A web service is a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. Web services are casually described as “Web APIs” by web service providers such as Flickr, Google, Twitter, etc. Web services can communicate over any choice of network protocol, however, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) over TCP/IP is the de facto standard protocols of choice.

Through an examination of the companies that failed and succeeded when using the Chasm Model, it is arguable that the Chasm Model is an effective marketing strategy for a startup company offering a high tech, discontinuous product.