Daily Update: AT&T to Buy DirecTV, Google to Buy Twitch, Facebook Building Snapchat Competitor

Good morning, After a relatively slow week, lots of stuff happened this weekend, so let’s get to it: AT&T to Buy DirecTV Lots of folks are comparing this proposed deal to the Comcast-Time Warner merger, but I think it’s much more benign, both from an explanatory perspective as well as an impact one. One ofSubscribe […]

Daily Update: Google v Oracle, Mobile Gaming and Gambling, Third-Party Mobile Platforms

Good morning, I’m still thinking a lot about the Apple Beats deal, and plan on a post later today, so keep your eyes out. It’s really one of the more fascinating deals we’ve seen since, well, Facebook and Google buying Occular and Nest, respectively, but with Apple everything is magnified. In the meantime, a longerSubscribe […]

Dependent on Digital Whales

It was very hard to find fault with anything that Facebook announced at F8 last week. Unlike their past developer efforts, which were all about pulling content onto Facebook, this year was about pushing Facebook’s infrastructure out into all kinds of mobile apps. The win for Facebook is that much more signal about their users, […]

Daily Update: Android Silver, Box’s Delayed IPO, AppLinks Followup

Good morning, It’s the end of week 2 – thanks for being a member! If you have not yet (re)made your t-shirt size selection, please do so (some people who signed up in the first week did not have their sizes recorded properly). You can update your size (or decline it) on your profile page.Subscribe […]

Daily Update: Facebook’s New Platform

Good morning, Private RSS feeds should be fixed! Finally! Let me know if you still have any problems. I apologize for the delay in fixing this issue, and will be taking steps to ensure such things are fixed more quickly in the future (on a related note, Marco Arment was right). Today’s update is aSubscribe […]

Daily Update (2014-04-24): Apple Earnings, Capital Structure; Facebook Earnings

Good morning, In case you missed it yesterday, you can now access the Daily Email on the web and through your private RSS feed. Let me know if you have any trouble getting this set up. I also sent a separate email to Access members and Annual Daily Update members asking you to resubmit yourSubscribe […]

Daily Email (2014-04-21): Social Platforms

Monday, April 21, 2014 – Social Platforms Good morning, First off, thank you for being a member of Stratechery. I really appreciate it. Second, in case you have not heard, this email will be the way in which I deliver your premium content. I explained my thinking last Friday in Free Stratechery and the DailySubscribe […]

Face Is Not the Future

There is certain logic to any Facebook acquisition given the current stock price. The current market valuation of $156 billion implies significant revenue growth on an annual basis far greater than simply converting desktop revenue streams to mobile ones; if you assume the stock price will decrease in the future, then making largely stock-based purchases […]

The Social Conglomerate

When news of the Facebook/WhatsApp deal broke, a lot of people gave me credit for being prescient: after all, I had just written 1,568 words on why messaging was mobile’s killer app. WhatsApp, though, was all but absent from the article, meriting but a single mention, and in parenthesis at that! Viber does have strong […]

Messaging: Mobile’s Killer App

Messaging is a completely new kind of social networking that is uniquely enabled by mobile.