It’s telling that Chris Dixon, in a blog post explaining Andreessen Horowitz’s $50 million investment, goes out of his way to explain that BuzzFeed is not really a media company, but a technological one: We see BuzzFeed as a prime example of what we call a “full stack startup”. BuzzFeed is a media company in […]
Daily Update: Buzzfeed Raises $50 million, NVidia’s Results and Gaming’s Resilience, Apple University Profiled
Good morning, I got really annoyed at the mainstream media last night, which perhaps makes me especially favorable to today’s first item about Buzzfeed. On to the updates: Buzzfeed Raises $50 million From the New York Times: BuzzFeed just closed a new $50 million investment from Andreessen Horowitz, a prominent venture capital firm in SiliconSubscribe […]
Daily Update: Media and Authority, The Structural Changes in VC, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood
Good morning, While there are a few more earnings results this week – Twitter’s should be especially interesting – we are otherwise into the summer news slowdown, which means today’s Update is a bit more circumspect, yet hopefully interesting all the same. On to the updates: Media and Authority Yesterday the New York Times editorialSubscribe […]
Daily Update: Uber v Lyft in NYC, Defending Surge Pricing, Taylor Swift on Music
Good morning, I wrote a piece on Stratechery called Smartphone Truths and Samsung’s Inevitable Decline. While it is mostly about why Samsung’s disappointing results shouldn’t be a surprise, there are also several points that cover why Apple is not doomed, but Microsoft and Amazon are. Today’s theme is supply-and-demand, and we unsurprisingly start with UberSubscribe […]
Daily Update: Microsoft Phone, Wearables, and Office; Facebook Acquires LiveRail; Google and the Right to Censor
Good morning, Happy Independence Day to all of my readers in the United States, and an early happy weekend to those of you in the rest of the world. Due to the holiday there will be no Daily Update tomorrow. On to today’s updates: Microsoft’s Muddle Continues There are three interesting items on Microsoft that,Subscribe […]
Daily Update: ESPN and Univision Crack Down on Vine, Canada’s Anti-spam Law, BlaBlaCar Raises $100 million
Good morning, Hello from Wisconsin! First off, I apologize that yesterday’s update was sent out so late; it was sent on a schedule, and I messed up my timezones. Thanks for your patience. On to the updates: a central theme of Stratechery is the importance of context and the vast expanse of gray when itSubscribe […]
Economic Power in the Age of Abundance
Publishers are trying to threaten Google again, apparently unaware that because of the Internet they have no power: that flows to the platforms that control discovery.
Nest Buys Dropcam, Amazon Coins for Fire Phone Developers, Yahoo’s Digital Magazines
Good morning, I am still trying to recover from that U.S. soccer game. What could have been! At least there is always plenty of tech news to draw us in. On to the update: Google Nest Buys Dropcam On Friday Nest announced they were buying Dropcam, a home monitoring service. From Recode: Dropcam, the popularSubscribe […]
Publishers’ Deal with the Devil
Ay, we must die an everlasting death. What doctrine call you this, Che sera, sera, What will be, shall be? Divinity, adieu! – The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe To evoke Faust as allegory for the ongoing dispute between Amazon and book publishers is appropriate on two levels, the first being the nature […]
Apple and Beats, Box adds GE, Comcast Entering Online Ads
Hi all, Keep an eye out today for the Week in Daily Updates, especially if you would like to encourage others to subscribe (please do!). In addition, as I note below, I’ll almost certainly write something about Apple and Beats. Speaking of: Apple Reportedly Buying Beats The Financial Times had the scoop: Apple is closingSubscribe […]