Good morning, I apologize for the lack of pieces on the main Stratechery blog this week; we’re moving house, and it’s all a bit hectic. I should have something up later today. On to the update: Hailo Exits North America One of the most persistent criticisms of Uber has been that it will face anSubscribe […]
Daily Update: PayPal and Square, Facebook Payments?, Samsung: What Now?
Good morning, As I note below, I finally posted my PayPal article. Check it out! On to the update: PayPal and Square Yesterday I wrote on Stratechery about how PayPal is destined to grow increasingly irrelevant as innovation in the payments space moves to merchant account-based purchases: PayPal’s success in solving the peer-to-peer problem hasSubscribe […]
PayPal’s Incentive Problem
By winning on the web, PayPal was actually disadvantaged when it came to competing in mobile, because its incentives were already shaped by a different problem.
Daily Update: HP to Split, A Secure Golden Key, Microsoft’s Android Cash Cow
Good morning, My piece on PayPal will drop later today, so keep an eye out for that. Just a heads-up that I’m traveling this week so updates may be a bit irregular. Thanks for your patience. On to the update: HP to Split Big news from The Wall Street Journal: Hewlett-Packard Co. plans to separateSubscribe […]
Daily Update: eBay and PayPal, Poor Pebble, Intel Caves to GamerGaters
Good morning, The eBay/PayPal piece I keep promising has turned into something bigger, and it’s not done yet, so I’ve gone ahead and done some more straightforward analysis of the deal below; I think it’s a good move. I did want to follow up on the Box item yesterday to make two points that ISubscribe […]
Daily Update: Ello Follow-up, Windows 10, Apple Watch in Paris
Good morning, The biggest news yesterday was that Ebay plans to spin off Paypal. I definitely think this is the right move, but I also suspect it’s too late. I plan to write more about it in a day or two. On to the update: Ello Follow-up I was actually surprised I didn’t get moreSubscribe […]
Ello and Consumer-Friendly Business Models
Vox introduced Ello this way: A brand-new social networking startup — Ello — has gone viral. At one point on Thursday, the site was acquiring 31,000 new users an hour — many of whom flocked to there because of a disagreement with Facebook over its policy requiring real names, which some say is unfair to […]
Don’t Blame Uber
At the risk of painting too broad a stroke, it seems to me that much of the opposition to changes wrought by the Internet undervalue the positive impact said changes have on normal people. For example, people despair over newspapers closing without appreciating the explosion in quality content freely available to anyone anywhere in the […]
Daily Update: Uber, Contract Workers, and Driver Power; Alibaba Raises $21.8 Billion; Larry Ellison Takes Care of Larry Ellison
Good morning, The iPhone goes on sell today, and there are lines all over. Many suspect the lines are longer due to resellers looking to take advantage of Apple’s China delay, but at least one of the licensing obstacles to the iPhone going on well was removed yesterday. Several folks have asked me if theSubscribe […]
Microsoft’s Good (and Potentially Great) Minecraft Acquisition
It’s difficult to overstate what a big deal Minecraft is. It’s the third best-selling game of all time behind Tetris and Wii Sports, and unlike the latter especially, it is a remarkably sticky experience: the vast majority of customers (over 90 percent on PC, according to Microsoft) sign in every single month. Were Microsoft to […]