A year-end review of tech’s five most important companies.
December 2015
The 2015 Stratechery Year in Review
The top five most read posts, big ideas, company-specific posts, posts about media, and Daily Updates of 2015.
SpaceX Makes History, SpaceX and Unicorns, Disney in the Age of Abundance
SpaceX accomplished something truly momentous yesterday, and the company is a reminder that unicorns remain great investments. Plus, more on why I’m bullish on Disney
Star Wars Grosses >$500 million, Disney: Cable or Content?, Goldman Sachs Recants on Microsoft
Star Wars has significantly exceeded expectations, yet Disney’s stock is down. The question is what matters: content, or cable networks? I argue it is the former, and that Disney’s future is bright.
Exponent Podcast: OpenAI and Strategy Credits
On Exponent, the weekly podcast I host with James Allworth, we discuss OpenAI’s new mission and what it says about capitalism. Or is it just a strategy credit that we are reading too much into? Listen to it here.
Apple’s Executive Shuffle, Adele’s Concert Tickets
Significant changes were announced at Apple yesterday, particularly in marketing. Then, what is so bad about ticket brokers?
Slack Follow-up, The WeChat Platform, Uber and Facebook Messenger
More on Slack’s platform opportunity, which can be compared to what WeChat has already accomplished in China. That said, the fact way that China is truly mobile-first means that it’s likely that no one — including Facebook Messenger — will fully imitate WeChat’s model.
Slack and the State of Technology at the End of 2015
Slack has announced the Slack Platform. It’s an obvious move, but it’s the obviousness that indicates what a huge opportunity it is
Craig Federighi on Swift, Taylor Swift’s 1989 on Apple Music
John Gruber’s interview with Craig Federighi is an excellent opportunity to explore exactly why Swift is such a big deal. Then, Taylor Swift has an exclusive with Apple Music for the video of her 1989 concert.
OpenAI, Artificial Intelligence and Data, Data and Recruiting
OpenAI launched with a lot of high minded talk about its altruistic structure, but I think the initiative is best understood through the lens of business