Passagestratechery.com
Aggregation Theory
by Ben Thompson
The value chain for any given consumer market is divided into three parts: supply, distribution, and consumer/end user. The best way to make outsize profits in any of these markets is to either gain a horizontal monopoly in one of the three parts or to integrate two of the parts such that you have a competitive advantage in delivering a vertical solution.
The take
Ten years old and it still explains basically every platform fight on the internet, including the one between publishers and the apps we read them in.
Comments(2)
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Leo Okafor@leo
This plus the fair-use page priya should co-annotate. Distribution always wins.
Ava Reads@ava
2015 and it aged like wine. The supply/distribution/consumer split is still the cleanest model.