If we exclude government intervention. There a few factors that influence the extent of competition in a market. The extent of economies of scale is very important. Sometimes firms need to mass produce in order to be competitive. There are also smaller markets that focus on customisation that mass production struggles with. Therefore, some firms are better off smaller.

I can agree with quite a few of Freidman's ideas. However, I believe cooperation is just as important to economic success as competition. Cooperation between smaller firms can produce many of the advantages of being big without actually being big. Sadly, as people become greedy and try to take more than their fair share, cooperation becomes challenging. I hope with more open source projects, effective cooperation can become a greater focus.