The Founder's Dilemma: To Compete or Unbundle | Andreessen Horowitz

We’re already seeing this unbundling of consumer platforms starting within communities that have a deep affinity and sense of identity, and are not well served by general purpose social networks – for example, gaming communities assembling in virtual worlds such as Minecraft and Roblox and using Discord to communicate, communities that coalesce aro... See more

Traditional publishers and social networks will have to compete with self-serve platforms to offer creators the best growth, monetization, and infrastructure. That’s a win for audiences who get more diverse content, as well as creators who get a more stable career path.

Every few years a great unbundling occurs

In 2010, Andrew Parker wrote a defining post about the "unbundling" of Craigslist where he outlined the opportunity to carve out niche products from broad horizontal networks like Craigslist. The broad networks are everything to everyone, the niche ones are something special to a certain group. If you add u... See more

Success here will come down to implementation details. The incentive structure, funding sources, size, goals, moderation approach, and community management philosophy of these networks will determine their long term viability as both businesses and communities. Whether coming at it from the angle of social media, brand, or content creator, building... See more

'-If you look at a lot of the issues people have with social networks, I would argue a lot of it comes from a mismatch between the nature of these networks and the legacy corporate structures that govern them.

My partner Jana Messerschmidt asked her panel how business models of vertical networks will different from utility networks like Facebook*. The panelists argued that the benefit of a vertical network is greater trust, and that trust creates the possibility of direct monetization. Moving away from ads may also create more aligned business models for... See more

It’s ultimately a math question: are you more likely to find compelling content from the few hundred people in your social network, or from the millions of people posting on the service? The answer is obviously the latter, but that answer is only achievable if you have the means of discovering that compelling content, and, to be fair to both Facebo... See more

But increasingly, creators with loyal followings are creating their own independent offerings—ranging from paid courses to niche communities to vertical social networks—with the basis of competition shifting to curated content and community, trust in a particular creator, and alignment to specific topics.