Tag: business strategy

• Fat Protocols

  January 9, 2020

  Here’s one way to think about the differences between the Internet and the Blockchain. The previous generation of shared protocols (TCP/IP, HTTP, SMTP, etc. https://www.usv.com/writing/2016/08/fat-protocols/ more ›

• Journalists become media literacy teachers

  January 2, 2020

  On the eve of 2020, a space in the nation’s capital dedicated to the past, present and future of journalism will close. While the Newseum has remained a destination for… more ›

• A constraint of the reader-revenue model emerges

  January 2, 2020

  Asking readers to pay has become the go-to answer in digital news. In 2020, I think we’ll start to discover one constraint of that model. https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/12/a-constraint-of-the-reader-revenue-model-emerges/ more ›

• Why the 2010s were the Facebook Decade

  December 31, 2019

  By the end of 2009, Facebook—under the control of its then 25-year-old CEO, Mark Zuckerberg—was clearly on the rise. It more than doubled its subscriber base during the year, from… more ›

• Prime Leverage: How Amazon Wields Power in the Technology World

  December 15, 2019

  Software start-ups have a phrase for what Amazon is doing to them: ‘strip-mining’ them of their innovations. SEATTLE — Elastic, a software start-up in Amsterdam, was rapidly building its business… more ›

• Remember QR Codes? They’re More Powerful Than You Think

  December 14, 2019

  China’s mobile payment ecosystem, the largest in the world, is built upon QR codes. But that technology extends far beyond shopping to ease friction throughout daily life. https://a16z.com/2019/10/30/the-power-of-qr-codes/ more ›

• Ecommerce as Video’s Killer App

  December 8, 2019

  As online video platforms seek a business model beyond advertising, and short videos start to look more and more like commercials, it turns out that commerce may be video’s killer… more ›

• The Video-First Future of Ecommerce

  December 6, 2019

  In the future, we’re all going to be shopping on video apps like TikTok. Whether you’re buying instant noodles or high-end sweaters, it has become increasingly clear that short video… more ›

• The Difference Between a First Mover and a Category Creator

  December 1, 2019

  Last year, when SAP spent $8 billion to acquire the online research firm Qualtrics, a price that was roughly 14 times the company’s projected 2019 sales, SAP’s CEO defended the… more ›

• AI is Industrializing Discovery

  November 26, 2019

  One of the defining characteristics in an industrial revolution is the fundamental shift from a bespoke, artisan process to an  industrialized, engineerable, repeatable one. https://a16z.com/2019/11/19/ai-industrializing-discovery-biology-healthcare/ more ›