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Build Back Different

Build Back Different

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We’ve mentioned Clubhouse before and attention must be paid: it proved to be a game-changer – big time – the likes of which we haven’t seen in a while. Clubhouse has taken social media into a different direction. While Twitter and even Facebook have been something of town squares, CH is not that: it’s the corner pub or sort of unconference  or coffee klatch, where people can wander in and out of ‘rooms,’ at will, and participate, or simply listen and learn.

Although, CH members, take note: Clubhouse Users’ Raw Audio May Be Exposed to Chinese Partner.

So, what’s next? Well, the Twitter and Facebook knock offs, of course. Considering that both platforms are losing users and revenue (Twitter reports $1.14B net loss for 2020 – and that was before CH hit the zeitgeist in a significant way, and Facebook has been hemorrhaging users in its most valuable markets for some time now, what to speak of the face that Apple Privacy Change May Cost Facebook, Google $25 Billion Over Next 12 Months), they still believe that they will forever hold sway as the Masters of the Universe, so why innovate when you can appropriate? Read More...

Antitrust in the Tech Industrial Age

Antitrust in the Tech Industrial Age

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Facebook is being sued for antitrust violations and AGs in most of the states have signed on. According to the Chicago Tribune, “Lawmakers of both major parties are also calling for stronger oversight of Facebook and other tech industry giants. They argue that the companies’ massive market power is out of control, crushing smaller competitors and endangering consumer privacy and choice. Facebook insists that its services provide useful benefits for users and that complaints about its power are misguided… The FTC and the Justice Department reportedly have been investigating Amazon and Apple, respectively…and Justice Department prosecutors are pursuing a separate antitrust case against Google, one that mirrors its case against Microsoft 20 years ago. Microsoft lost that one, although it escaped a breakup when an appellate court disagreed with the trial judge’s order.”

Om Malik published this piece (My advice to the attorney generals: It’s not about Zuck) and we agree. His point: the Microsoft case didn’t help much in reining in the company. “I would argue that they are doing what they have always done – using their market size as a moat and expanding into new markets. We don’t realize it just yet. Today, they control two major professional networks that will have as big, if not more, significant impact on society in the future — GitHub and LinkedIn…

“My view is that it is okay for these companies to continue and buy younger companies, but they should be restricted to only buying companies that enhance their core and not allowed to buy into new markets. For example, Facebook should not have been allowed to buy Instagram or WhatsApp… In a previous article for The New Yorker, I pointed out, “This loop of algorithms, infrastructure, and data is potent. Add what are called network effects to the mix, and you start to see virtual monopolies emerge almost overnight…”When it comes to Facebook, I wrote, “The more we use it, the more data we give the company, and the more it is able to control where we turn our attention.” Facebook, as a result, “thanks to this loop of algorithms, infrastructure, money, and data, is a winner-takes-all company. Read More...

Will “creepy” be the new norm for the 2020’s?

Will “creepy” be the new norm for the 2020’s?

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Since it’s the beginning of a new decade, as a starting point, we thought we’d take a look at 2010 and see what the sentiment was then. Eric Schmidt set the tone when he famously said, “There is what I call the creepy line. The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.”

Said Business Insider, “If you don’t cross the creepy line, we suppose by definition you aren’t creepy. But making it a policy to go right up to that line “on a lot of things” is, well, something a lot like creepy.” So, where do we stand now and as for the creepy line crossed – how often and in how many ways was it breached, if not completely ignored? Some instances from the past year and the past decade:

The Digital Arms Race Read More...

Giving Thanks to Tech

Giving Thanks to Tech

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Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Thanksgiving is upon us, and how often do we all truly stop and give thanks for all that we have, sometimes whether we know it or not. Here are a few examples, with tongue held firmly in cheek:

First, here was a time when you had to read a map or ask for directions when you were driving or walking somewhere you’d never been before and weren’t quite sure where you were going. Men notoriously hated to ask for directions, and would often get lost or go in circles, from what we hear. Now, all you need do is enter the destination into that map app on your phone, and no worries. In fact, Apple or Google, depending on your map of choice, often knows precisely where you’re heading, even before you’ve finished inputting the information. Wouldn’t you be lost without them?

Google knows better than you. The Wall Street Journal reported on How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results and let’s be honest: Google has been tracking you for so long now that the company no doubt knows you better than you know yourself. Or at least, knows what’s best for you, so may gently sway you in that direction… Say amen, somebody. Read More...

Facebook: The 2019 Feel-Good Tour

Facebook: The 2019 Feel-Good Tour

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Mark Zuckerberg was back on Capitol Hill last week, testifying before Congress about the proposed cryptocurrency, Libra.

