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igital files, cloud computing and accelerating broadband have long put bike messengers on the endangered species list. No matter how fast a messenger is, even a triple rush can’t compete with instantaneous. For messengers, technology is more of a threat than wily cab drivers and potholes.

But, oddly, technology is also what keeps them around. The evolution of software and mobile phones has allowed some messenger companies to work in autonomous cells, rather than as an overhead-heavy hierarchy. A central headquarters is now obsolete, and profit-sharing employees take turns dispatching and making runs.

“Bike messengers will always exist,” says messenger entrepreneur Josh Weitzner, citing all the inventions that were supposed to spell the end for bike messengers but didn’t — the latest being 3-D printers with their ability to produce product prototypes from anywhere in the world.

Weitzner’s Samurai Messenger Service in Manhattan is a new breed of messenger company that employs mobile technology and software to keep expenses to a minimum, while cranking up efficiency. Conversely, the non-adaptive, old-school veterans still remain in the game, but they face a bend-or-break dance with changing times that are squeezing their market.