How Durable Are Information Monopolies On The Internet?

Does the Internet tend towards natural monoplies? Columbia Law professor Tim Wu makes a strong argument that it does in an Op-Ed in this weekend's Wall Street Journal . While there is plenty of diversity on the Internet and few barriers to setting up shop, he points out that category after category is dominated by a single firm: Google, Facebook, Amazon, Skype, Twitter, Apple, and eBay. If you define a market narrowly enough, it is easy to make any company look like a monopoly. But let's concede that the Internet creates a lot of winner-take-most, if not a winner-take-all, situations. The bigger question is: How durable are information monopolies on the Internet?