/
Navigation
Chronicles
Browse all articles
Explore
Semantic exploration
Research
Entity momentum
Nexus
Correlations & relationships
Story Arc
Topic evolution
Drift Map
Semantic trajectory animation
Posts
Analysis & commentary
Pulse API
Tech news intelligence API
Browse
Entities
Companies, people, products, technologies
Domains
Browse by publication source
Handles
Browse by social media handle
Detection
Concept Search
Semantic similarity search
High Impact Stories
Top coverage by position
Sentiment Analysis
Positive/negative coverage
Anomaly Detection
Unusual coverage patterns
Analysis
Rivalry Report
Compare two entities head-to-head
Semantic Pivots
Narrative discontinuities
Crisis Response
Event recovery patterns
Connected
Search: /
Command: ⌘K
Embeddings: large
TEXXR ▲
TEXXR

Chronicles

The story behind the story

← → days · ↑ ↓ browse · Enter similar · o open

Startups creating new markets play on “hard mode”, unlike Facebook, which played on “easy”, as its core product was digitizing preexisting offline relationships

Ben Thompson / Stratechery : Tweets: @carnage4life , @carnage4life , and @benthompson Tweets: Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : Good hook for an AirBnB IPO story but fundamentally disagree that building Google was playing on Easy Mode since there is an infinite supply of web pages while AirBnB was Hard Mode because they had to digitize trust & change user behavior. Both were hard. https://t.co/zUepjauPWv Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : This article seems like classic survivorship bias by arguing thar success of Booking, Facebook & Google was inevitable. It also undervalues their skill at building software but considers product design, logistics & community building of AirBnB and Doordash to what's truly hard. Ben Thompson / @benthompson : @Carnage4Life I meant to imply hard v harder (thus the opener) but I was perhaps too flippant in my language

Stratechery Ben Thompson

Discussion

  • @carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
    Good hook for an AirBnB IPO story but fundamentally disagree that building Google was playing on Easy Mode since there is an infinite supply of web pages while AirBnB was Hard Mode because they had to digitize trust & change user behavior. Both were hard. https://t.co/zUepjauPWv
  • @carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
    This article seems like classic survivorship bias by arguing thar success of Booking, Facebook & Google was inevitable. It also undervalues their skill at building software but considers product design, logistics & community building of AirBnB and Doordash to what's truly hard.