Stratechery by Ben Thompson

Long-time readers know that I already summed up this phenomenon in Aggregation Theory, but in some respects I think my chosen name does this idea injustice: the word “theory” sounds abstract and disconnected from the real world, when in fact the elements of Aggregation Theory are not only very much real phenomena but also the connective tissue tyin... See more

Ben Thompson described this phenomenon in his signature aggregation theory. Pre-internet, you captured profits by controlling supply. Now, post-internet, you capture profits by aggregating demand.

What followed was probably my first clear articulation of Aggregation Theory, albeit without the name. The point about effectively infinite competition, though, is a critical one. Neither reach nor timeliness were differentiators, but rather commodities; the companies that dominated on the Internet were those — Google and Facebook in particular — t... See more