Sam Blumenthal

As online video platforms seek a business model beyond advertising, and short videos start to look more and more like commercials, it turns out that commerce may be video’s killer app. And not only could video apps become ecommerce apps, but all ecommerce apps may also have to become video apps. Various platforms from China show us how this can be... See more

Many DeFi advocates anticipate a future world of peer-to-peer uncollateralized lending on blockchains, allowing crypto holders to lend and cut out fees charged by banks for credit scoring, monitoring and payment. Good luck with that. Fintech lending holds some clues since the industry uses AI tools to make uncollateralized lending decisions, and... See more

On his blog, gaming company founder Kyle Russell envisioned a successor to Marvel’s cinematic universe popping up on a project like Loot: Assuming the project’s originators went with the direction of the Loot zeitgeist, all of this would be [intellectual property] that could be re-used and remixed by anyone. That might sounds crazy — isn’t the... See more

The prevailing standard is a 30% platform cut, which is accompanied by another 30% Apple Store / Google Play tax if purchases are made in app.  This has led to the new wave of standalone utilities such as Kofi, micro-tipping services offering more favorable revenue sharing terms for creators.  The most recent features from big platforms seem to... See more