Every emerging industry starts with a wild west phase, what the masses call the “bonus period.” The characteristic of the bonus period is that it's full of adventurers, and 99% of these adventurers are losers from other industries. So as long as you're slightly better than a group of losers, you'll stand out from the crowd.
Once a small portion of people fight their way out of the pack of losers and achieve success, those losers who didn't succeed will choose to leave and seek out new emerging industries. Among those who leave, some will distinguish themselves among other losers elsewhere. This is how the world cycles.
For example, as a loser in traditional finance, I entered e-commerce five years ago and found opportunities for success. Five years ago, the traditional losers who came into e-commerce with me—some are now more successful than me, while others still haven't made it. The latter will go develop in other new fields, perhaps finding the path to success at the next stop. In essence, it's a process of reflecting and changing oneself after multiple failures, leveling up by defeating small monsters, and ultimately achieving a breakthrough.
When an emerging industry develops to a new height, it attracts many successful people from other industries to enter. They are successful people with accumulated experience. They bring more resources into the field, and while many of them will also fail, a small portion will achieve success in the emerging market. When more successful people from other industries enter, the industry welcomes its golden age.
Only when many successful people enter will the golden age arrive. Because they bring standardized and compliant approaches, transforming the industry from wild west to standardized.
The most typical example is a new niche tourist destination that initially only has a few Airbnbs providing accommodation. Among them, the slightly more creative Airbnb gains favor, while the other Airbnbs barely survive, neither making nor losing money. But as the niche destination becomes liked by more people, these Airbnbs' reception and service capabilities are insufficient to handle the larger customer base.
Professional hotels will enter. The true sign of a destination's maturity is when international five-star hotels enter. Those who opened Airbnbs earliest might complain that competition is fierce now and money is hard to make. But from a market perspective, they weren't really making much money to begin with, and the clientele of these international five-star hotels was never theirs to serve anyway. On the contrary, because of the five-star hotels' entry, the destination's reputation and prestige are enhanced, attracting more tourists. Five-star hotels not only have better facilities but also more standardized management and better employee benefits.
The reason those early homestays aren't doing well is that they didn't seize the trend of the destination's development to promptly improve themselves and iterate their products, services, and management capabilities. Because even with five-star hotel entry, top-tier homestays are still fully booked and hard to reserve.
When people fail, they should reflect on themselves more and improve themselves, rather than complaining that the environmental bonus is gone.
All industries ultimately need high-level operational talent to enter before the industry can be recognized by more consumers. A few wild west operators cannot elevate an industry. From this perspective, if an industry isn't valued by major brands and large enterprises, it will remain in a phase of mutual reporting, price wars, and bad money driving out good. Because the greatest value of large enterprises entering is to regulate the industry.
For the wild west operators who have achieved small successes, the most important thing is to seize the opportunity, improve themselves, and upgrade their talent level, so they won't be eliminated when the industry evolves. Good industries will inevitably welcome high-level talent to enter—this historical process can only be adapted to, not reversed.