Apropos Digital Vanguardism, two nice pieces of information are out:

[A] – Mary Meeker’s long awaited “Internet Trends 2018” report is finally out.
It takes time to digest it – but well worth the effort. Main takeaways:
1. growth harder to find after hitting 50% market penetration
2. renewed R&D effort (capex expenditure) by Big Tech
3. Google = Ad Platform to a Commerce Platform;
Amazon = Commerce Platform to an Ad Platform
4. Product purchases= Buying to Subscribing
5. Accelerating Technology Adoption Curves
6. Global Internet Leadership: USA/CHINA. (2013: 9/2; 2018:11/9 in Market Valuation)
7. USA leadership in AI under question: see Eric Schmidt’s remark

[B] A far less rosy picture, Adair Turner’s report on the future of the West social fabric is also out. Among other things (review will follow next), the seminar is a partial rebuttal of Tyler Cowen infamous thesis that “modern economies are delaminating into two groups: a small minority of highly educated and capable of working collaboratively with automated systems will become a wealthy aristocracy; the vast majority will earn little or nothing, surviving on low-priced goods created by the first group, living in shantytowns working with highly automated production systems” (see here).

Categories: Macro, Strategy, Technology