One person's need is another person's want is another person's "wtf is this? get off my lawn!"...
Need is in the eye of the beholder. I think "Make something people need" really means "Make something some people are willing to pay for". Which is nice, but more niche advice than "Make something people want".
No one wants to pay for Google search. But it's damn useful, and a great thing to have made (and led to business services that businesses need). Conversely, nobody needs any given movie or song or fiction book or game - they are largely commoditised and interchangeable before you've actually consumed them. But making movies and books and other forms of unnecessary art still makes hundreds of billions of dollars of revenues every year.
"Make something people want" applies to more companies than "Make something people need", imho.
"But making movies and books and other forms of unnecessary art still makes hundreds of billions of dollars of revenues every year."
Everything else being equal, I would not choose these markets. Why? Because these markets are too sexy and too crowded: too much people write games and books out of enthusiasm. (I was one of them.) If you are a game enthusiast, sure create an indie gaming company. But if you somehow can get excited about a business problem which is a pain point for some people, then it is better to choose that imho.
I would say:
Make something people need, and avoid overcrowded markets where a viable business model became problematic (e.g. free is the default) because of oversupply (like tools for professional developers)
"But making movies and books and other forms of unnecessary art still makes hundreds of billions of dollars of revenues every year."
in the u.s.:
Hollywood's yearly revenue is around $10 billion.Legal or engineering services are a $200-$300 billion industries.
Healthcare's yearly revenue is around $2 trillion.
"No one wants to pay for Google search. ". google is the rare example. in 2004 , advertising industry revenues were $264 billion vs $11.6 trillion total gdp. that's less than 5 percent. basically there is a lot less money in advertising. in general , if you want to keep your company independent , you've got more chance with a payment based business model.
Do I want to pay for anything? Not really, getting stuff for free is always good, but given the current crop of search engines, would I pay for Google search? Yes. Probably not much, as compared to the quality of their competitors, but I would easily pay $10 or $20 a year for "premium search" access, and if they really differentiated themselves as saving me a lot of time, possibly more.
Need is in the eye of the beholder. I think "Make something people need" really means "Make something some people are willing to pay for". Which is nice, but more niche advice than "Make something people want".
No one wants to pay for Google search. But it's damn useful, and a great thing to have made (and led to business services that businesses need). Conversely, nobody needs any given movie or song or fiction book or game - they are largely commoditised and interchangeable before you've actually consumed them. But making movies and books and other forms of unnecessary art still makes hundreds of billions of dollars of revenues every year.
"Make something people want" applies to more companies than "Make something people need", imho.