2021-01-25 09:28
Metrics (or KPIs) are among the most well-researched topics within the startup ecosystem. This is just as true for those built on network effects. There are great resources available from A1… Read More
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network
monetization
network effects
marketplaces
critical mass
participants
disrupt
constraints
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negative network effects
An analyst's perspective on the evolution of mobile platforms
2021-01-11 09:30
So far, I have explained various characteristics of network effects and their impact on scalability, defensibility, liquidity, and monetization. The implicit assumption here is that interact… Read More
2020-12-07 09:29
Platforms share many characteristics with marketplaces. They create value by connecting demand with supply — specifically, they connect users with app developers. So it is… Read More
2020-11-23 09:29
Data networks are unique within the world of network effects. Most network types create value by allowing participants to interact with each other in some way. Data networks, however, do not… Read More
2020-11-09 09:24
Like other types of startups built on network effects, marketplaces create value by connecting participants. Specifically, they connect demand with supply to enable transactions. This gives… Read More
2020-10-19 08:30
Startups succeed by uncovering a unique insight to create value for their users. This value creation is only sustainable if they can find a way to capture some of it themselves, i.e. monetiz… Read More
2020-10-05 08:35
Network effects can only take hold when a product has reached a minimum threshold or critical mass of users (also called liquidity) — this is true for marketplaces, interac… Read More
2020-09-21 08:29
Data network effects are a tricky beast and come with a difficult set of trade-offs. But these trade-offs only become meaningful after the data network has gained critical mass. The consider… Read More
2020-09-07 08:29
In the startup world, time is primarily viewed as a hurdle to be removed — everything needs to be instant and real-time. This is certainly valuable as a general principle… Read More
2020-08-24 08:30
Network effects are among the most powerful economic forces in technology and have created trillions in value. The reason for this value creation is not just compounding, but also the defens… Read More
2020-08-10 08:26
The wave of unicorns we have seen over the past decade has been partially populated by what VCs and founders call “managed marketplaces”. This term has been used to describe a di… Read More
2020-07-27 08:29
Most attempts at understanding network businesses revolve around studying user engagement. This is measured by a range of metrics including frequency of use, time spent, number of payments… Read More
2020-07-13 08:35
So far, I have discussed four different types of business models built on network effects — marketplaces, interaction networks, data networks, and platforms. Including the sub-categori… Read More
2020-06-29 08:26
John Luttig, from Founders Fund, recently wrote a great post outlining the macro-level challenges facing the startup ecosystem. It is worth reading in its entirety, but here’s a summar… Read More
2020-06-15 08:29
I have previously explained how network effects shape three broad types of tech businesses — marketplaces, interaction networks and data networks. In addition to these, the… Read More
2020-06-01 08:35
So far, I have explained some of the key characteristics of marketplace network effects. This includes the impact of fragmentation, geographic range, supply differentiation, SaaS integration… Read More
2020-05-18 08:32
The growth in internet adoption, among both businesses and consumers, has led to an explosion in the volume of data in the world. This has naturally led to more entrepreneurial interest, res… Read More
2020-05-04 08:32
So far, I have discussed a handful of characteristics that create structural advantages or risks for marketplaces. This includes the geographic range of network effects, supply differentiati… Read More
2020-04-20 08:27
Over the last couple of months, Covid-19 and subsequent lockdowns have led to a dramatic shift towards remote work tools. Zoom has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of this shift, with d… Read More
2020-04-08 16:19
In my last few posts, I have put across a screening framework for network effect-based startups based on defensibility and scalability, and also explained how SaaS integration can change tho… Read More
2020-03-23 09:25
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startups are extremely popular with investors for a host of reasons. SaaS startups are extremely scalable because software has zero (or near-zero) marginal costs… Read More
2020-03-09 12:28
As I explained in my last post, the “marketplace matrix” is a great framework to get a quick understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of marketplace startups. Combining both… Read More
