In Part 1, I argued there are four strategy questions for ARM: Will they continue to benefit from a secular trend? Is their tailwind continuing? What is the state of their core product and growth engine? What are the competitive strengths of their business model? Are they changing? Are there external CGT factors that will […]
Digital strategy consultant Jeffrey Towson explains NFX’s 16 Network Effects, which are a powerful tool for businesses looking to gain a competitive edge. By leveraging these effects, you can improve your innovation strategy and create a virtuous cycle that drives growth and increases your market share. Whether you’re a startup or an established company, understanding these effects is essential to your success.
Alibaba’s journey began as a simple B2B platform, but it quickly expanded to connect consumers with small merchants through Taobao. This virtual bazaar, closer to C2C than B2C, emerged as a response to eBay’s entry into China. In this article digital strategy consultant Jeffrey Towson details how Alibaba strategically built demand-side scale, focusing on core interactions and ancillary growth opportunities.
I recently met with Rodolfo Chung, CEO of rapidly rising Zé Delivery in Brazil. This is a beverage delivery service that was launched by AB InBev right before Covid – and then took off like a rocket during the lockdown. Basically, it’s a mobile app that lets you order any of 500 SKUs for beer, […]
My standard question is: What is the quality of the business? I go through lots of checklists for this. It generally takes me 40 pages of written notes to get through a basic assessment of company quality. But the simple version is: What is the market size and its growth? Is there a long-term secular […]
Ok. Let me see if I can impress you today. In Part 1, I wrote about ANE Logistics, an interesting Chinese company. But I really wanted to make a few points about the nature of logistics and physical networks: There is a difference between networks, platform business models and network effects. Physical networks are different […]
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses the rise of “digital sin stocks” such as Skillz and Electronic Arts. He explores the factors that have contributed to their success, such as the growth of mobile gaming and the increasing popularity of esports. He also discusses the risks that investors face when investing in these types of companies, such as the potential for regulation and the addictive nature of their products.
Network effects are the brass ring of the digital age. Companies and investors, especially venture capitalists, are actively reaching for them. And, like platform business models, they can have multiple important effects. Creating surprisingly durable competitive advantages is one of them. First some general comments and then I’ll go into three types of network effects. […]
Fiverr is an Israeli company, so not an Asia tech company per se. But it has a lot of freelancers in developing Asia. And it has a particularly compelling marketplace strategy. So I thought it was worth covering. First, a bit of background. Fiverr is a typical marketplace platform for services. But for B2B, not […]
In this episode of the Tech Strategy podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses the classic marketplace platform playbook, using Fiverr as an example. He explains how these platforms work, the competitive advantages they enjoy, such as network effects and economies of scale, and the challenges they face, such as competition from other platforms and the need to keep up with changing customer demands.