It is all but impossible to beat an Aggregator head-on, as Walmart is trying to do with Amazon. The solution instead is to build a platform like Shopify.
Walmart’s E-Commerce Struggles, Textbook Disruption, The Benefits of Not Competing
Walmart is struggling in ecommerce for very predictable reasons; the company — and economy — is better off leveraging its assets and not competing directly with Amazon.
AMD Launches 7nm Chips, Sony Partners with Microsoft, Apple and AWS
AMD leapfrogs Intel thanks to modularity, Sony partners with Microsoft thanks to scale, and Apple balances both.
Apple’s Services Event
Apple’s Services Event generally made sense, even if most products weren’t ready to launch. It’s fair to wonder, though, if something important is being lost.
The Value Chain Constraint
Companies succeed or fail not based on technology but rather according to their ability to integrate within their value chains.
Walmart’s Earnings, Walmart’s Grocery Business, Amazon’s Grocery Stumbles
Walmart’s earning suggest that the company’s online grocery business is doing well, even while Amazon struggles. This is not a surprise, given the two companies points of integration.
Amazon Abandons New York, The Upside of Amazon’s Decision, Waymo and Disruption
Amazon is abandoning to New York, and everyone is a loser, at least in the short term. There may, though, be upside in the lessons learned. Then, a truly excellent article about why Google may be approaching self-driving cars all wrong.
BuzzFeed Followup, The Future is Niche, Atlassian and Bing
BuzzFeed’s relative scale problem, and why venture capital doesn’t make sense for content, because the future is niche. Plus, important follow-up on Bing and Atlassian.
The BuzzFeed Lesson
The lesson of BuzzFeed is that dominant Aggregators like Facebook have no incentive to act against their self interest and support suppliers.
AWS, MongoDB, and the Economic Realities of Open Source
Amazon’s latest offering highlights the economic challenges facing open source companies — and Amazon should pay attention.