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I used to agree with the idea that entertainment and tech are similar, but I've had a paradigm shift in my perspective over the last 2 years and it's helped qui

I used to agree with the idea that entertainment and tech are similar, but I've had a paradigm shift in my perspective over the last 2 years and it's helped quite a bit.. easy to forget that the internet business is in its infancy. It only feels like a hits-driven IP business right now because there is still room left for innovation and land-grabs. That won't last forever..

clairity 6y ago
i'd be interested to hear more about the bigger differences, but what you pointed out before didn't strike me as all that different. for instance, the movie (and tv) business more readily lends itself to a repetitive process constrained on storytelling, which is more focused, on a macro scale, than tech. it would be akin to tech companies settling on only building web businesses over and over again, albeit with different twists. the video game sector has possibly hit that kind of stride. i don't know that this affects their ability to succeed though, well-funded or not.
- rwhitman 6y ago
  Fundamentally I see the web business from the lens of "data is the new oil". The internet industry is a utility and infrastructure business, period. Content is just one of many things that can be monetized through commodity web technology. Streaming video for example has more or less stopped producing viable venture startups on the B2C side. Successful new ventures in streaming, the ones who will actually make money, are folks like Disney and Warner with IP. Their business advantage is horizontal integration, rent seeking for content with killer margins over company-controlled pipes. Disney Plus, HBO Max apps have zero notable tech innovations. The only criteria to the consumer is that the content is exclusive and the app stays in the background and doesn't fail. OTT video, as a vertical for consumer innovation, is over. Same goes for SaaS, ecommerce, social networks, gaming, music, news etc. Maybe we'll get some standout disruptions from time to time as hardware evolves. But the tech is all about plumbing from here on out..

clairity 6y ago

i'd be interested to hear more about the bigger differences, but what you pointed out before didn't strike me as all that different. for instance, the movie (and tv) business more readily lends itself to a repetitive process constrained on storytelling, which is more focused, on a macro scale, than tech. it would be akin to tech companies settling on only building web businesses over and over again, albeit with different twists. the video game sector has possibly hit that kind of stride. i don't know that this affects their ability to succeed though, well-funded or not.

rwhitman 6y ago
Fundamentally I see the web business from the lens of "data is the new oil". The internet industry is a utility and infrastructure business, period. Content is just one of many things that can be monetized through commodity web technology. Streaming video for example has more or less stopped producing viable venture startups on the B2C side. Successful new ventures in streaming, the ones who will actually make money, are folks like Disney and Warner with IP. Their business advantage is horizontal integration, rent seeking for content with killer margins over company-controlled pipes. Disney Plus, HBO Max apps have zero notable tech innovations. The only criteria to the consumer is that the content is exclusive and the app stays in the background and doesn't fail. OTT video, as a vertical for consumer innovation, is over. Same goes for SaaS, ecommerce, social networks, gaming, music, news etc. Maybe we'll get some standout disruptions from time to time as hardware evolves. But the tech is all about plumbing from here on out..