Articles by Ben Thompson
AWS, MongoDB, and the Economic Realities of Open SourceAWS recently launched Amazon DocumentDB, a database compatible with MongoDB applications. However, AWS is not actually selling the MongoDB software but rather the performance, scalability, and availability enabled by running databases in the cloud. Open source companies like MongoDB rely on proprietary tools and support to generate revenue, but cloud providers are increasingly providing those services directly. This poses a challenge to the business models of open source companies. While open source helped fuel cloud adoption, the economic realities are such that software itself has no value due to infinite reproducibility - it is the services around software that are monetizable. This leaves open source companies in a difficult position as their tools become obsolete in a cloud-dominated world.
Uber’s BundlesBen provides a case study on how Uber has pursued a bundling strategy for both consumers and drivers in order to compete with Lyft. He covers: • Uber’s Lyft Problem • Uber’s Competitive Context • Uber’s Consumer Bundle: Transportation-as-a-Service • Uber’s Driver Bundle: Uber Eats • Self-Driving Cars: A Bundle as the Way Forward
The Curse of CultureBen describes how company culture can change over time, even at large companies, using examples from Microsoft and Apple.
