The future of business is in ecosystems
Last week I said that the future of news is entrepreneurial (not institutional). Today I keep on thinking: the future of news in ecosystems (not in conglomerates or industries). At the Foursquare conference last week, I was struck by the views on the world of the heads of large old conglomerates and the views of entrepreneurs discovering nimble companies. The conference was held behind closed doors, so I will not give names. But in fact, I often hear all these arguments in other places. Having met representatives of different tribes in one place, at least, the whole difference between them struck me.
There was a moment when one very successful tycoon dropped his jaw in surprise when he heard how little money - $ 50,000 - it took one of the three entrepreneurs to create a now rapidly growing company. Big man thinks big. That makes it big. A small person thinks in a small way and grows, using existing platforms, depending on how much users like, carefully studying them. For beginners, this is so obvious.
And for me, the key moment of the whole past week has come. In the discussion on the importance of distribution, newcomers, founders of companies that literally shot at the market, answered questions from representatives of the club of old people who would like to conclude contracts for the provision of services. Startups wrinkled their foreheads at a loss. They said: “And what is it for us?” What was not explained to the old men: “An exclusive contract with one company limits. Our distribution is built by our users and developers through embedding, API, and social connections. That is why we grew so big so fast, while remaining small. Can't you see? ”
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And they really do not see.
This week, the difference in worldviews can be seen in the threat of Rupert Murdoch - he thinks it is a threat - to cut Google off from its content. Into the nose. In the face. Cutting down. Spite. Murdoch, who does not use the Internet himself, does not understand how distribution now works. He does not understand that if being open to the economy of links , it will bring him free distribution, free marketing, great benefits. Because he, like his colleagues, was accustomed to winning by capturing, not letting go. A new world - as if turned inside out. It violates all their laws, creates new ones, which I tried to analyze in the book “What would Google do?” . That is what makes it so damn difficult to understand.
In our project " New Business Models for News " in CUNY, we quickly realized that a big new one would not replace the old big newspaper. No, the news will come from ecosystems consisting of different companies operating in different ways, emanating from different motives, using different models, relying in their work on other companies to optimize their activities. That is why we have built networks that allow different sites to unite in order to achieve the critical mass that will be attractive to advertisers. That is why we decided to rely on existing platforms, reducing infrastructure costs to almost zero.
I believe that this is the structure of the future business in a new, post-industrial, decentralized, open economy. Of course, any economy has always been an ecosystem of interrelated relationships. But they were based on zero arithmetic - take and control everything so that no one else can. This means do not see beyond their own nose. They trade every relationship.
Of course, even in the most friendly ecosystem, companies struggle and compete. But in an ecosystem-based economy, companies benefit (work more efficiently and grow) by working together. As I imagine, the new economy and its capabilities will be built on three layers:
Here is a diagram of three layers of ecosystem based economy.
And in our project, this is how I portrayed (quite simply) the ecosystem of news.
How would you portray a conglomerate news industry? Squares pointing at each other with long arrows. Primitive? Of course! But this is how their view of the world looks primitive when you hear the discussion of two tribes.
Well, and if you are not tired of my stupid diagrams, here's a video for you.
There was a moment when one very successful tycoon dropped his jaw in surprise when he heard how little money - $ 50,000 - it took one of the three entrepreneurs to create a now rapidly growing company. Big man thinks big. That makes it big. A small person thinks in a small way and grows, using existing platforms, depending on how much users like, carefully studying them. For beginners, this is so obvious.
And for me, the key moment of the whole past week has come. In the discussion on the importance of distribution, newcomers, founders of companies that literally shot at the market, answered questions from representatives of the club of old people who would like to conclude contracts for the provision of services. Startups wrinkled their foreheads at a loss. They said: “And what is it for us?” What was not explained to the old men: “An exclusive contract with one company limits. Our distribution is built by our users and developers through embedding, API, and social connections. That is why we grew so big so fast, while remaining small. Can't you see? ”
')
And they really do not see.
This week, the difference in worldviews can be seen in the threat of Rupert Murdoch - he thinks it is a threat - to cut Google off from its content. Into the nose. In the face. Cutting down. Spite. Murdoch, who does not use the Internet himself, does not understand how distribution now works. He does not understand that if being open to the economy of links , it will bring him free distribution, free marketing, great benefits. Because he, like his colleagues, was accustomed to winning by capturing, not letting go. A new world - as if turned inside out. It violates all their laws, creates new ones, which I tried to analyze in the book “What would Google do?” . That is what makes it so damn difficult to understand.
In our project " New Business Models for News " in CUNY, we quickly realized that a big new one would not replace the old big newspaper. No, the news will come from ecosystems consisting of different companies operating in different ways, emanating from different motives, using different models, relying in their work on other companies to optimize their activities. That is why we have built networks that allow different sites to unite in order to achieve the critical mass that will be attractive to advertisers. That is why we decided to rely on existing platforms, reducing infrastructure costs to almost zero.
I believe that this is the structure of the future business in a new, post-industrial, decentralized, open economy. Of course, any economy has always been an ecosystem of interrelated relationships. But they were based on zero arithmetic - take and control everything so that no one else can. This means do not see beyond their own nose. They trade every relationship.
Of course, even in the most friendly ecosystem, companies struggle and compete. But in an ecosystem-based economy, companies benefit (work more efficiently and grow) by working together. As I imagine, the new economy and its capabilities will be built on three layers:
- Platform. In building a platform for others, there is a huge benefit. The more its user wins, the more she wins. All examples are on your mind: Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, eBay.
- Entrepreneurial enterprise. Thanks to the platforms, starting a new company is very cheap. And it’s just as cheap, or even cheaper, to fail a business (and start a new one). That is why I believe that the future of news (and many other industries) is entrepreneurial. Because it can be. This is not only media. This and production. Because you can use other people's factories and distribution channels, as well as your own clients as a platform.
- Network. It is still necessary to collect small to large. The audience needs to be put together so that advertisers can more easily buy access to it. Trading must be put together to get better prices. So in the creation and maintenance of networks the whole business.
Here is a diagram of three layers of ecosystem based economy.
And in our project, this is how I portrayed (quite simply) the ecosystem of news.
How would you portray a conglomerate news industry? Squares pointing at each other with long arrows. Primitive? Of course! But this is how their view of the world looks primitive when you hear the discussion of two tribes.
Well, and if you are not tired of my stupid diagrams, here's a video for you.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/287638/
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