Atlas

"The value chain for any given consumer market is divided into three parts: suppliers, distributors, and consumers/users."
Ways to make outsize profits
- Build horizontal monopoly in one of the parts, or
- Integrate two of the parts to create a competitive advantage
"There have always been far more users/consumers than suppliers", so it's more common to "integrate backwards" into supply.
^But the internet turned this on its head. Content is free, transaction costs are zero.
"No longer do distributors compete based upon exclusive supplier relationships, with consumers/users an afterthought. Instead, suppliers can be commoditized leaving consumers/users as a first order priority."
"the most important factor determining success is the user experience: the best distributors/aggregators/market-makers win by providing the best experience"
"earns them the most consumers/users, which attracts the most suppliers, which enhances the user experience in a virtuous cycle" - this describes the Atlas flywheel almost to a tee.
"Previous incumbents, such as newspapers, book publishers, networks, taxi companies, and hoteliers, all of whom integrated backwards, lose value in favor of aggregators who aggregate modularized suppliers — which they often don’t pay for — to consumers/users with whom they have an exclusive relationship at scale"
"Content has always been monetized by proxy" - worth diving deeper on re: monetization.
Ladder of internet-based models: 1. Google - modularized content providers. 2. Leveraged UGC and owned the content, 3. Real-world companies - Uber & Airbnb. Commoditized trust. "vacant rooms and taxis have not been digitized, but they have been disrupted"
"They are all capable of serving every consumer/user on earth"