Think about it this way: what is a manufacturing company? Would you agree that a manufacturing company is involved in a process of “making stuff” and then “selling what you make?”

It is entirely possible for a company to make things that they do NOT sell, but that does not turn them into manufacturing companies. That just means that one of the line items on their expenses includes something akin to “make stuff for our folks to use.”

It is not the “making” of something that makes a company into a manufacturing company. It is a two part process: 1) Make it and 2) Sell it. If you don’t do BOTH, you are not a manufacturing company.

Therefore a company that writes software, but does no provide access to functionality, is not a software company. Period. American Express is not a software company. General Motors is not a software company. Both write millions of lines of software.

If there is a question about what kind of company you have, look at the money. Where does the company make money? What do they sell?

If they sell advertising, they are a media company.
If they sell software or access to software (SaaS), they are a software company.
If they sell stuff that they assembled, they are a manufacturing company.
If they sell the ability to return an increased yeild on your investment, they are an investment company.

Of course, a company can do more than one thing. Microsoft sells software and access to software and services and they manufacture XBox equipment… etc. So why is Microsoft a software company? Because (a) the Lion’s share of their income comes from selling software or access to software, and (b) the Lion’s share of their investment goes to supporting that business.

It really is pretty simple.

The business is not defined by the people who observe. It is defined by the people who run it and where the money comes from.

And software developers do not all work at software companies. It has NEVER been the case that the majority of software developers in the world worked for software companies. Not in 1960, not in 1990, and not today. Nothing has changed… except perhaps your perception. And that, perhaps, is a good thing.

The processes and apparatuses the distribute and provide context for the absurd amount of “content” out there are going to capture all the value.

Depending on how the economics of online ad *buying* shake out, it will likely be impossible to *consistently* capture value by producing and marketing “desirable” content.

In media industries, the “SaaS”-y things that help produce, distribute, and filter content are the new bottlenecks. “Attention Economy” for WikiU students ;-)

I believe BigMediaProfessionals have more insight than TheValleyPeople in how to serve these “unmet needs” but their reluctance to get down and dirty with the how these new technologies work what is holding them back.

i.e. they still think in terms of “having a website”, instead of a service that leverages the edge, is constantly iterated and improved, blah blah