How to Succeed in Business by Bundling – And Unbundling

There is a widespread belief in technology circles that bundling of cable TV, newspaper, magazine and other information goods will go away now that those products can be distributed à la carte on the internet. The assumption seems to be that bundling is an artifact of another era when distribution was physical. But this reasoning misses the economi... See more

“There are only two ways to make money in business: One is to bundle; the other is to unbundle.” — Jim Barksdale

One is it was trying to solve a consumer problem with the industry and then two, is technology was enabling this digital consumption of music and the industry just was not forward on that. iTunes was a reaction, if you will, to the ripping services, whereas you could have argued actually it should have been what drove the consumer to the digital fo... See more

The Internet RevolutionI already explained what happened to newspapers when distribution erased local newspapers moats in the blink of an eye; as I suggested at the beginning, though, this was not an isolated incident but a sign of what was to come. Back in July I laid out how the acquisition of Dollar Shaving Club suggested the same process was ha... See more

From the late '90s to mid-teens to mid-2010s, the industry was in decline, partly because of this ripping issue coming to the fore, but partly because they weren't offering the consumer a product they wanted that was increasingly becoming digital in the consumers buying, but not so much digital in the industry's mind.The first attempt by the indust... See more

And as soon as a bundle is partially unbundled, there are two options: stop offering the part of the bundle that now has a competing single-purpose product, at which point the bundle switches from optimally-priced to overpriced, or keep offering it and accept lower margins. Bundles grow gracefully and shrink painfully.