Benedict Evans on Amazon’s Profit Reinvestment Strategy and Strive for Market Dominance (a16z) – article and podcast
Blackstone’s Hilton LBO (Businessweek) – long form piece on how Blackstone turned a solid profit from what appeared to be a doomed investment during the 2008-2009 crisis
Benedict Evans on the iPhone 6 (Benedict Evans) – a great review from one of the best mobile analysts in the industry; makes excellent points on Android’s problem and iOS’ dominance despite having a low relative market share; largest takeaway: contrary to what Fred Wilson predicted a while back, the mobile OS market is not unfolding like the PC market did in the 1990’s; it will likely be a duopoly with Apple reaping most of the profits on the hardware side (also Benedict Evans on ecosystems)
Tim Cook Interview (Businessweek) – it’s clear as day that Tim Cook is the right man for the job; in fact, it’s not wholly clear that Steve Jobs could have steered the present day Apple the way Tim Cook has; he’s opened up the ecosystem (as opposed to Jobs’ walled garden approach), invested heavily in Apple’s services, and expanded Apple’s moat in its key markets
Steven Levy’s Two Piece Profile of Google (Medium) – part one and part two
Pinterest: The Coming Colossus That Could Dwarf Twitter and Facebook (Forbes) – an thought provoking explanation of why Pinterest can be the most valuable social media property in the world; while Twitter and Facebook use algorithms to determine what people could be interested in and send targeted ads based on those results, Pinterest already knows what people aspire to purchase; click throughs and purchase rates are already leaps and bounds higher on Pinterest than on other platforms
Why Instagram Worked (Medium) – a retrospective by Mike Krieger on what drove Instagram’s success; paying attention to user behavior, iterating quickly, working excruciating hours, and sheer dumb luck