“I don’t control Libra” was the central theme of the Facebook  CEO’s testimony,” according to TechCrunch. “The House of Representatives unleashed critiques of his approach to cryptocurrency, privacy, encryption and running a giant corporation during six hours of hearings. Zuckerberg tried to assuage their fears while stoking concerns that if Facebook doesn’t build Libra, the world will end up using China’s version.” Read More...

Antitrust: The Bill Gates Playbook

Antitrust: The Bill Gates Playbook

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This week, in addition to the Federal probe, “States to Launch Google, Facebook Antitrust Probes,” The Wall Street Journal et al reported. As one commenter said, “The real problem with both is their pernicious theft of our personal data and sales of that data to all sorts of entities looking to prod us, outrage us, excite us, sell us, etc. This is what their businesses have become: resale of stolen data.”

Google (is also being) Targeted By 50 U.S. AGs In Potential Sweeping Antitrust Investigation Read More...

The Secret Formula for a $1T Valuation

The Secret Formula for a $1T Valuation

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AKA, Who Wants to be a Trillionaire? Ok, maybe not a trillionaire, but running a company with a shot at getting to the trillion dollar status, has been there, or is damn close or potentially able to get there? Notice that Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook – four of the FAANG stocks – all have something in common: they all have 100M+ plus users, and are “trusted” platforms – “trusted” being an odd choice of words here, in our case, but work with us.

While Netflix is also part of the FAANG stocks and ergo potentially a trillion dollar player, the company is now experiencing something less than that Silicon Valley-venerated hockey stick growth, as Netflix reports slowing subscriber growth for the first time, which is also part of our point here. Read More...

Libra. In Facebook We Trust?

Libra. In Facebook We Trust?

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Facebook announced the soon-to-debut of Libra, its new cryptocurrency, last week, saying that it hoped to bring billions of the unbanked into the digital economy, providing them with basic financial services through their cellphones, eerily echoing Facebook’s original mission to bring the world closer together with its social platform, in case you missed the irony.

We all know how that worked out. Read More...

With the Socials Catching Heat, Is this the Summer of Opportunity?

With the Socials Catching Heat, Is this the Summer of Opportunity?

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Image by rawpixel from Pixabay

Memorial Day Weekend always officially kicks off the summer season and serves as a reminder that, if you’re looking for funding, carpe diem – investors are about to unplug for the season.

We’ve long mentioned that no one stays on top forever – times, tech and tolerance change – and you’re aware by now that the socials are under attack. By governments and users. Last week, CrossFit, Inc. Suspend(ed) Use of Facebook and Associated Properties, reporting, “Recently, Facebook deleted without warning or explanation the Banting7DayMealPlan user group. The group has 1.65 million users who post testimonials and other information regarding the efficacy of a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet. While the site has subsequently been reinstated (also without warning or explanation), Facebook’s action should give any serious person reason to pause, especially those of us engaged in activities contrary to prevailing opinion.”

This is not an advert for Crossfit. It’s a heads up to entrepreneurs that it’s not game over. With all of the missteps on the part of the socials, the heat is on. It’s now open season and time to focus on the problems that they’ve created and that someone somewhere will solve – by building a better mousetrap. You want to be a unicorn? Solve a big problem that a lot of people are having, and a lot of people are having problems with the behemoths, including Facebook (and its properties), Twitter, Amazon (and its devices), and Google. Read More...

The Next Iteration: Beware Demon Tech

The Next Iteration: Beware Demon Tech

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Image by Reimund Bertrams from Pixabay

Now that the LUPA/PAUL stocks have (mostly) gone public – Lyft, Uber, Pinterest and Airbnb), these supposed category killers aren’t exactly killing it in the stock market. It’ll be interesting to see how the massively funded We Company (nee WeWork) does and despite all of this, we’re still witnessing massive funding rounds. Vice, for one, despite its stalled growth, recently raised $250M, a pittance compared to the $575M raised by Deliveroo. At some point, growth does stall; hockey stick growth is unsustainable or as Douglas Rushkoff, author of Team Human et al, said at the Techonomy conference in New York last week, “exponential growth is a problem. The only thing that can grow exponentially forever is cancer, and then it kills its host.”

We’ve known Rushkoff personally since the early days of Web 1.0, which, he reminded us, was when we all innocently believed that the web would distract us from the insular world of television and bring us together, which Mark Zuckerberg told Congress was the intention of Facebook. Well, that and world domination, although he did not share the latter with Congress.

Back in those early days, Wired Magazine told us that the internet was going to be the salvation of the NASDAQ stock exchange. This was the attention economy, and, said Wired, thanks to digital, the economy would grow exponentially, unstopped, forever. And Alan Greenspan agreed: New paradigm! Unlimited growth! Forever! What they didn’t realize was that this economic system was a very old, obsolete operating system invented by the monarchs in the 12th and 13th century to prevent the rise of the middle class, Rushkoff noted. Read More...