Elon Musk Is Building His Own Monopoly
Hey JessiElon's
So I've been a fan of Elon Musk for some time now, there is no doubt in my mind that he is a brilliant guy and has worked the system to his advantage and built some pretty cool companies in the process. His rise to fame hasn't been an easy one and his taken considerable risk and been rewarded for it, as the market should. I've read his books, listen to his podcasts and his always this evangelical figure trying to help the human race through his business ventures.
However, the market tells a little bit of a different story, and I'm starting to feel like his sold out or instead he could have always been another storytelling CEO selling us on aspirational dreams as he continues to build a monopoly of particular industries.
Billionaires today should exist if they provide value we need, I don't mind someone being a Billionaire, but many of them conflate wealth with value and think they are doing Gods work.
While Elon does have a bit of a say in this rather than the likes of Dorsey or Zuck or any of those Wall Street Billionaires, I think that his playing up the prosperity for all narrative. At the same time, he masquerades a future profit at all cost ideology.
Image souce - stayhipp.com
Tesla
We all know Tesla, the first new US car company in decades which seemed like a little pet project but has turned out into now one of the most valuable companies in the world. While the EV market is still pretty small in relative terms at 1% of the automotive market, it completely dominates in its niche.
It is true that other companies have begun to design, build, and sell Tesla alternatives. But they aren't expecting to sell very many. The value of zero-emission vehicles for them is that they assist in meeting stringent government standards across automaker fleets, enabling legacy carmakers to continue building large and profitable pickup trucks and SUVs.
Since these other manufacturers are seeing EVs as an afterthought as they focus on their current profitable lines, Tesla continues to open up new lines with the Cyber Truck and the Long haul Tesla Semi. Once these manufacturers wake up, they are going to be so far behind the curve; they will need to spend millions on either licensing parts from one other or R&D to create a viable alternative to Telsa. As the EV market continues to grow, Tesla will continue to take a larger slice of the growing pie.
Tesla distribution model
Also, since Tesla has been a smaller company, it was able to retain its rights and not sell out to any distribution channels, As with the Apple Store, Tesla sells its products directly to the public cutting out the middle man and making it more affordable for them and the consumer while cutting into anyone margins who aim to compete.
This centralised distribution model also means that repairs and maintenance costs are all in their hands and over time will become a huge source of revenue as more cars become available and new models replace the old ones. They have full control to phase out any line they want and retain profitability like no other car company in the world.
The self-driving market
While car manufacturers and tech giants like Google and Uber compete to build the self-driving market and its applications for commercial use, Tesla has also been in its this market. The difference is Telsa is a hybrid of tech and automotive, whereas the other companies only have a piece of the puzzle. What I suspect is eventually the Uber Lift, and the self-driving ride-sharing market will ultimately allow Tesla in and the licencing fees alone to use Telsa on Uber or Lyft. Even Google maps could score them a pretty penny.
The Boring Company
Then we get to the Boring Company Elon trying to build a series of tunnels to alleviate traffic and make it faster and cheaper to get around metro areas. The issue with the Boring company is that as part of the Elon group it sets restrictions on the types of vehicles that can enter these tunnels and could force car owners to switch to Tesla to use this public service as well as Uber Driver and even public transport services.
They will make a killing on the usage fees for quick cross-town hyperloop transport and in less than three years of having tunnels installed, they are predicted to be profitable.
So you see where I'm getting at with this? The dude is slowly setting up the building blocks to rule transport and extract every buck he can out of it and killing off any competition in the process.
Taking over transport
While this reality still seems pretty far off, it is by no means impossible, and the way companies and governments collude today I don't see why he won't get the support he needs to realise his monopolistic vision for transport.
Have your say
What do you good people of steem think?
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So have at it my Jessies! If you don't have something to comment, comment "I am a Jessie."
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