Smiling Curve
The Smiling Curve, originally created to explain the PC market, is one of the best frameworks to understand how the Internet is transforming industries, especially publishing.
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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.
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The implication of the Smiling Curve is not only that aggregators have increased economic power, but that differentiated suppliers do as well; Omni Software is an example.
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Publishers used to live at the point of integration. The value of that integration, though, is gone with the Internet, which means value flows to suppliers and aggregators.
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Daily Update: Amazon and the Opportunity Cost of Losing Focus, Sling TV and The Interview Follow-up, Samsung’s Bad yet Good Earnings
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Differentiation and Value Capture in the Internet Age
The implication of the Smiling Curve is not only that aggregators have increased economic power, but that differentiated suppliers do as well; Omni Software is an example.
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Daily Update: Taylor Swift v Daniel Ek, What Swift Gets Right, The Problem with Spotify
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Publishers and the Smiling Curve
Publishers used to live at the point of integration. The value of that integration, though, is gone with the Internet, which means value flows to suppliers and aggregators.
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FiveThirtyEight and the End of Average
Just a few minutes ago, Nate Silver’s new FiveThirtyEight site launched. While it’s not known how much ESPN is paying Silver, it’s certainly a substantial amount, especially when you consider 20% of visitors to the New York Times stopped by Silver’s blog. Silver’s FiveThirtyEight is one of a growing number of personality-driven sites and blogs, […]