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.