5 ms·

Real innovation isn't your company doing something in a new way. It's getting your customers to do something in a new way. Medium has unambiguously, objective

by jforman 10y ago

Real innovation isn't your company doing something in a new way. It's getting your customers to do something in a new way. Medium has unambiguously, objectively succeeded by that metric. They are by far the premier blogging destination. President Obama didn't post on Blogger. He posted on Medium. If you think that's easy, you should try it yourself. Maybe you'll be the next Ev.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
addicted 10y ago
I think Medium can strongly credit its success to Google. Google built blogger to the point where it killed every other blogging platform, and then once they became enamored with social and Google Plus they let it languish to the point where it had almost become unusable. Medium's genius was recognizing this empty market that Google had conquered but abandoned, and created what blogger would have been had it continued to be updated for the world of gifs and emojis.
- ChuckMcM 10y ago
  And then failed to get acquired :-). Only half joking here. I think your analysis is spot on, Google did a great job of consolidating the world into a place you could pull off a single RSS feed and get lots of good content, and then pissed it away. And I think Medium has done an excellent job of stepping into that space. What I find interesting is that Google hasn't done the follow on which is figure out that this team understood the blogging space well and could be a part of a "print" side of Google (much like Youtube is the "video" side of Google). Of course there is that whole Tumblr thing which did poorly under Yahoo!'s care. Sometimes I think it is like playing Milton Bradley's "Battleship" where each effort helps map out a part of the space where there is, and is not, a possible product present.
- jordanlev 10y ago
  > Google built blogger to the point where it killed every other blogging platform... No they didn't. Wordpress powers some absurd number of all websites (25%-ish). Tumblr is still fairly popular. And Medium of course. What google did do is effectively kill off RSS readers, but that's a different story.
  - iamdave 10y ago
    >No they didn't. I'm with this guy. Blogger if anything, brutally assassinated LiveJournal. Unless you're in Russia.
untog 10y ago
"President Obama didn't post on Blogger. He posted on Medium." Is that really "doing something in a new way"? Or is it "doing the same thing in a new place?" You could say the same about Obama posting on Tumblr: http://barackobama.tumblr.com http://barackobama.tumblr.com - except he hasn't done so in three years. Medium makes it really easy to post something that looks good across devices etc., and has good sharing integration. That's all.
- awj 10y ago
  > Medium makes it really easy to post something that looks good across devices etc., and has good sharing integration. That's all. You say that as though it's easy to do these things...
  - untog 10y ago
    No, I'm not saying it's easy, just that doing something very well isn't particularly innovative. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking down Medium's product - it's fantastic. But the OP claimed that Medium has "unambiguously, objectively succeeded" in being innovative, and I just don't see it. I'd actually argue that Tumblr was far more innovative - there are some fascinating forms of content that came out of that place, not to mention the whole social network, reblogging effect, etc. etc. But neither has shaped up to be a particularly successful business, and placing perceived innovation above that might not be wise when you're talking about user generated content. What happens if either of them fails?
  - anigbrowl 10y ago
    Yeah but it's not that hard either if you have the resources. Now we see, though, that the cost of doing it has so far exceeded the return.
  - coldtea 10y ago
    Easy? It's beyond easy. It's trivial.
- oddevan 10y ago
  > Medium makes it really easy to post something that looks good across devices etc., and has good sharing integration. That's all. That's... not an easy thing to do. Making anything to do with technology "easy" is no small feat; that Medium was able to do this with as big an incumbent player as WordPress (for example) is an even bigger feat.
dchuk 10y ago
So first of all, Wordpress.com/.org is the premier blogging destination, powering some stupid number of all websites in the world. Medium is the premier platform in the Silicon Valley Techno-Bubble. I'm not saying what they've done is easy by any means, I'm saying that what they've done is not innovative and should be considered so just because they have a lot of users. Clearly a lot of users does not solely make a business successful, as evidenced by their layoff of 1/3 of the company today. Also, innovation is doing something in a new way, whether by customers or product. And nothing they are doing is by any definition new.
- ctvo 10y ago
  You're reaching here with the Wordpress example (.org isn't even applicable to this discussion -- it's an open-source CMS). Wordpress.com is a hosting platform. Just because as a subset of the options you can make a blog (vs. an ecommerce site, a portfolio, a landing page, etc.) doesn't make it Medium's competitor. Visit their homepage. Do you see a content aggregator or something closer to Squarespace?
  - morgante 10y ago
    Wordpress is 100% a competitor to Medium. Probably their biggest competitor. Even if you want to restrict to .com, WordPress.com (VIP) competes for many of the same users which Medium has been competing for.

by jforman 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

addicted 10y ago

I think Medium can strongly credit its success to Google. Google built blogger to the point where it killed every other blogging platform, and then once they became enamored with social and Google Plus they let it languish to the point where it had almost become unusable. Medium's genius was recognizing this empty market that Google had conquered but abandoned, and created what blogger would have been had it continued to be updated for the world of gifs and emojis.

