Understanding the differences between Aggregators and Platforms is essential for knowing how to compete, partner with, and regulate large companies. A Framework for Regulating Competition on the Internet Understanding the differences between platforms and Aggregators is critical when it comes to considering regulation. Shopify and the Power of Platforms It is all but impossible to […]

Aggregation Theory provides a framework to understand the impact of the Internet on nearly all industries. Aggregation Theory The disruption caused by the Internet in industry after industry has a common theoretical basis described by Aggregation Theory. Defining Aggregators A precise definition of the characteristics of aggregators, and a classification system based on suppliers. Plus, […]

The Smiling Curve, originally created to explain the PC market, is one of the best frameworks to understand how the Internet is transforming industries, especially publishing. Publishers and the Smiling Curve Publishers used to live at the point of integration. The value of that integration, though, is gone with the Internet, which means value flows […]

Companies that win in the Internet era do so by owning the customer relationship, which gives them power over suppliers. The Funnel Framework The Internet has removed scarcity, meaning business models based on controlling distribution are no longer viable. Instead, the key to success is controlling access to the best customers — and that means […]

Aggregators, by virtue of owning demand, gain power over suppliers which become modularized and commoditized. The Moat Map The Moat Map describes the correlation between the degree of supplier differentiation and the externalization (or internalization) of a company’s network effect. Economic Power in the Age of Abundance Publishers are trying to threaten Google again, apparently […]

The key economic change introduced by the Internet is the effective elimination of marginal distribution and transaction costs. The Super-Aggregators and the Russians Facebook is in trouble — again — for Russian ads about the election; figuring out how to deal with them requires first understanding that Facebook, like Google, is a Super-Aggregator. It faces […]