Commoditizing Suppliers
Aggregators, by virtue of owning demand, gain power over suppliers which become modularized and commoditized.
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The Moat Map describes the correlation between the degree of supplier differentiation and the externalization (or internalization) of a company’s network effect.
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Ride-sharing is a winner-take-all market that depends on controlling demand more than it does supply.
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Publishers are trying to threaten Google again, apparently unaware that because of the Internet they have no power: that flows to the platforms that control discovery.
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The Problem with “Aggregation Theory”, Demand at Scale, Supplier Power and Value
A response to The Problem with Ben Thompson’s ‘Aggregation Theory’, and why the Internet really is different (this Daily Update is freely accessible)
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Uber Questions Follow-up, Luminary Launches, Luminary’s Broken Rung
More on why giving information to investors often helps companies, then why Luminary, a new service for podcasters, is probably not going to succeed. Building bundles is hard!
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Where Warren’s Wrong Follow-up, Amazon’s Price Parity Provision, The Amazon Marketplace Question
More on Senator Warren’s tech antitrust proposal, why regulatory focus should be on contracts, and why 3rd-parties benefit from Amazon Marketplace.
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The Value Chain Constraint
Companies succeed or fail not based on technology but rather according to their ability to integrate within their value chains.
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Apple News Follow-up, What Direct-to-Consumer Publishers are Selling, More on Podcasts: Supporting Cast and Kimberlite
More on why Apple News is both different than Facebook, and yet similar from a publisher perspective. Then, how publishers should think about their business — and Apple News — plus two new entrants in the podcast space.
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The Cost of Apple News
Apple News is primed to offer a subscription bundle, but publishers should be wary of being Aggregated.
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Spotify’s Podcast Aggregation Play
Spotify is making a major move into podcasts, where it appears to have clear designs to be the sort of Aggregator it cannot be when it comes to music.
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The State of Technology at the End of 2018
The State of Technology, at least in the enterprise space, is strong; consumer tech is another story, and it is time to question the dominance of big companies like Google.