ChuckMcM 10y ago
And then failed to get acquired :-). Only half joking here. I think your analysis is spot on, Google did a great job of consolidating the world into a place you could pull off a single RSS feed and get lots of good content, and then pissed it away. And I think Medium has done an excellent job of stepping into that space. What I find interesting is that Google hasn't done the follow on which is figure out that this team understood the blogging space well and could be a part of a "print" side of Google (much like Youtube is the "video" side of Google). Of course there is that whole Tumblr thing which did poorly under Yahoo!'s care. Sometimes I think it is like playing Milton Bradley's "Battleship" where each effort helps map out a part of the space where there is, and is not, a possible product present.
jordanlev 10y ago
> Google built blogger to the point where it killed every other blogging platform... No they didn't. Wordpress powers some absurd number of all websites (25%-ish). Tumblr is still fairly popular. And Medium of course. What google did do is effectively kill off RSS readers, but that's a different story.
- iamdave 10y ago
  >No they didn't. I'm with this guy. Blogger if anything, brutally assassinated LiveJournal. Unless you're in Russia.

untog 10y ago

"President Obama didn't post on Blogger. He posted on Medium." Is that really "doing something in a new way"? Or is it "doing the same thing in a new place?" You could say the same about Obama posting on Tumblr: http://barackobama.tumblr.com http://barackobama.tumblr.com - except he hasn't done so in three years. Medium makes it really easy to post something that looks good across devices etc., and has good sharing integration. That's all.

awj 10y ago
> Medium makes it really easy to post something that looks good across devices etc., and has good sharing integration. That's all. You say that as though it's easy to do these things...
- untog 10y ago
  No, I'm not saying it's easy, just that doing something very well isn't particularly innovative. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking down Medium's product - it's fantastic. But the OP claimed that Medium has "unambiguously, objectively succeeded" in being innovative, and I just don't see it. I'd actually argue that Tumblr was far more innovative - there are some fascinating forms of content that came out of that place, not to mention the whole social network, reblogging effect, etc. etc. But neither has shaped up to be a particularly successful business, and placing perceived innovation above that might not be wise when you're talking about user generated content. What happens if either of them fails?
- anigbrowl 10y ago
  Yeah but it's not that hard either if you have the resources. Now we see, though, that the cost of doing it has so far exceeded the return.
- coldtea 10y ago
  Easy? It's beyond easy. It's trivial.
oddevan 10y ago
> Medium makes it really easy to post something that looks good across devices etc., and has good sharing integration. That's all. That's... not an easy thing to do. Making anything to do with technology "easy" is no small feat; that Medium was able to do this with as big an incumbent player as WordPress (for example) is an even bigger feat.

dchuk 10y ago

So first of all, Wordpress.com/.org is the premier blogging destination, powering some stupid number of all websites in the world. Medium is the premier platform in the Silicon Valley Techno-Bubble. I'm not saying what they've done is easy by any means, I'm saying that what they've done is not innovative and should be considered so just because they have a lot of users. Clearly a lot of users does not solely make a business successful, as evidenced by their layoff of 1/3 of the company today. Also, innovation is doing something in a new way, whether by customers or product. And nothing they are doing is by any definition new.

ctvo 10y ago
You're reaching here with the Wordpress example (.org isn't even applicable to this discussion -- it's an open-source CMS). Wordpress.com is a hosting platform. Just because as a subset of the options you can make a blog (vs. an ecommerce site, a portfolio, a landing page, etc.) doesn't make it Medium's competitor. Visit their homepage. Do you see a content aggregator or something closer to Squarespace?
- morgante 10y ago
  Wordpress is 100% a competitor to Medium. Probably their biggest competitor. Even if you want to restrict to .com, WordPress.com (VIP) competes for many of the same users which Medium has been competing for.