Remember What Spotify Did to the Music Industry?
Books Are Next.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/13/opinion/audiobooks-spotify-streaming-algorithm.html
Kim Scott:
A successful tech “content aggregation” platform has three networks: content creators, users and advertisers. Many networks have so-called positive externalities, which effectively mean that growth builds more growth and usability. A telephone network that allows you to call only half your friends would be far less than half as valuable as one that allowed you to call all your friends.
The network effects of a platform are more complicated because each component reinforces the others. The more content, the more users; the more users, the more content, and so on. Once the platform has enough content to get enough users, then it can also get advertisers. If the platform shares advertisers’ money with the content creators, more content gets created, which attracts more users, which attracts more advertisers, and so on. If the ads are relevant, nonintrusive, and do not invade one’s privacy, that is good for users, because the advertisers are paying for the content. It is also good for content creators, because more users will interact with content they don’t have to pay for. It can be a virtuous cycle.
However, when the platform extracts too much and shares too little, it harms the rest of the ecosystem. Once a tech platform has a critical mass of users, it can start squeezing content creators.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/13/opinion/audiobooks-spotify-streaming-algorithm.html
Kim Scott:
A successful tech “content aggregation” platform has three networks: content creators, users and advertisers. Many networks have so-called positive externalities, which effectively mean that growth builds more growth and usability. A telephone network that allows you to call only half your friends would be far less than half as valuable as one that allowed you to call all your friends.
The network effects of a platform are more complicated because each component reinforces the others. The more content, the more users; the more users, the more content, and so on. Once the platform has enough content to get enough users, then it can also get advertisers. If the platform shares advertisers’ money with the content creators, more content gets created, which attracts more users, which attracts more advertisers, and so on. If the ads are relevant, nonintrusive, and do not invade one’s privacy, that is good for users, because the advertisers are paying for the content. It is also good for content creators, because more users will interact with content they don’t have to pay for. It can be a virtuous cycle.
However, when the platform extracts too much and shares too little, it harms the rest of the ecosystem. Once a tech platform has a critical mass of users, it can start squeezing content creators.
The Monopolists Fight Back
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/google-trial-big-tech-lobbying-shows-why-antitrust-enforcement-needed-by-eric-posner-2023-11
With the Google trial having revealed the pervasiveness of anticompetitive behavior in the tech industry, big corporations are turning to Congress to block antitrust agencies from ramping up enforcement efforts after decades of neglect. Now that the industry’s long honeymoon is over, the real struggle is beginning.
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/google-trial-big-tech-lobbying-shows-why-antitrust-enforcement-needed-by-eric-posner-2023-11
With the Google trial having revealed the pervasiveness of anticompetitive behavior in the tech industry, big corporations are turning to Congress to block antitrust agencies from ramping up enforcement efforts after decades of neglect. Now that the industry’s long honeymoon is over, the real struggle is beginning.
The secrets Google spilled in court
https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/11/16/23962967/google-search-antitrust-trial-what-we-learned
https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/11/16/23962967/google-search-antitrust-trial-what-we-learned
This Is Why Google Paid Billions for Apple to
Change a Single Setting
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/20/opinion/apple-google-privacy.html
Zeynep Tufekci:
Data brokers should not be allowed to amass information about people unless they first get explicit permission. But that’s not sufficient, since it is difficult for individuals to evaluate all the implications of their data — professionals, experts and the companies themselves keep getting surprised.
A few years ago, aggregate maps generated by the running app Strava, which showed where users were running, seemingly revealed the location of what could have been a secret Central Intelligence Agency annex in Mogadishu, Somalia. It appears that even the C.I.A. hadn’t anticipated this, and instructed its personnel to change the setting. If that’s the case, what chance do ordinary people have to evaluate all future implications of their data?
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/20/opinion/apple-google-privacy.html
Zeynep Tufekci:
Data brokers should not be allowed to amass information about people unless they first get explicit permission. But that’s not sufficient, since it is difficult for individuals to evaluate all the implications of their data — professionals, experts and the companies themselves keep getting surprised.
A few years ago, aggregate maps generated by the running app Strava, which showed where users were running, seemingly revealed the location of what could have been a secret Central Intelligence Agency annex in Mogadishu, Somalia. It appears that even the C.I.A. hadn’t anticipated this, and instructed its personnel to change the setting. If that’s the case, what chance do ordinary people have to evaluate all future implications of their data?