An all-digital world accelerates commerce. As “things” become digital or as physical non-digital things gain a virtual and digital identity the speed at which they can move approaches the speed at which digital things can move. This all results in the speed of commerce for both digital and non-digital things accelerating.
In a digital world everything is for sale. Airlines are now starting to auction off upgrades. Professional sports teams now sell seat upgrades during the game. The list goes on.
In a digital commerce world things also approach infinite divisibility. You could imagine eventually prices for upgrades become a function of the intensity of the game or other elements at any given moment. The price of upgrading seats is essentially repriced every minute.
Because prices can change constantly, market operators can ensure that they are always priced at the market-clearing price – always just selling out.
Kraft Foods recently worked with Intel to develop a vending machine capable of making product recommendations based upon your demographic make-up or other details. The vending machine uses a camera mounted on the front of the vending machine to identify characteristics such as age and gender though could eventually monitor a host of different characteristics. Recommendations showing positive correlations to identified characteristics provide another example of ways in which digitizing information accelerates commerce.
