other things. In his follow-up, “The Internet is Still Dead and Boring,” he doesn’t change his claim, he just says that being deceased and dull isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There have been a few responses, most notably from Torrez we found the site A VC responding with “The Internet is As Dead and Boring As You Want It To Be,” which is an interesting counterpoint, but this writer at least still sides with Cuban to some degree. Not to bite the hand that feeds him, but Cuban’s point is that the internet has become a part of our lives and isn’t so much of that scary, new terrain it once was. You could make the connection to almost anything. When printing presses were first invented, that was exciting. But you don’t so much see people anymore saying, “Oh my god! Can you believe there’s something printed on this piece of paper?!” Sure, there are books that come out that are exciting, but the act of its printing and delivery is now such a hyper-familiar part of our world that it doesn’t register. It’s that initial growth that’s the really exciting part and that, we believe, is Cuban’s message here.

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