Advertising
The most important business model for consumers.
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The advertising has shifted from a Google-Facebook duopoly to one where Amazon and potentially Apple are major forces.
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Facebook and Google and other advertising businesses are data factories, and regulation will be most effective if it lets users look inside
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Google is in hot water again, this time for ads placed against objectionable content. However, ad agencies and brands are just as responsible, and can no longer live in the past.
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Facebook has long had too much power, but Mark Zuckerberg’s expressed willingness to use said power for political ends means it’s time to consider countermeasures.
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Tech is entering a period of inequality where the big winners lift the sector as a whole even as smaller companies suffer. The best example is Facebook, Google, and digital advertising.
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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.
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Shopify’s Evolution Follow-up, Spotify Acquires Chartable and Podsights
More on Shopify’s Evolution, including the waning opportunities for niche businesses. Then Spotify builds out their tiered advertising strategy.
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Google Privacy Sandbox, SDK Runtimes, On-Device Targeting
Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiative is vague but has some interesting ideas that may change the whole industry
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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.
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Apple Earnings, AMD Earnings, Google Earnings
Apple, AMD, and Google all delivered great results; margins were the most interesting places for analysis.
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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.