Understanding Users
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Olympics Ratings, P&G and Olympics Advertising, Total Audience Advertising
Olympic Ratings are down, but less than expected! Unfortunately for NBC, so is revenue. That, though, is expected: sports and its advertisers remain interconnected. Then, at least NBC finally figured out how to manage multiple mediums.
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HomePod Goes on Sale, The Smartphone and the End of History, The Success of the Nintendo Switch
The HomePod goes on sale tomorrow — finally — and it’s still not clear whether or not Apple is ready to move beyond the smartphone; the success of the Nintendo Switch suggests the world isn’t waiting.
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Fixing the Conclusion, Licensing Amazon Go and Self-Checkout, Netflix Earnings
Fixing the conclusion of Amazon Go and the Future, and why I don’t think Amazon Go’s technology is a primitive. Then, Netflix continues to be an aggregator, and other notes from the company’s earnings.
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LaVar Ball and Deciding Viewers; The Logan Paul Controversy; Spectre and Philosophy, Redux
The latest controversy in the basketball world illustrates how the destruction of media business models has far-ranging effects. Then, the Logan Paul controversy, and why the way forward depends on getting core assumptions right.
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Patreon Reverses Itself, The Patreon Backstory and the Reality of Fees, Patreon’s Mistake
Patreon recently changed its fee structure — and then changed it back. The problem is rooted in Patreon’s history and it its misunderstanding of the value chain in which it operates.
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AWS Fargate and Kubernetes Support, Embrace and Extend, AWS’s Execution Advantage
AWS announced Kubernetes support, which seems to fulfill Google’s strategic objectives: strategy without execution, though, can turn the tables.
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Meredith Buys Time Inc., Meredith’s Business, About the Koch Investment
Meredith is buying Time Inc.; most media coverage is focused on the Koch investment, but Meredith itself is far more interesting as a publisher that is succeeding.
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SendGrid IPOs, The Nintendo Marios
SendGrid’s IPO exemplifies a company that works: a SaaS offering that enables, and grows alongside, its customer. Then, the differing results for Super Mario Run and Super Mario Galaxy show the value in maximizing revenue amongst core customers.
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Apple at Its Best
Apple’s original competitive advantage — the integration of hardware and software — is more durable than disruption theory would suggest.