Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson

Latest Episodes:

Mailbag: A Premature Twitter Eulogy, Netflix in Theaters, Buy or Sell: Strategy Consultants, The Six People You Meet in a Group Chat Nov 21, 2022

Show notes

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

Horrified Twitter onlookers see 2 scenarios: The lights going out at any moment or a long, slow death — Fortune

The AI Moat Debate, Continued; Twitter’s Regulatory Risks; Twitter and Advertisers, Continued — Stratechery Update

Warner Bros. Discovery and the NBA, The Zaslav Doctrine — Stratechery Update

Social Networking 2.0 — Stratechery

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

A Closer Look at Opendoor and Cloudflare and Responses to Your FTX Emails Nov 17, 2022

Show notes

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

An Interview with Opendoor CEO Eric Wu About Building a Marketplace in a Real Estate Slowdown — Stratechery Interviews

Opendoor Earnings, Opendoor’s Pricing, Opendoor’s Scalability — Stratechery Update

Zillow Pauses Home-Buying, Opendoor’s Advantage, Crypto and Energy — Stratechery Update

Blue Apron Files for IPO, Network Effects and Customer Acquisition Costs, Uber Concerns — Stratechery Update

Twilio Files for IPO, Building Infrastructure, Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends 2016 — Stratechery Update

Cloudflare’s Disruption — Stratechery

Cloudflare on the Edge — Stratechery

Sam Bankman-Fried tries to explain himself — Vox

Max Verstappen 'knew' Lewis Hamilton move could cause collision but "just went for it" — Mirror

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

Making Sense of the FTX Catastrophe and a Reality Check on Twitter Under Musk Nov 14, 2022

Show notes

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

Narratives — Stratechery

Tulips, Myths, and Cryptocurrencies — Stratechery

The 30-Year-Old Spending $1 Billion to Save Crypto — Wall Street Journal

Billionaire Bankman-Fried Tries to Fix Crypto’s Hacking Problem — Bloomberg

FTX’s Collapse Casts a Pall on a Philanthropy Movement — New York Times

Sam Bankman-Fried and Tom Brady — YouTube

Twitter’s ad problem is Elon Musk — Vox

Trump, Musk and Kanye Are Twitter Poisoned — New York Times

The real reason to get off Twitter — Financial Times

How the newest megadonor wants to change Washington — Politico

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

A Beginner's Guide to Spotify and Emails on Antitrust and Algorithms Nov 10, 2022

Show notes

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

Spotify Earnings, Spotify Exclusives, Spotify vs. Apple — Stratechery Update

Spotify’s Podcast Aggregation Play — Stratechery

The European Super League, Apple Music’s Letter to Artists — Stratechery Update

This is How Much More Apple Music Pays Artists Than Spotify — 9to5Mac

A Framework for Regulating Competition on the Internet — Stratechery

DOJ blocks Penguin Random House’s takeover of Simon & Schuster — Politico

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

Mailbag: Down the 230 Rabbit Hole, A Third Door Moderation Approach, Twitter Follow-Up, Andrew Responds to the Nicest Angry Emails Ever Nov 07, 2022

Show notes

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

A New Supreme Court Case Could Fundamentally Change the Internet — Vox

A Framework for Moderation — Stratechery

Why Cloudflare Matters, The Absence of Gatekeepers, Promotion Versus Moderation — Stratechery Update

Another Congressional Hearing, The Genesis of Section 230, The Battle over Section 230 — Stratechery Update

Zero Trust Information — Stratechery

They Traded Twitter for Mastodon Social. Now What? — Washington Post

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

The First Week of New Twitter and Apple/Netflix/Taiwan Follow-Up Nov 03, 2022

Show notes

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

Musk’s Twitter Blue; A Twitter Subscription, Revisited; Apple Earnings — Stratechery Update

Twitter Has a New CEO; What About a New Business Model? — Stratechery

Can Elon Musk Make the Math Work on Owning Twitter? It’s Dicey. — New York Times

Twitter to Pay $809.5 Million to Settle Securities Suit — Wall Street Journal

Musk Plans to Eliminate Half of Twitter Jobs to Cut Costs — Bloomberg

Apple’s privacy changes create windfall for its own advertising business — Financial Times

Spotify, Netflix, and Aggregation — Stratechery

Aggregation Follow-up, Netflix’s Ad Partners — Stratechery Update

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

Mailbag: How to Read an Earnings Report, TikTok's ATT Challenges, The Net Impact of Social Media, Lessons of a Young Tech Employee Oct 31, 2022

Show notes

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

Announcing Sharp China With Sinocism’s Bill Bishop — Stratechery

Meta Myths — Stratechery

Meta Reports Third Quarter 2022 Results — Meta Investor Relations

Instagram Reels Struggles, Meta’s Mistake, TikTok at Code — Stratechery Update

Facebook Political Problems — Stratechery

The Voters Decide — Stratechery

Why Microsoft’s Reorganization Is a Bad Idea — Stratechery

The Uncanny Valley of a Functional Organization — Stratechery

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

Google/Facebook/Snap Earnings and Another Dimension of Automation Oct 27, 2022

Show notes

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

Snap Earnings, What Spiegel Wouldn’t Say, Snap’s Direct Sales Reset — Stratechery Update

Google Earnings, Gaming’s Warning Light, Google’s Costs — Stratechery Update

Meta Q2 Earnings, Reasons for Optimism, Meta Changes — Stratechery Update

The End of Global Order — Sam Harris

A Chinese Spy Wanted GE’s Secrets, But the US Got China’s Instead — Bloomberg

Lewis Hamilton Overtakes EVERYONE! | 2021 Sao Paulo Grand Prix — YouTube

Christian Horner CARRYING Drive To Survive for 6 minutes straight — YouTube

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

Good News for Netflix Believers and the Latest TikTok Reporting Oct 24, 2022

Show notes

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

Netflix Earnings, Netflix Doubles Down, Netflix’s Ad Tier — Stratechery Update

Why Netflix Should Sell Ads — Stratechery

Why Netflix Should Not Sell Ads, Elon Musk and Twitter — Stratechery Update

House of the Dragon and Creative Programming, The Big Ten’s Deal, Disney’s New Prices — Stratechery Update

TikTok Parent ByteDance Planned To Use TikTok To Monitor The Physical Location Of Specific American Citizens — Forbes

Leaked Audio From 80 Internal TikTok Meetings Shows That US User Data Has Been Repeatedly Accessed From China — Buzzfeed

TikTok Owner ByteDance Used A News App On Millions Of Phones To Push Pro-China Messages, Ex-Employees Say — Buzzfeed

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

Mailbag: Chip Ban Follow Up, What About Tik Tok?, Validating AI Work Product, Coaches and GMs as CEOs Oct 20, 2022

Show notes

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

The China Chip Ban; The Logic of the Ban; Chinese Retaliation, or Not — Stratechery Update

More on the China Chip Ban, The AI Focus, Apple and YMTC — Stratechery Update

The Tik Tok War — Stratechery

Clubhouse's Inevitability — Stratechery

Market Making and Time Horizons, Clubhouse Struggling, What Did I Get Wrong? — Stratechery Update

An Interview With Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman About the Democratization of AI — Stratechery Interviews

Wired Headphones Are the New “It” Accessory — and We Should Have Seen It Coming — Teen Vogue

Mark Daigneault — Wikipedia

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

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