shared economy Archives

Thought Starters

The following is a collection of articles and thought pieces highlighting interesting trends and changes in the world you and I live in.

The on-demand economy has been getting a lot of attention lately as Uber, Lyft and Postmates among others expand their market share. There could be a fly in the ointment if drivers and other providers of services are redefined as employees. Kashmir Hill explores lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan’s efforts move to change the balance of power.

We’re moving increasingly towards a software driven world where it’s less about the physical and more about the digital guts. John Deere have used these changes to claim that purchases of their tractors amounts to implied license rather than ownership. As you can imagine, this hasn’t gone down well among John Deere customers.

Moore’s Law recently reached its 50th anniversary. Arnold Thackray, David Brock and Rachel Jones look at the history of the theory whilst The Economist looks at whether it’s forecast of constantly increasing power and decreasing costs still stands in the present day.

Whilst the rapidly evolving world of cryptocurrencies receive growing attention in the media, it’s interesting to have a look at the history of earlier digital currencies. Jake Halpern’s takes a look at the ups and downs of Liberty Reserve.

Felix Salmon uses Nathaniel Popper’s book Digital Gold as a starting point to highlight the huge gender imbalance in the Bitcoin world and looks at how this is likely to hold back the cryptocurrency’s development.

Benedict Evans looks at Google’s strategy in a world where the growth of mobile is making the world it operates in, increasingly complex:

The key change in all of this, I think, is that Google has gone from a world of almost perfect clarity – a text search box, a web-link index, a middle-class family’s home – to one of perfect complexity – every possible kind of user, device, access and data type. It’s gone from a firehose to a rain storm. But on the other hand, no-one knows water like Google. No-one else has the same lead in building understanding of how to deal with this.

Mobile phones’ reach is constantly expanding. Pew Research Center reports on the growing impact of mobile in Africa, illustrating why services like M-Pesa have such huge potential as business categories are reimagined with new technology.

Things do Jobs brings together a strong collection of images that illustrate how our smartphones are much more than phones:

Changes within the music industry have raised the spectre of the disintermediation of record labels as musicians gain a more direct channels for communicating with their fans. Zack O’Malley reports on how the major labels have looked to future proof their position by gaining a growing share of music startups which could well see them survive long into the future.

Music has often been associated rightly or wrongly with youthful rebellion and politics. David Stubbs argues that politics was more of a sideline and suggests today’s musicians are in many cases as active as those of their forebearers

Eben Weiss (aka Bike Snob NYC) gives an impassioned call for a transport system in the Washington Post that better respects the interests of cyclists – an interest close to my heart.

If you find yourself at a loose end in London, you could do worse than checking out Carol Bove’s exhibition at the David Zwirner Gallery.

The featured image is a MOMO piece at Ace Hotel Palm Springs, California

Thought Starters

A mixed collection of materials looking at societal trends, the role of technology and other content that has resonated with me.

The World Bank has combined population and GDP per capita statistics in a graph, providing an indication of current spending power as well as an indication of future opportunity.

Gartner has updated its Hype Cycle which gives an indication of maturity and adoption of different technology platforms around the world.

American consumers are now faced with a growing array of video content through a range of platforms but consumer spending has actually decreased according to analysis from Liam Boluk. In a world of all you can eat subscriptions such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, consumers are arguably choosing to spend their money elsewhere.

Andreessen Horowitz has announced a $50 million investment in BuzzFeed, gaining mixed reactions from the news media. Felix Salmon warns that comparing BuzzFeed to traditional media sources risks missing the business’ true potential.

The best way to think of BuzzFeed’s various products, then, is probably as a proof of concept: it’s a way to show advertisers that the company is able to reach a large, young, mobile, social audience in a multitude of different ways. The ability to reach those people is something of a holy grail for advertisers, who are therefore very willing to pay top dollar to anybody who can help them achieve their goal. The idea is that if BuzzFeed can reach a broad audience with its various editorial products, it can then sell that secret sauce to advertisers, and help them reach the same audience, using the same tools.

There’s been a lot of noise lately about the unbundling of mobile apps in Western markets with the launch of Foursquare’s Swarm and the splitting out of Facebook Messenger. Taylor Davidson warns against seeing this as a natural conclusion with app extensions, deep linking and notifications providing a countervailing force to this trend.

And as the platforms, hardware, and operating systems in mobile continue to change how people use their devices, don’t be surprised if the rationale behind unbundling shifts as well.

I think we think of unbundling as the end-state, but instead, it’s a process that leads to it’s reversal. Unbundling creates the incentives for rebundling.

The constant, as usual, is change.

We’ve seen strong growth from shared economy based enterprises such as Uber and Airbnb which use rating systems as a means of engendering trust on the part of consumers. Danny Crichton in an article for TechCrunch warns of the corrosive effect of these computational trust systems on wider society.

