I worked at yahoo during its (in retrospect) decline. It used to be hard to be "web scale" and available, now that's either k8s or a few checkboxes in AWS. Ya

I worked at yahoo during its (in retrospect) decline. It used to be hard to be "web scale" and available, now that's either k8s or a few checkboxes in AWS. Yahoo used to be able to "coast" on the compellingness of their services because 80% attractive with 100% available and 100% global reach crushes 90% attractive with 95% available and 25% global reach. I was often confused by the hyperfocus of analysts asking "Is Y! a tech company or a content company?" What they were really asking was if we should be valuing Yahoo! as 30%+ margin on putting ads next to Yahoo! News articles, or 10x multiplier on originating GMail/Search? I think "data is the only moat", and in a way that goes back to the "first to market / eBay" POV, and the difference between first to market and fast follower is super interesting!