Bloomberg: “Southeast Asia’s internet economy will log its slowest growth on record this year, a group of researchers said, underscoring weakness in consumer demand and a push to show profits instead of revenue gains. Online spending will rise about 15% this year to $263 billion in the region, research from Google, Temasek Holdings Pte and Bain & Co. showed, slowing from 17% a year earlier and reaching its lowest rate since at least 2017. The local digital economy is also set to record its lowest level of private funding this year, the report showed. Consumers in the region of more than 650 million people are curbing spending to cope with elevated inflation and interest rates. That’s raising questions about the billions of dollars in investments that tech companies have made in countries from Indonesia and Singapore to Thailand and Vietnam, looking for new Asian growth markets beyond larger economies such as China and Japan.”
Daniel Susskind: “there is one thing that we do know about growth, and this is, growth doesn’t come from the material world of things that we can see and touch and drop on our feet, but it comes from the intangible, invisible world of ideas. In other words, growth doesn’t come from using more and more finite resources, more land, more machines, building more factories and so on. That’s not where growth, as I understand it, growth in GDP per capita, that’s not where sustained growth in that comes from. It comes instead, not from using more and more finite resources, but discovering new ideas for making use of the finite resources that we have. In other words, it comes from technological progress. If you’re wanting serious sustained increases in living standards, in per capita GDP, you’ve got to instead focus on how our economies produce and share new ideas about the world.”
WSJ: “Key to Wayfair’s promotion strategy, though, is its relationship with suppliers. For decades, the company has worked with its now more than 20,000 suppliers to determine what might induce consumers to upgrade their homes. Currently—with where consumers are—that’s through promotions, which suppliers bear most of the cost of, Gulliver said. This means when shoppers see a couch or chair at 30% off, for instance, suppliers fund the reduction in their wholesale prices, which Wayfair then passes on through discounts and price adjustments. For the most part, Wayfair doesn’t carry inventory on its books, so the company is free of the pressure other retailers face to sell through stock. But both Wayfair and its suppliers have an interest in higher sales volumes, Gulliver said. So suppliers tend to lean into the deals, she said.”
FT writes about what AI companies can learn from Napster: “Generative AI companies claim a legal concept called “fair use” applies to the content they use. Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella compares the training of AI models with the way humans learn from textbooks and then use that knowledge to create new ideas. But artists argue this breaches their intellectual property, and want compensation for the use of their work by companies that train generative AI models. Recently, over 30,000 artists, including ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, signed an open letter that called the use of unlicensed training data for the models “a major, unjust threat” to artists’ livelihoods. Artists like Ulvaeus and Yorke are innovators themselves, and have long embraced new technology. The tech sector’s failure to consult and understand the creative economy has turned potential allies into adversaries. Unlike the Napster-era, this time it’s not just music affected.”
Andrew Chen on product ideas: “If you’re at a higher WTF level than desired, here’s the easiest fix. But I warn you, it’s a painful one, because it requires you to ask questions and listen. Show your product to target customers. Ask them: “How would you describe this to someone else?” Bite your tongue and listen – you’ll soon learn some simple truths. Their words that follow this question are gold. Simplicity is key. They will toss out your complicated description, and replace it with something easier and more truthful. Often times, you will dislike what you hear. Because it strips out all of your strategic differentiation, and just describes what is in front of them. Or perhaps because it doesn’t capture the technical “wow” of what’s under the hood. Sorry, this is the unvarnished truth of your product even if it’s painful.”