2020-02-24 09:29
In the first part of our marketplace thesis, I explained how we think about the geographic scalability of marketplaces, i.e. we prefer marketplaces where a given unit of supply is accessible… Read More
2020-02-11 09:05
Uber and Airbnb are two of the most iconic companies from the last decade. Both companies created entirely new markets via a marketplace model and were originally considered to be part of th… Read More
2020-01-30 10:47
Today, I’m joining 6CVentures, a new early stage venture capital firm, as Partner and Head of Research. Long story short, we’re a sector-agnostic fund investing at the Pre-Seed a… Read More
2019-12-16 11:30
Netflix has been the darling of technology investors for the past few years. Since early 2017, its overall subscriber base has increased by roughly 60%, as it more than doubled its subscribe… Read More
2019-04-29 10:27
My writing has been inconsistent (at best) lately, but Uber's IPO seems as good a time as any to come out of hibernation. I have written about Uber's business model numerous times in the pas… Read More
2018-09-11 11:17
Cryptoassets pose an interesting challenge from a valuation point-of-view. They combine some properties of currencies, commodities and equities, but don’t quite meet the definition for… Read More
2018-09-04 14:42
The advent of smart contracts also saw the emergence of a new fundraising mechanism for crypto startups — the ICO. Overall, we have seen over $18B raised so far via this me… Read More
2018-08-29 13:29
The rise of the crypto ecosystem has often been compared with the early years of the internet. In addition, the peak of the crypto asset bubble in December 2017 has been compared with a (sma… Read More
2018-07-02 10:30
In just 6 months, we've moved on from cryptopalooza to scooterpalooza. As good of a topic as any to come out of a long hiatus from this blog, at least for now. Scooter sharing startups… Read More
2017-06-23 10:23
2017-06-23 10:23
Amazon stunned the business world on June 16 by announcing that it will acquire Whole Foods Market and its 450+ retail locations for $13.7 billion. While the response to the deal was largel… Read More
2017-05-19 12:07
Google made a host of announcements this year covering Android updates, virtual reality and artificial intelligence (AI). While AI was clearly the star of the show, it is still an enabling… Read More
2017-02-06 14:37
The media, analyst and investor communities clearly have a love-hate relationship with Snapchat. In the run-up to its IPO, it was hailed as the next great technology company (in part due to… Read More
2017-01-27 16:16
Instant Apps, originally unveiled during Google I/O 2016, is finally being tested in the wild. Teased as Google’s attempt at making app interaction frictionless, it enables access to… Read More
2017-01-24 16:20
Chatbots — or automated conversational agents — have been around for a few years. However, chatbot hype only took off in early 2016 when major social and messaging companies beg… Read More
2017-01-10 11:14
Top 5 Events in Asia SoftBank’s gambit with T-Mobile and Sprint in one [0:57] Asia messaging apps vs Facebook/Whatsapp part deux [3:00]WeChat’s “… Read More
2017-01-02 02:50
Top 5 Events in AsiaSoftbank acquired ARM for US$32B. (See episode 126 with David Corbin) [1:35]The Pokemon Go Phenomenon (See 2017 Predictions for the App Economy and episode 127 with Serk… Read More
2016-12-15 15:51
For years, premium video streaming services like Netflix have been viewed as potential disruptors to the traditional pay-TV experience. However, their staggering investments in original con… Read More
2016-10-10 13:28
The underlying theme of Google's recent hardware event had little to do with hardware and everything to do with their vision for an artificial intelligence-centric computing world. Sundar Pi… Read More
2016-09-26 09:49
Continuing our last discussion, we analysed changing alliances in the transportation and gaming industries. In particular, we focused on two interesting cases that transition from co-operat… Read More
2016-09-19 10:54
I joined Bernard Leong on the Analyse Asia Podcast for a two part conversation on recent events in technology. In this episode, we discussed Apple's iPhone 7 event and its pot… Read More
2016-09-01 08:59
The advent of autonomous vehicles has the potential to reshape existing network effects, introduce new competitors and turn the ride-sharing industry on its head. However, very few c… Read More
2016-08-02 00:24
It appears that Pokémon Go's success has not cannibalized other mobile games or apps. Instead, it has expanded the market by engaging users when they typically do not use smartph… Read More
2016-07-21 16:44
My last post on Pokemon Go focused on underlying business model innovation -- specifically, Niantic's location-based APIs and the potential of sponsored locations as a lucrative revenue… Read More
