Cable companies survived the great unbundling thanks to selling Internet service; they may be best place to make the bundle of the future.
Amazon Earnings, Amazon’s Costs, Amazon Closes Stores
Amazon messed up its capacity planning and the result was a big loss; CEO Andy Jassy seems focused on scalability above everything else.
Beyond Aggregation: Amazon as a Service
Amazon’s new Buy With Prime announced the arrival of Amazon Logistics as a Service, and is a big red flag for Shopify.
More on Substack, Faceless Publishers and ATT, Apple’s ATT Deliberations
More on Substack, and how they have done right by publishers, and why their approach may be essential in a post-ATT world.
Substack Launches App, Substack and the Four Bens, In-App Purchase and the Substack Bundle
Substack launched an app, which isn’t a surprise given their VC model, but which portends change all the same.
Spotify and Joe Rogan, Culture and Principles, Music Versus Podcasts and the Long Run
Lessons from Spotify’s recent controversy, both for other tech executives, and also for the Spotify’s long run profitability.
Gaming the Smiling Curve
The spate of recent acquisitions in the gaming space — Take-Two and Zynga, Microsoft and Activision, and Sony and Bungie — make sense in the context of the Smiling Curve.
Where Are Hit Podcasts?, Spotify and Podcast Aggregation, Protesting Rogan
Why there aren’t any new podcasts in the top 10, and why the podcast market looks like websites and YouTube. Plus, why Spotify’s approach benefits most, for now.
OpenSea, Web3, and Aggregation Theory
OpenSea is positioned as another Aggregator, which is evidence that Web 3 is a layer on top of the Internet, not a replacement.
Formula 1 and Netflix, Netflix and Sports, YouTube TV vs. ESPN
The increased popularity of F1 shows how sports can be valuable to Netflix, and why sports remain valuable to Disney.