An interview with Michael Nathanson about a tumultuous year in media, including Disney, streaming, sports, and lessons learned by both the industry and also us as analysts.
Daily Update
Archive of Daily Emails for Stratechery Members
Spotify Layoffs, Lessons From Spotify, Ek’s Letter and Spotify’s Debt
Spotify is conducting big layoffs, thanks in part to debt it took out in a zero-interest rate environment. What is more problematic is that the company has little to show for its spending.
The College Football Playoff, Events Over Inventory, NASCAR’s New Deal
The College Football Playoff, along with the overall evolution in college football, highlight the importance of events over inventory. Plus, NASCAR’s new TV deal, which includes Amazon.
An Interview with Roblox CEO David Baszucki About Advertising and AI
An interview with Roblox CEO David Baszucki about advertising, AI, and expanding the business in the wake of the pandemic.
AWS:reInvent Continued, AI PaaS and SaaS, Nvidia and AI IaaS
More on AWS:reInvent, as the day’s second keynote focused primarily on AI. Plus, how Nvidia successfully pushed DGX Cloud onto every major cloud provider.
AWS:reInvent, Serverless and the Smiling Curve, AI Services
The opening keynote at AWS:reInvent was about serverless, which is a technical manifestation of how the Internet leads to smiling curves. Plus, AWS’s CEO comments on OpenAI.
Sam Altman Back at OpenAI, Q*, Going Forward
Catching up on the OpenAI situation, which has reached a resolution — for now, anyways.
The OpenAI Saga Continues, Microsoft’s New Chips, Microsoft’s AI Platform Hedge
More updates on the OpenAI saga, including the problematic board. Then, Microsoft unveils new chips, and is creating an AI platform that looks a lot like Microsoft’s other platforms.
An Interview with Bill Bishop and Andrew Sharp Checking In on China
An interview with Bill Bishop and Andrew Sharp about one year of Sharp China, the chip ban, AI in China, TikTok, and the Biden-Xi visit in San Francisco.
Google’s Apple Payments; Apple Services: Narrative vs. Reality; Google’s Motivation
The juiciest detail yet came out of the Google antitrust case: how much the company pays Apple. This isn’t just a function of Apple’s leverage, but also Google’s strategic foresight.