When Larry Page became CEO, I set out my hopes for how Google might evolve its role in the Internet marketplace under his leadership. In particular, I was hoping that Larry would be:Supporting independent third party services instead of either trying to acquire them or competing head on with them. Figure out how to succeed by making others succeed.While the purchase of Zagat is a rounding error for Google it still shows that Google is going in the exact opposite direction. As I tweeted yester...

When Larry Page became CEO, I set out my hopes for how Google might evolve its role in the Internet marketplace under his leadership. In particular, I was hoping that Larry would be:Supporting independent third party services instead of either trying to acquire them or competing head on with them. Figure out how to succeed by making others succeed.While the purchase of Zagat is a rounding error for Google it still shows that Google is going in the exact opposite direction. As I tweeted yester...

Facebook recently released Messenger as a separate mobile app. Google+ launched with multiple separate mobile apps (Google+, Huddle, Places). What’s going on here? We are seeing the results of limited screen real estate combined with effective notification systems and a fully logged in user on mobile. Unlike on the desktop (Microsoft) and even the browser (Google, Facebook) this means that large integrated apps or even “suites” have no advantage from a usability perspective. For instance, whe...

Facebook recently released Messenger as a separate mobile app. Google+ launched with multiple separate mobile apps (Google+, Huddle, Places). What’s going on here? We are seeing the results of limited screen real estate combined with effective notification systems and a fully logged in user on mobile. Unlike on the desktop (Microsoft) and even the browser (Google, Facebook) this means that large integrated apps or even “suites” have no advantage from a usability perspective. For instance, whe...

I wrote about innovation on Android yesterday and today there is already more reason to write about innovation in mobile. This time the news is decidedly mixed. On the plus side, Amazon has opened their Android App Store (despite Apple suing them over the use of the words App Store). On the minus side, AT&T customers can’t (yet) participate because their Android phones don’t let them install apps outside of Google’s Android Marketplace. AT&T has created a website (no joke) where people can si...

I wrote about innovation on Android yesterday and today there is already more reason to write about innovation in mobile. This time the news is decidedly mixed. On the plus side, Amazon has opened their Android App Store (despite Apple suing them over the use of the words App Store). On the minus side, AT&T customers can’t (yet) participate because their Android phones don’t let them install apps outside of Google’s Android Marketplace. AT&T has created a website (no joke) where people can si...

Fred’s blog post today is about how new and powerful HTML5 apps are emerging, giving the new Kindle Cloud Reader as an example. The Cloud Reader is also an example of something else: if you tax a system too much people will find ways to work around it. This is highly relevant to anyone running or starting a marketplace. You can’t be greedy! (Sorry, Gordon). I had written a while back – in the context of eBook pricing – how Apple’s take rate of 30% was significantly too high. The Kindle Cloud ...

Fred’s blog post today is about how new and powerful HTML5 apps are emerging, giving the new Kindle Cloud Reader as an example. The Cloud Reader is also an example of something else: if you tax a system too much people will find ways to work around it. This is highly relevant to anyone running or starting a marketplace. You can’t be greedy! (Sorry, Gordon). I had written a while back – in the context of eBook pricing – how Apple’s take rate of 30% was significantly too high. The Kindle Cloud ...

Adobe made a couple of big announcements about the future of Flash on mobile platforms. First, they announced that RIM has committed to making full Flash available on BlackBerries. Second, they showed an early version of compiling Flash into native iPhone apps as a way of getting them into the app store. Now some of the discussion has focused on all the problems with flash. And yes, there are many problems with Flash, the biggest being that it is a proprietary and closed system controlled by ...

Adobe made a couple of big announcements about the future of Flash on mobile platforms. First, they announced that RIM has committed to making full Flash available on BlackBerries. Second, they showed an early version of compiling Flash into native iPhone apps as a way of getting them into the app store. Now some of the discussion has focused on all the problems with flash. And yes, there are many problems with Flash, the biggest being that it is a proprietary and closed system controlled by ...

Yesterday, Fred wrote a post about what we can learn from the “mess” that is Craigslist. The “mess” referred to a Wired article titled “Why Craigslist Is Such a Mess." Fred explains why we at Union Square Ventures love this "mess” and refer to it frequently in posts and meetings with entrepreneurs. Given how much I have personally referred to Craigslist as a model of succeeding with a less is more approach (in every way), I thought it would be good to also state clearly that I don’t think Cra...

Yesterday, Fred wrote a post about what we can learn from the “mess” that is Craigslist. The “mess” referred to a Wired article titled “Why Craigslist Is Such a Mess." Fred explains why we at Union Square Ventures love this "mess” and refer to it frequently in posts and meetings with entrepreneurs. Given how much I have personally referred to Craigslist as a model of succeeding with a less is more approach (in every way), I thought it would be good to also state clearly that I don’t think Cra...

I know that “don’t compete - change the game” can easily be seen as kind of a trite slogan. But I still find myself in many meetings with startups where the strategy can be summed up by: our plan is to do this better than our competitors. While out-executing others is possible and companies succeed with that approach, it is really difficult. It is especially difficult, if one of the competitors is a deeply entrenched incumbent. Because startups are already hard (creating something from nothin...

I know that “don’t compete - change the game” can easily be seen as kind of a trite slogan. But I still find myself in many meetings with startups where the strategy can be summed up by: our plan is to do this better than our competitors. While out-executing others is possible and companies succeed with that approach, it is really difficult. It is especially difficult, if one of the competitors is a deeply entrenched incumbent. Because startups are already hard (creating something from nothin...

Starting the middle of last year, I thought it would be great to have a competitor to the iphone that would make it easy to create web based applications that can fully exploit the capabilities of a smartphone. I therefore started rooting for Palm as soon as they showed the Pre at CES at the beginning of this year. Well, the Pre is arriving tomorrow and the reviews by Mossberg, Pogue, Engadget et al suggest that it could actually be a contender. Of course there are some issues, such as the me...

Starting the middle of last year, I thought it would be great to have a competitor to the iphone that would make it easy to create web based applications that can fully exploit the capabilities of a smartphone. I therefore started rooting for Palm as soon as they showed the Pre at CES at the beginning of this year. Well, the Pre is arriving tomorrow and the reviews by Mossberg, Pogue, Engadget et al suggest that it could actually be a contender. Of course there are some issues, such as the me...

LivingSocial yesterday was selling $20 for $10, which is a good deal for everyone buying it (and remembering to then make use of their Amazon gift card). Not surprisingly, they sold at least 1 million for a total value of $20 million. Now if everyone who bought one of these were a new LivingSocial registered user, that would amount to a $10 customer acquisition cost. That’s of course a lower bound because there are likely to have been quite a few existing LivingSocial users and some fraction ...

LivingSocial yesterday was selling $20 for $10, which is a good deal for everyone buying it (and remembering to then make use of their Amazon gift card). Not surprisingly, they sold at least 1 million for a total value of $20 million. Now if everyone who bought one of these were a new LivingSocial registered user, that would amount to a $10 customer acquisition cost. That’s of course a lower bound because there are likely to have been quite a few existing LivingSocial users and some fraction ...