2016-07-12 10:39
After months of hype, Pokemon Go finally began rolling out in a few countries this week. At this point, I can safely say, it has turned out to be one of the biggest viral hits in recent year… Read More
2016-06-20 15:12
This year, Google I/O and WWDC seemed to lack the excitement seen in years past with most announcements being fairly mundane -- a combination of maintenance/incremental updates and "me-too"… Read More
2016-05-19 10:19
Continuing our discussion from the last episode, we analyzed Apple’s Q1 2016 earnings and challenged the notion whether Apple’s Asia (India and China) and their rumored car stra… Read More
2016-05-16 10:08
I joined Bernard Leong’s Analyse Asia Podcast in a two-part episode to discuss major themes in the technology space from messaging apps to self driving cars. In part 1, we discussed th… Read More
2016-05-13 10:44
Today, Apple announced a $1 billion investment into China's leading ridesharing service, Didi Chuxing. While this makes Apple a minority investor in Didi (with an ownership stake well below… Read More
2016-04-14 16:48
This week, Facebook opened up their long awaited bot platform within Messenger following similar moves from LINE, Telegram and Kik. It almost seems as though bots have peaked on the "Hype cy… Read More
2016-03-14 12:22
Apple Pay was introduced 18 months ago to rave reviews from the press and technology analysts. It was billed as an example of "mobile payments done right" -- simple, intuitive and painless… Read More
2016-01-27 16:29
Apple's stock has been battered over the past year due to fears about iPhone unit sales growth. Yesterday's fiscal Q1 2016 results finally give us some data to understand how realistic these… Read More
2016-01-19 17:00
Last week, I came across an interesting piece by Jan Dawson about self-driving cars. In it, he argued that Tesla's (and possibly Apple's) approach of incremental improvements in automation w… Read More
2016-01-07 17:00
I have been skeptical about the mass market potential of wrist-worn wearables ever since Google unveiled Android Wear in 2014. Since then, we have seen a number of high profile smartwatch la… Read More
2016-01-01 21:01
In the part 2 of our year-end podcast, we build on our earlier conversation about five major events that rocked Asia in 2015 and make our predictions for 2016: (a) Consolidation of on-demand… Read More
2015-12-31 09:40
In part 1 of our year-end episode, we discuss five major events in Asia that occurred in 2015: (a) the surge of venture capital financing in Asia and its implications, (b) SoftBank’s P… Read More
2015-11-19 16:00
Google made some interesting announcements yesterday that could have a profound impact on the existing app interaction model and even how we think of apps. Google search now has the ability… Read More
2015-10-28 17:00
YouTube announced its first-ever subscription service last week, YouTube Red, with the usual set of (uninteresting) "premium" features -- ad-free videos and offline/background playback. The… Read More
2015-10-20 16:30
I have long been a critic of the "Peak Google" argument because it is based on a flawed premise -- that deep engagement and consequently "brand advertising" are somehow a threat to Google's… Read More
2015-10-13 16:30
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that numerous online-to-offline (O2O or on-demand) startups in China had run out of cash in recent months. Fund raising and valuations, especially… Read More
2015-10-07 19:13
Twitter's stock price has declined by over 50% over the past few months because of slower than expected user growth and questions about the company's leadership team. In response, the compan… Read More
2015-09-10 15:30
Yesterday, Apple unveiled two of their most interesting products in years. No, I'm not talking about the pink Apple Watch or the iPhone 6S. Rather, Apple finally made a concerted upmarket pu… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
23% - That figure alone explains Amazon's goal for Fire TV. In 2013, it was estimated that the Kindle ecosystem was responsible for 11% of Amazon's revenue, but 23% of its operating profit… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Xiaomi's CEO, Lei Jun, revealed some interesting figures last week that could shed some more light on the potential of their business model. While most of these figures refer to sales volume… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
Yesterday, Facebook announced its second blockbuster acquisition in less than a month as it purchased Oculus VR for $2 billion. Oculus VR's virtual reality headset was built to focus on imme… Read More
2006-06-07 11:16
A few days ago, I came across an interesting report stating that Google has attempted to sway South Korean developers away from KakaoTalk's mobile gaming platform. Assuming the report is fac… Read More
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