Platformonomics TGIF is a weekly roll-up of links, comments on those links, and perhaps a little too much tugging on my favorite threads.
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And we’re back!
Welcome to 2025, which will mark the 20th anniversary of this blog. Expect insufferable celebrations thereof (updated slogan: “Entertaining Myself Here For Twenty Years (But It Seems Longer)”).
Ambitions for this year include more in-depth writing and less merely commenting (with attendant victory laps) on events. It is so easy to snark about the EU every week, but it just hasn’t changed their behavior.
I expect to keep tracking some of my favorite issues:
- The CAPEX/energy/AI complex – everyone is now a CAPEX obsessive, which makes it slightly less interesting, but it is the epicenter of technology.
- Private equity’s continued destruction of software companies – there is simply too much money managed by too little operational talent chasing too few real opportunities. When private equity comes amalgamating, it is time to start migrating…
- Europe’s suicidal path – as fulfilling as it must be to play (unsolicited) feature PM for Big Tech, Europe might want to address its existential geopolitical, military, energy and economic challenges. Western Civilization needs them to get their act together.
- Any sign of coherent antitrust doctrine – antitrust works when the lines are clear to all market participants, as opposed to haphazard enforcement actions based on delusional ideologies and/or naked power politics.
And maybe a little more attention to:
- Geopolitics and global macro – they’re both back from hiatus with a vengeance.
- Mr Smith Goes to Washington: Venture Capital Edition – substitute self-dealing for idealism in this remake of a classic?
- SaaSmageddon – beyond private equity, the clean up on the B2B SaaS aisle continues, even as AI opens the incumbents to disruption.
- The New Media Model – as recent attempts by legacy gatekeepers to reassert their bygone privileged position appear to have failed, maybe we can now get serious about formulating new models for journalism? Or is the mid-twentieth century nostalgia just too powerful?
- As ever, the search for new frontiers continues…
News
EU and What Army?
Promising to refrain from jokes about the EU is easier said than done, especially when they serve up softballs like this.
Previous:
Existential Corner: The European Union, EU Insanity: Thierry’s Termination Tizzy, EU Insanity: Experts Agree, EU Insanity: EU Goes Too Far, Even for EU, Move Fast and Regulate Things: Welcome to the Morning After, Move Fast and Regulate Things (You Don’t Understand), When “Move Fast and Regulate Things” Breaks Down, AI Regulation: Move Fast and Regulate Things, EU Insanity: Regulating Blue Checks, EU Tweets While Ukraine Burns, EU Insanity: AI Regulatory Suicide, EU Insanity: Mistral Edition, The EU Will Continue to Fiddle While Rome Burns, EU Insanity: AI Energy Suicide, EU Insanity: AI Energy Suicide (Part Deux), The European Union is STILL an Advanced Persistent Threat, BREAKING: European Union Designated an Advanced Persistent Threat
Salesforce is Not a Technology Company: Nor a Dogfood Company
I would love to see the materials Salesforce provides to their salesforce to explain why they have humans selling their robotic sales people.
Previous:
What’s Bugging Marc Benioff – Continued, Benioff’s Blizzard of Bluster, Salesforce + Indian Mystic + AI = ???, “There’s an art to this kind of horseshit, and Benioff is its Michelangelo”, The Hard Thing About “Hard Pivots”, Thought Leadership (in Mascots), Salesforce Rallies Its Deep Bench of AI Experts (and Cartoon Characters), Bluster, Bombast and Bullshit: Just Another Day at Salesforce, Salesforce’s Shamelessness is Staggering, Salesforce Gonna Salesforce, The Spectacle that is Dreamforce, IBM is Not a Technology Company: Employees Agree, IBM is Not a Technology Company: Layoffs Are Their Specialty, IBM is Not a Technology Company: But Ecstatic to be Treated Like One, IBM is Not a Technology Company: McDonald’s Edition
Tik Tok on the Clock
The Supreme Court hearing on Tik Tok’s fate is happening as I write this. For some good (non-European) entertainment, read Donald Trump’s amicus brief on the matter. It is short, in no small part because it doesn’t address any of the legal issues.
The legal adage says “If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell”. One form of pounding the table is to stroke your client’s ego and file non-sequiturs with the court.
RIP MikeMap
A couple quick recollections:
When Mike Maples came from IBM to run the Microsoft Applications business, there was great trepidation about what changes he might bring. A dress code? Would we have to use IBM hardware? His first all-hands was a masterclass in how to show up for a new job and leave your previous culture behind. He quickly calmed the waters with self-deprecating humor while simultaneously telling the MBAs to chill out.
I was responsible for his smallest and least important business: the Microsoft games business (things have changed since the early ’90s). I’d spend lots of time preparing to pitch him for resources to do new games. Invariably he’d approve the (rounding error) ask in less than ten minutes and then we’d shoot the shit for the rest of the hour. Mike green-lighted Minesweeper, amongst other things, meaning he substantially offset the productivity impact of Microsoft Office, his real business.