Our growing need to feel connected is confirmed by research from the US which found that 60% of US internet users were almost always connected.

British communications marker regulator Ofcom’s report The Communications Market 2014 is a treasure trove of insights into the UK market. Find below some key insights.

Reinforcing the earlier message of the always on lifestyle is the following graph looking at consumers engagement with media and communications during their waking hours.

Looking at how media and communications time is spent across different age cohorts provides clues as to how we can expect media to move in the future.

A similar analysis of internet consumption by device type points to the importance of smartphones for younger audiences.

Providing further data on the UK market in the 4GEE Media Living Index which provides figures on mobile data usage from EE customers. Among the interesting data points are the following which point to the strong presence of Tango in the mobile messaging space and Soundcloud in audio streaming.

Analysis from Comscore points to Snapchat moving from outsider to well established member of the communications space in the US having long passed what Comscore considers critical mass in the 18-24 aged audience segment.

Pew Research Center’s analysis of Twitter traffic provides an interesting breakdown of social communities and how they interact, converge and/or diverge. Something well worth considering when we see issues emerge that have the potential to bring us together or divide us.

Malcolm Gladwell’s look at organised crime among immigrant groups in the US point to this ‘career’ as being seen as an important enabler of upward mobility in what makes for an enjoyable read.

The point of the crooked-ladder argument and “A Family Business” was that criminal activity, under those circumstances, was not rebellion; it wasn’t a rejection of legitimate society. It was an attempt to join in.

If you find yourself in London between now and the end of August, do check out Lucy Sparrow’s The Cornershop in the Columbia Road area recreating various household goods in felt. You can find an interview with the artist over at Folksy.

The featured image is Beautiful Bridge #1 by Sabina Lang & Daniel Baumann in Recoleta, Buenos Aires.

Thought Starters: Content that has got me thinking 14

The Next Web charts the inexorable rise of HTML5 as Flash becomes increasingly marginalised in a multi device world.

Jean-Louis Gassée looks at the role of the iPad as its growth slows and a role which is arguably stuck in the no mans land between smartphone and PC.

No longer charmingly simple, but not powerful enough for real productivity tasks. But if the iPad wants to cannibalize more of the PC market, it will have to remove a few walls.

Juan Pablo Vazquez Sampere argues that high-end disruption has a much lower chance of success than low-end disruption, and lays out some preconditions for where its more likely to be successful.

Drawing on the topic of disruption is Benedict Evans’ where he explores situations where innovations and changes in market conditions enable ‘unfair’ competition.

An unfair comparison generally means an unfair advantage, and this isn’t the Olympics – unfair is good. Customers don’t care if a company’s advantage is unfair. Investors don’t care. Unfair advantages are often the best kind.

Sameer Singh looks at the changes that Project Ara‘s modular view of smartphone could bring to the smartphone sector, providing a disruptive force within the smartphone market.

Horace Dediu explores the concept of innovation, contrasting it with novelty, creation and invention.

The Atlantic explores changes to employment in the American retail sector which is being turned on its head by the movement to large format retail stores and the growth of ecommerce.

For consumers, there’s never been a better time to buy stuff. It’s not such a happy story for the people on the shopping floor and behind the counters.

Simply Business provides an interactive infographic looking at Apple, Amazon, Google, Yahoo and Facebook’s acquisitions over the the last ten years.

Needing to polish up your social media guidelines? The UK’s Government Digital Service has just released their Social Media Playbook, which should make a good starting point.

Robert Newman in conjunction with other commentators looks at the mixed performance of app based digital magazines and the opportunities provided by digital magazines in the future.

Mindy McAdams explores emerging forms of digital journalism online, that includes reference to examples from the Council on Foreign Relations, Digital First Media, NPR and National Geographic.

Whilst we are on the subject of digital journalism, it is worth exploring Bloomberg’s How Americans Die which uses interactive infographics to explore mortality and its causes in the USA.

Vision Critical and Crowd Companies infographic looking at the collaborative economy. You can find more detailed coverage in their report Sharing is the New Buying.

David Hepworth argues that the power is shifting from content creators to digital distribution platforms in the news, music and entertainment industry.

In responding to this traditional media owners are having to recognise that content in itself is not enough.

GfK looks at the newspaper industries exploration of different strategic options as audiences move increasingly online. The Blizzard, The Sun and the Financial Times are held up as interesting examples of brands adapting to new environments.

Angus Steakhouses are seemingly imprevious to London’s culinary renaissance. The Independent explores their continuing success despite the increasingly refined tastes of London residents.

George & Jonathan provide a data visualisation of a different kind, bringing their music to life.

The featured image is a Stohead mural in Linz, Austria found on StreetArtNews.

Tag: shared economy

Thought Starters

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