2013 – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The 2013 Stratechery Year In Review| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The U.S. taking an equity stake in Intel is a terrible idea; it also happens to be the least bad idea to make Intel Foundry viable.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Everyone complains about web pages that suck, but the reality is that it is advertisers who call the shots. This should, at a minimum, put Facebook’s Instant Articles and Apple’s News a…| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The key to sustainable, ethical journalism is aligning the business and editorial sides of a publication. No company has done a better job of doing that on the Internet then BuzzFeed| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
How Snapchat is positioning itself to win an outsized share of television’s brand advertising| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Apple was at its best in its most recent keynote: unveiling the sorts of products the company is uniquely capable of creating. The question, though, is whether the company has the vision and capabi…| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Good morning, Three quick things: I wrote a bonus article – Bad Assumptions – about why so many get Apple so wrong so often. I did not email this one – it was a bonus! – so …| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
While the modern computing era in many respects began with the IBM System/360 mainframe and further expanded with the minicomputer, normal consumers didn’t start encountering computers until …| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Google is at its best when its product focus follows its business model; for too long Android was a detour.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The Big 5 Year in Review: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The Tyson-Paul boxing match was Netflix’s biggest event yet, as the company draws increasingly clear lines between customer acquisition and churn mitigation.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Trump Appoints China Hawk to Trade Council, Apple and Chinese Manufacturing, Automation and Apple’s Risk| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Slack lost to Microsoft head-to-head, but has smartly shifted to a horizontal strategy that the vertically-oriented Microsoft can’t match.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Zillow has changed CEOs, which makes sense given the change in the company’s business model. Then, an interview with new CEO and Zillow co-founder Rich Barton.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Positioning AI contenders — and losers — by their tech philosophy and business potential.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The comparison of WeWork to AWS shouldn’t be taken too far, because software is different. Look no further than Cloudflare’s IPO. Plus, leadership matters.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The WeWork IPO is defined by audaciousness and excess, all of which is driven by unlimited access to capital.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Software-differentiated hardware companies are tech companies, but be careful about low margins leading to a destructive cycle where marketing costs drown a company.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Answering two criticisms of Privacy Fundamentalism, and then looking at Peloton’s S-1 and answering the question as to whether or not they are a tech company through the lens of disruption.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Facebook’s FTC fine is being pilloried, but it really is large and unprecedented. Plus, why Facebook critics were asleep at the wheel. Then, Microsoft saving Apple has an analogy to IBM, and …| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Apple’s WWDC was a retreat from not just last year’s WWDC, but potentially a broader reset for the company. That’s why it was a great presentation.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
On the business, strategy, and impact of technology.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Microsoft is putting forth compelling proposals for the Open Agentic Web. However, the proposal needs digital payments, which will be key to creating a new content marketplace for AI.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
After endless dithering, that’s how long it took me to know the iPhone 5C would cost $549. It was at two minutes, fifty-six seconds ((All times are from the official event podcast in iTunes))…| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
For years publishers haven’t had to worry about business models: they just captured attention and watched the money come in. Those days, though, are over: the publications that survive will s…| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
A week before yesterday’s launch of the Fire Phone, Amazon sent all of the attendees a copy of the children’s book “Mr. Pines Purple House” with a note from Jeff Bezos stati…| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
First came the PC, and on top of the PC the Internet. Then, mobile, but what will rule mobile?| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Despite the hype about disruption, the truth is most tech giants, particularly platform providers, are not so much displaced as they are eclipsed. IBM, for example, has been successfully selling an…| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Google went wrong in the past by abandoning their horizontal business model; are they repeating their mistake, or does the future give them no choice?| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
An interview with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg about Llama and the AI opportunity, the evolution of social medial, and what it means to connect.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
An interview with Eric Seufert about the impact of the trade war on digital advertising, the Google Ads antitrust case, and why the biggest platforms keep on winning.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Apple AI is delayed, and Apple may be trying to do too much; what the company ought to do is empower developers to make AI applications.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
