Amazon Go exemplifies how Amazon is building its monopoly in three ways: horizontally, vertically, and financially. Plus, why automation is worth being optimistic about.
AT&T Pulls Out of Huawei Deal, Apple’s Other China Problem, YouTube’s Logan Paul Decision
AT&T skipped out on its deal with Huawei, reportedly under political pressure. Expect more tech issues between the U.S. and China, and Apple has the most to lose.
LaVar Ball and Deciding Viewers; The Logan Paul Controversy; Spectre and Philosophy, Redux
The latest controversy in the basketball world illustrates how the destruction of media business models has far-ranging effects. Then, the Logan Paul controversy, and why the way forward depends on getting core assumptions right.
Vulnerabilities, Philosophies, and Ad-Blockers; Intel’s Response; The Advantage of Serverless
Follow-up on Meltdown and Spectre, Intel’s obfuscation, and why serverless is better.
The Pollyannish Assumption and Bright Lines, YouTube’s Market Power, Google vs Amazon
Society collectively decides what is wrong through laws: that’s a useful bright line for platforms. Then, YouTube is demonstrating its market power, and Google and Amazon are acting like monopolies.
The Pollyannish Assumption
Moderating user-generated content is hard: it is easier, though, with a realistic understanding that the Internet reflects humanity — it is capable of both good and evil.
AWS Fargate and Kubernetes Support, Embrace and Extend, AWS’s Execution Advantage
AWS announced Kubernetes support, which seems to fulfill Google’s strategic objectives: strategy without execution, though, can turn the tables.
Popping the Publishing Bubble, Revisited; BuzzFeed’s Struggles; Axios’ Success
News from BuzzFeed in particular suggest the digital publishing bubble may be bursting. Axios, meanwhile, shows that subscriptions aren’t the only answer — but niche may be.
Apple at Its Best
Apple’s original competitive advantage — the integration of hardware and software — is more durable than disruption theory would suggest.
Tech Goes to Washington
Facebook, Google, and Twitter testified before a Senate committee: it provided evidence of how tech prefers power over decentralization, even if it means regulation