Currently, Afghan units are stationed where the Americans are, in hundreds of small bases, mostly in populated areas.

NEWYORKER: After America

"It comes back to the fact that they still have relatively small bases of consumers using these things, " said Sucharita Mulpuru, principal analyst at Forrester Research.

WSJ: Malls Test Apps to Aid Shoppers

As American military vehicles and troops start to arrive in Bosnia -- taking a 30-kilometer (20-mile) road toward Tuzla that they've dubbed "Route Arizona" -- some are setting up a series of small bases in the Posavina Corridor, a narrow neck of land connecting Serb territories in eastern and western Bosnia.

CNN: Bosnia begins peaceful 1996

With small customer bases over which to spread their fixed costs, they tend to charge higher fees per dollar invested.

FORBES: Come and Get It

Given the need to operate at scale, corporations partner with associations and organizations with large bases of small businesses and entrepreneurs.

FORBES: What Startups Need to Understand About The Booming Corporate Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

But fan enthusiasm which tends to accompany small-market fan bases never guaranteed the on-court success of the Thunder franchise for owner Clay Bennett.

FORBES: OKC Thunder Success a Perfect Storm of Stars, Staff, and Community

Other Kenyan banks, particularly Kenya Commercial Bank, also are expanding their customer bases by targeting small borrowers in the informal economy, but none have caught up with Equity, which pioneered the idea of signing the unbanked in Kenya and fortified its position with the nation's largest network of storefront banking agents.

WSJ: Using Small Loans to Generate Big Profits

Bacterial genomes are small fry compared with those of eukaryotes such as C. elegans: some 4m-5m bases long at most.

ECONOMIST: The first complete DNA sequence of an animal is now in the bag