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Brian McCullough: How the Internet Happened (2018)

"Tech-guru Brian McCullough delivers a rollicking history of the internet, why it exploded, and how …

On the East Coast, two companies, Kozmo.com and UrbanFetch, took instant gratification a step further: both promised same-day delivery. But the question was, could anyone make money doing that?

That pint of Ben & Jerry's a customer ordered on a rainy afternoon? Kozmo would send it to them for less than it would cost to buy at the local bodega across the street.

And Kozmo still had to pay the army of bike couriers who made the delivery. It was retail without the overhead of real estate, sure, but what about the costs of warehousing, of labor, of the website and logistical back-end systems? Neither Kozmo nor UrbanFetch were much worried about this. Ubiqueity came first. Profits later

How the Internet Happened by  (Page 166)

History certainly rhymes. Kozmo (founded in 1998, defunct by 2001) could have been Uber, DoorDash, GrubHub, Deliveroo, or foodpanda. And those companies may yet go the way of Kozmo.