Immerse yourself in the compelling realm of digital tech strategy with Jeff Towson’s latest podcast. This episode explores the attractive yet hazardous economics of the digital tech industry, providing insights into its potential benefits and inherent dangers. An essential listen for anyone eager to comprehend the complexities and future trends of this swiftly evolving sector.
Key concepts for this article: The Brutal Economics of Digital / Information Audience-Builder Platforms *** ChatGPT and large language models (LLM) have everyone talking. The ChatGPT prototype launched on November 30 is stunning. ChatGPT, which stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, is basically a superpowered chatbot built on top of OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 suite of large language […]
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses why he doesn’t like Netflix, Singapore Press, and most digital content businesses. He argues that these businesses lack a moat, which is a sustainable competitive advantage. He also argues that these businesses are too focused on quantity over quality.
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses the return of Ant Group after 2 years in restructuring. He talks about Ant’s new international payment initiative, Alipay+, and how it could disrupt the global payments market. He also discusses the challenges that Ant faces in its new incarnation, such as regulatory scrutiny and competition from other tech giants.
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses how Nike has successfully built a competitive advantage in China by participating in the large platform businesses of Alibaba and WeChat. He shares insights on how other businesses can do the same. Towson argues that businesses need to focus on providing a great customer experience and building strong relationships with platform partners. He also emphasizes the importance of data-driven decision-making.
Digital economics are just very strange. As soon as a service or business becomes infused with software and data technology, the economics start to change and strange things happen. Reproduction costs drop to zero. Stuff starts becoming free. Scalability increases dramatically and can be surprisingly cheap. And some old, obscure ideas in economics start to […]
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses two big questions about the business models of AI software companies: What are the unit economics of large AI companies? What types of scale advantages and network effects do large AI companies have? He argues that AI software companies are still in the early stages of development, and that the answers to these questions will depend on how the market for AI software evolves in the years to come.
I was mulling over investing in Expedia during the beginning of the pandemic. It made sense that travel would take a hit for a couple of years. And then it would likely come back. Plus, digital marketplaces are good at scaling up and down. But I didn’t buy as I feel more comfortable with Asia […]
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses how Adobe has been able to maintain its dominance in the software industry despite the rise of cloud-based alternatives. He argues that Adobe’s success is due to its focus on old-school software economics, such as network effects and recurring revenue. He explains that network effects make it more valuable for each user to join a platform as more users join, and that recurring revenue provides a steady stream of income that can be used to invest in new products and services.
Take-Away 1: Adobe Inc. is a good example of many of the strengths of traditional software economics. It has evolved and expanded over decades to become a full suite of creative tools. It is now trying to expand from creative tools to operating tools. Take-Away 2: However, purely digital companies need to protect their attractive […]