For instance I do not consider my immediate employer to be part of the software industry. We certainly do not sell any software - we advertise apartment rentals. The company was founded by real estate entrepeneurs who wanted to get into the web. The largest department in the company (sales) is filled with real estate people - they come from real estate, work with people in real estate, and if they leave for other jobs, they leave for real estate jobs. Our most successful competitors leave piles of free magazines lying around outside of grocery stores. How are we in a traditional software business?

That company was, of course, bought by eBay. But is eBay part of the software industry? Not by any concept of the software industry 20 years ago! eBay doesn't sell software, or services, or anything, really. Its main competitors when it started were antique stores, second hand shops, and flea markets. It is a completely new type of business, which happens to be enabled by software.

So yes, overall I'd consider the web to be a new industry. Sure, it was created by improvements in software. But the closest historical analog to the web is the catalog business. (The analogy is actually quite close.) Which is about as far from software as you can imagine!

But is eBay part of the software industry?

No, but does that mean you're no longer a programmer? No longer a part of the software industry?

M&S are retailers, but they have a huge and important IT department. It has existed for 30 years or more. I believe they were one of the first private company owners of computer, but I cannot find that reference. They have their own in-house standards, development model, testing strategy etc. They have their own IT careers structure and training program.

Their core competency has historically been retailing, but they have many other string to their bow.

Did they cease to be part of the consumer retail industry?

Are they not a part of the financial services industry? And the Travel & Leisure industry?

They have a huge fleet of large trucks. Are they not also a part of the Transport industry?

That company was, of course, bought by eBay.

If Ebay had wanted Real Estate expertise, Sales people and client base, they would have bought one of the huge traditional US real-estate brokers. They didn't. They bought a (smallish?) web-based Real Estate company. What were they buying?

20 years ago, Laser eye surgery was not a part of any concept of the Eye Care or Health Care industries, but can you deny that the many providers of that service are now so a part?

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Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

We are not going to agree on what an industry is. To me the web is a new type of industry that is about 10 years old. Web-based companies tend to be web and something else. Web and news. Web and retail. Web and second hand. Web and real-estate. However web companies don't generally look much like software companies. Software is merely one of many necessary ingredients.

But can we agree that however one categorizes things, there are sound historical reasons why a company that does what eBay does can't be more than about 10 years old? If we can agree on that, then you can still see my fundamental point, which is that start-ups pretty much by definition engage in short-term thinking, but an area of business filled with start-ups is not necessarily an area that has no long-term future. They only develop long-term thinking after they have grown up and become mature companies that need longer planning horizons.