This series of posts is about enabling sustainable businesses on the App Store. In Part 1, I discuss why Paper and other productivity apps may not be doing as well as you might think. Part 2 explor…| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Apple has long defeated disruption by focusing on the user experience; Jeff Bezos and Amazon, though, show that user expectations for their experience are ever-changing.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Mark Zuckerberg suggested that social media is a “Fifth Estate”; in fact, social media is a means by which the Third Estate — commoners — can seize political power. Here history matters…| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Harvey Weinstein was a gate-keeper — a position that existed in multiple industries, including the media. That entire structure, though, is untenable on the Internet, and that’s a good thing.…| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Instagram copied Snapchat, and that’s a good thing: differentiation is about far more than features, and this is Facebook’s best shot at holding off Snapchat.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Facebook and Amazon had events on the same day for Oculus and Alexa. Both are driven by lessons from the mobile era, but Amazon seems to have learned more than Facebook.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The European Commission’s antitrust case against Google is likely to be the first of many against aggregators, because the end game of Aggregation Theory is monopoly.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Tech executives are meeting with Trump, and it’s the right decision; now is the time, though, to establish the conditions when opposition is appropriate. Then, why technologists should not ou…| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
An interview With Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about partnering in the Metaverse| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Defining the Metaverse, and explaining why Microsoft is well-placed for the virtual reality opportunity| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The Metaverse of Snow Crash is not a good analogy for the future, as the Internet breaks down into Stephenson’s dystopia| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Facebook’s reorganization into Meta is the ultimate bet on the power of founder control.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
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 ther…| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Facebook is moving forward with the Android-derived VROS instead of the brand new AROS.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Virtual reality may be more compelling in the enterprise than the consumer space; Facebook’s new product shows why — if it can overcome the Facebook factor| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
I continue to think that CES is getting more interesting, thanks to the maturation of the smartphone. Then, the differences between augmented and virtual reality, and how that explains the resilien…| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Airbnb gets less press than Uber, but in some respects its even more radical: understanding how it works leads one to question many of the premises of modern society from hotels to regulations. It&…| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Ride-sharing is a winner-take-all market that depends on controlling demand more than it does supply.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
An interview with Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong about FTX, the value (or not) of crypto, and whether or not this current downturn is different.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
DeepSeek has completely upended people’s expectations for AI and competition with China. What is it, and why does it matter?| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
An interview with Coda founder Shishir Mehrotra about documents, go-to-market, and competing with Microsoft, plus bundling, Spotify, and Passport.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Facebook is acquiring tbh, another burgeoning social network; regulators erred in allowing the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions, but there is no better place to start enforcing the law than now.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Twitter uncovered the most powerful format in mobile back in 2006: the feed. But, in 2009, Facebook went algorithmic while Twitter remained to hard to use. Now, it’s almost certainly too late…| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
“Strong opinions weakly held” is a core principle of mine, and while I think I’ve demonstrated strong opinions aplenty on this blog, today it’s time to give credence to the …| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
OpenAI’s has a new model called o1; it’s a new approach that solves some of the key limitations of current LLMs — and it solves crossword puzzles.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Meta is well-positioned to the biggest beneficiary of AI and the largest company in the world.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Saying “Microsoft missed mobile” is a bit unfair; Windows Mobile came out way back in 2000, and the whole reason Google bought Android was the fear that Microsoft would dominate mobile …| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
An apolitical analysis of what is happening in U.S. politics through the lens of Aggregation Theory| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Meta deserves a bit of a discount off of its recent highs, but a number of myths about its business have caused the market to over-react.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Machine-learning generated content has major implications on the Metaverse, because it brings the marginal cost of production to zero.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Cable companies survived the great unbundling thanks to selling Internet service; they may be best place to make the bundle of the future.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
It is fine to be excited about web3, but it doesn’t seem right to deny the real opportunities already afforded by the Internet. Plus, tying up loose ends on TV and sports.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Intel’s CEO is out campaigning for subsidies; his pitch doesn’t give sufficient credit to TSMC and Samsung for their success.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
New Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger delivered a keynote with the right strategy, the right tactics, and most importantly, the right spirit to return Intel to success.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Intel is in much more danger than its profits suggest; the problems are a long time in the making, and the solution is to split up the company.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
TSMC showed the power of modularization, and now they are core to the U.S. national security strategy.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
A new CEO has taken over Intel. Their core business, upon which the company has been built, is floundering. Does the new CEO, who is not really new at all (he’s the current COO), have the vis…| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The best way to both save Intel and have leading edge manufacturing in the U.S. is to split the company, and for the U.S. government to pick up the bill via purchase guarantees.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
A backdoor was inserted in an obscure open source project, and uncovered nearly by accident. What happened, how did it happen, and what needs to happen to prevent it in the future?| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Recent E.U. regulatory decisions cross the line from market correction to property theft; if the E.U. continues down this path they are likely to see fewer new features and no new companies.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
An interview with AMD CEO Lisa Su about her path to AMD, turning around the chip maker, the AI opportunity, and competing with Nvidia.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Apple is being sued by the DOJ, but most of the complaints aren’t about the App Store. I think, though, Apple’s approach to the App Store is what led to this case.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The question of “What is a tech company” comes down to how much software and its unique characteristics affects the company’s core business.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
A single AI can never make everyone happy, which is fundamentally threatening to the Aggregator business model; the solution is personalized AI| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Nvidia’s GTC was an absolute spectacle; it was also a different kind of keynote than before ChatGPT, which is related to Nvidia’s need to dig a new kind of software moat.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The Apple Vision Pro is missing some important apps, and it seems likely that Apple’s App Store policies played a part. Might the company respond by doubling down with Disney?| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Blogs may not be the only means of expression on line, but they are a more viable as a business for writers focused on niches than ever before.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The Apple Vision Pro is a disappointment for productivity, in part because of choices made to deliver a remarkable entertainment experience. Plus, the future of AR/VR for Apple and Meta.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Clayton Christensen continually predicts that Apple will be disrupted because his theory does not incorporate the importance of the user experience.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
An interview with Om Malik about his career in technology, the dot-com and telecom bubbles, and why he is so excited about the future.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
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.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The New York Times is suing OpenAI, but it is the New York Times that stands to benefit the most from large language models, thanks to its transformation to being an Internet entity.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The Moat Map describes the correlation between the degree of supplier differentiation and the externalization (or internalization) of a company’s network effect.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
How TikTok exposed Facebook’s blindspot, thanks to its Chinese roots, and why those Chinese roots make TikTok a genuine concern.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Google could do more than just win the chatbot war: it is the one company that could make a universal assistant. The question is if the company is willing to risk it all.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Facebook and Twitter represent the v1 of Social Networking; it’s a bad copy of the analog world, whereas v2 is something unique to digital, and a lot more promising.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The Internet removed constraints from the analog world, and AI is finishing the job. That this may be the final blow for the Internet as a source for truth may ultimately be for the best.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Uber has a new CEO, and the reason he is a great choice explain why the Uber job is still an attractive one.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Benchmark’s lawsuit against Uber is extraordinary; that is because Uber, despite everything, remains an extraordinary company. Game theory explains the implications.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Google and Facebook represent one philosophy, and Microsoft and Apple represent another; tech needs both, but ultimately platforms are more important than aggregators.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Publishers used to live at the point of integration. The value of that integration, though, is gone with the Internet, which means value flows to suppliers and aggregators.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Carlota Perez documents technological revolutions, and thinks we’re in the middle of the current one; what, though, if we are nearing its maturation? Is crypto next?| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Substack is at the center of media controversy, most of which misses the point that sovereign writers — not Substack — are in control.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Apple is about the integration of hardware and software, but the balance between the two has shifted over time.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Given the success of existing companies with new epochs, the most obvious place to start when thinking about the impact of AI is with the big five: Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The end of a dramatic weekend in tech is that OpenAI has split and Microsoft is partnered with one and has hired the other; this is the ultimate failure case of what should have been a for-profit c…| Stratechery by Ben Thompson
