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Facebook’s political problems stem directly from its size and drive for growth; they are societal issues, not antitrust ones.
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Facebook is under pressure from all sides, but that actually means it has an opportunity to build the platform it has always wanted — in digital ads.
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Snapchat is losing users, and it seems clear the biggest reason is Instagram Stories: that is a win for Facebook, but the pain in advertising may be substantial.
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Facebook is in trouble — again — for Russian ads about the election; figuring out how to deal with them requires first understanding that Facebook, like Google, is a Super-Aggregator. It faces zero transaction costs…
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Facebook gave one of the worst keynotes in a long time: there was no vision, just the adoption of Snap’s. It’s the inevitable outcome of a monopoly.
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Facebook has long had too much power, but Mark Zuckerberg’s expressed willingness to use said power for political ends means it’s time to consider countermeasures.
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Email Addresses and Razor Blades
The fate of Harry’s and other DTC companies, particularly relative to companies like Credit Karma, highlight how the Internet elevates the importance of demand over supply.
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Brandless Closes, The DTC Facebook Challenge, DTC Versus Softbank
Brandless is closing down, which is being spun into a commentary on Softbank. This is fair, but the bigger takeaway is about DTC broadly.
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Clearview AI, The Problem with Scraping, Tradeoffs
Clearview AI is billed as a story about facial recognition, but the most important questions it raises is about scraping. And, by doing so, it reveals how many trade-offs we have yet to confront.
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Regulating Demand, Ad Targeting and Unintended Consequences, Expedia CEO Out
Google’s continued dominance may not be intransigence, but rather the difficulty of regulating demand. Then, how Apple helps Google and Facebook, and Barry Diller isn’t blaming Google.
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Facebook Buys Beat Saber, Capital and Copyright, The Oculus Conundrum
Facebook has bought Beat Games, a company of the future, and not just because they made a game for VR. Then, why it is the old world that needs capital, and why Oculus is still confusing strategically.
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Facebook Pay, Google Checking, Tech Company Differences
Facebook announced Facebook Pay, which is far different from Libra. Then, Google is apparently getting into checking, which leads to a question of motivations: each of the tech companies are approaching financial services from a different angle.