Why use open standards developed by the W3C? Why not leave it to the marketplace?

• W3C’s open standards have been developed in an open environment, with the aim of achieving platform and application independency
• Commercial companies develop proprietary formats in order to maximise their profits and dividends to shareholders
• W3C’s open standards have been developed to interoperate with each other according to W3C’s design vision
• Commercial companies typically develop proprietary formats in isolation, or along the lines of a company vision