Distribution and Transaction Costs
The key economic change introduced by the Internet is the effective elimination of marginal distribution and transaction costs.
-
The history of technology is of two distinct eras: information technology enhanced existing business. The Internet revolution is destroying them.
-
Clayton Christensen claims that Uber is not disruptive, and he’s exactly right. In fact, disruption theory often doesn’t make sense when it comes to understanding how companies succeed in the age of the Internet.
-
Disney’s Taylor Swift Era
Not even Taylor Swift can fight the devaluation of recorded music, but she makes it up in physical experiences; Disney isn’t much different, but it looks much worse given the company’s old business model.
-
Hollywood on Strike
The Hollywood strike is setting talent against studios, but the problem is that both are jointly threatened by the reality of the Internet and zero distribution costs.
-
Friction Follow-Up, Databricks Acquires MosaicML
More on the trade-offs (and benefits) of Amazon’s scale, and initial reactions to Databricks’ acquisition of MosaicML.
-
Amazon, Friction, and the FTC
The FTC’s Amazon complaint raises some fair points in isolation, but misses the bigger picture, both in terms of Amazon specifically and the Internet generally.
-
Podcast Grifting; Aggregator Lessons; Ostroff, Simmons, and Harry
Bill Simmons calls Harry and Meghan grifters; he seems to have a case, but the larger issue is why Spotify mistakenly thought they would be valuable in the first place.
-
Google I/O and the Coming AI Battles
Google A/I suggests that AI is a sustaining innovation for all of Big Tech; that means the real battle will be between incumbents and Big Tech on one side, and open source on the other.