Software for an Audience of One Finally Makes Sense
Cheaper software means small private tools can thrive as a new market alongside big apps.
Stratechery · End of the Internet | Stratechery by Ben ThompsonBen Thompson, a tech writer and analyst who has blogged since 2003, was eulogizing the old, open internet when he turned to what might replace it.
The answer, he argued, is to go smaller. "Suddenly, it's possible to create software for one person or one team."
His point is about basic software economics. Software has long had almost no cost to copy, which pushed makers to chase huge audiences.
At the same time, he said, it cost so much to build in the first place that makers needed a big crowd to make the spending worthwhile. AI, he argues, has now shrunk that upfront cost.
His evidence comes from his own small operation, which he calls Shady Acres. There, he said, the team has built private apps for podcast production, task tracking, and calendar work, all kept for internal use only.
He has done the same for himself, building apps to manage his house and to follow sports. Thompson said "I had a lot of software-shaped holes in my life" that he could suddenly fill without asking permission.
Thompson is clear that this is not a way to get rich in an app store. In fact, he says, a surge in low-quality, AI-made apps will make that public market worse for everyone.
Instead, he argues, smaller audiences are not just a retreat from an unsafe public internet. They are a new market, what he called "the group chat era of software."
Questions people ask
How does AI let a nonprogrammer build an app?
Mostly, a person describes what they want in plain language, and an AI coding assistant drafts the working program, fixes errors, and updates it on request. That removes much of the specialized coding and setup that once made a small project too expensive.
Does this mean big apps will disappear?
No. Thompson is not predicting the end of large commercial software. Big products like email, maps, and spreadsheets still benefit from scale and support. His claim is that one-person tools become newly viable alongside them.
Is software built for one person safer?
Private tools can reduce exposure because they are not listed publicly and can run inside trusted groups. They are not automatically secure, though. They still need updates, safe passwords, and careful handling of data.