Welcome back to This Week in Stratechery!
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On that note, here were a few of our favorites this week.
- The Google Patronage Network. For years people have wondered why, if Google is an Aggregator, they feel the need to pay for customer acquisition? The most obvious reason is to lock out competitors; another is to prevent its biggest partners from even bothering. This week we have a new reason: the chief reason a district judge will allow Google payments to the likes of Apple to continue is because the Google Patronage network is so entrenched. (And, on Sharp Tech: what the DOJ did wrong). — Ben Thompson
- Speaking of Google and Competition… With Apple’s iPhone event looming next week, Tuesday’s Daily Update examined the state of Google’s Pixel business and the show at this year’s Made By Google event. Given that Google remains a distant third place behind Samsung and Apple in the smartphone market, this year’s (decently entertaining!) event drew on the celebrity cameos to pique interest, and Ben explained why the hardware announcements indicate that future Pixels may sacrifice performance along traditional smartphone vectors to prioritize delivering the best on-device AI experience anywhere. It’s the sort of risk-taking that makes more sense when you’re way behind, and while it’s unlikely to pay dividends in the short term, it’s precisely the sort of bet that’s worth admiring, because it could push the market forward in the long term, and the alternative would be to quit the business altogether. I say here’s to moonshots, wherever they may appear. — Andrew Sharp
- Cloudflare and the Future of the Internet. Stratechery’s summer schedule is behind us, and the Stratechery Interviews are back! I’ve missed Ben’s interviews all summer, and this week’s conversation with Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince was a great way to revive the series. Come for Prince tracing his journey from majoring in English literature to running one of the most important tech companies in the world, stay for a topic discussed at length in a Sharp Tech episode this summer, as Prince explains why AI is a threat to today’s digital publishers and journalists, why that should be concerning to everyone, and why Cloudflare can help solve the problem. It’s a compelling listen, because whether you agree or disagree with the prescriptions Prince proposes, he’s diagnosed a problem that will become increasingly urgent as the years pass and the digital economy searches for a path forward. — AS
Stratechery Articles and Updates
- Made by Google 2025, AI Trade-offs, Google and the Long-Term — Google’s latest Pixel event re-imagined launch events; it was appropriate given that Google is truly re-imagining the smartphone.
- Google Remedy Decision, Reasonable Remedies, The Google Patronage Network — Google lost some battles but won the war in its search distribution case: the Google patronage network was deemed too important to undo.
- An Interview with Cloudflare Founder and CEO Matthew Prince About Internet History and Pay-per-crawl — An Interview with Cloudflare Founder and CEO Matthew Prince About Internet History and Pay-per-crawl
Dithering with Ben Thompson and Daring Fireball’s John Gruber
Asianometry with Jon Yu
Sharp China with Andrew Sharp and Sinocism’s Bill Bishop
Greatest of All Talk with Andrew Sharp and WaPo’s Ben Golliver
Sharp Tech with Andrew Sharp and Ben Thompson
This week’s Stratechery video is on U.S. Intel.