Apple, Zuck, Elon, and the lesson of Microsoft Windows
Even though it's taking way longer than expected, Apple won't give up on building an EV.
Mark Zuckerberg is still spending massively on AI and the metaverse.
It's about building the next big platforms. If you're not in the race, you're not really a player.
"Dreamy" businesses
Platforms share similar attributes that make them massively expensive and time-consuming to build, but way more profitable and long-lasting than any other businesses on earth.
Billions of people and businesses rely on platforms. As they are used more, they become more useful and more valuable. They are almost impossible to compete with once they are up and running. And as Apple shows, there are endless ways to squeeze more money from platforms, even if antitrust regulators shut down bits of them.
Matthew Ball, a venture capitalist and former Amazon executive, called platforms "dreamy" businesses in an insightful blog last year.
He also pointed out that if you don't own a big platform, your life kinda sucks. Zuckerberg has the scars to prove it. One flick of Apple's privacy wrist and about $10 billion of Meta revenue disappeared. This scared the crap out of other tech companies. Google pays Apple about $20 billion a year to keep the iOS giant distributing its search engine. Not fun.
https://www.businessinsider.co....m/apple-mark-zuckerb
