And, like other disruptive technologies, it’s getting better all the time.

This, after all, is the typical pattern with disruptive technologies.  The disruptor enters at the low end of the market, providing a simple service that is cheaper and more convenient than incumbent alternatives and “good enough.”  The low end of the market adopts the technology–and the incumbent players, which serve the profitable middle and high-end of the market–snigger and point out that their products are “better,”

But then the disruptor improves its product, the way the Huffington Post has improved its product for the last few years.  And soon the disruptive product is useful to the middle of the market as well–and it’s still simpler and more convenient.  Soon, the incumbent player, under attack from below, is forced to migrate to the higher end of the market, seeking to preserve its huge profit margins.  Eventually, the disruptor takes over the middle of the market, and the incumbent player collapses.

(from: Five Years Later, The Huffington Post (And Online Media) Are Coming Of Age)

I really recommend reading the full article which talks about how the Huffington Post is soon (in 2-3 years) to become bigger than the New York Time in terms of traffic and probably revenues. And to think that the Huffington Post is a 5 years old blog and the New York Time is a 120 years old publishing house. It sure is a great example that disruptive technology is more about disruptive use of technology (I’m sure that in pure terms of technology NYT is better than the Huffington Post).