Ben Thompson (analyst) explained

Ben Thompson
Alma Mater:
Occupation:Business, technology, and media analyst

Ben Thompson is an American business, technology, and media analyst who lives in Taipei, where he founded Stratechery, a subscription-based newsletter/podcast featuring commentary on tech and media news.,[1] and cohosts tech podcasts Exponent with James Allworth and Dithering with John Gruber, respectively.[2]

Education

Thompson's undergraduate education was at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and his graduate education at Northwestern University, where he received an Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School as well as an Master of Engineering Management from the McCormick School of Engineering.[3]

Career

Thompson's career includes stints at Apple, where he interned at Apple University;[4] Microsoft, where he worked on its Windows Apps team;[5] and at WordPress developer Automattic as a growth engineer.[6]

Thompson launched Stratechery as a blog while still a Microsoft employee, and in April 2014 devoted himself to the site full-time, operating on a "freemium" subscription model.[7] He has stated his primary inspiration was John Gruber, author of the site Daring Fireball.[8]

As of April 2015, Thompson had more than 2,000 paying subscribers.[9] By 2017, Recode described Stratechery as having pioneered the paid newsletter business model.[10] The founders of Substack, a newsletter platform launched in 2018, called Thompson a major inspiration for their project.

Aggregation theory

Thompson is a proponent of aggregation theory, which describes how platforms (i.e. aggregators such as Google and Facebook) come to dominate the industries in which they compete in a systematic and predictable way. Aggregators have all three of the following characteristics: 1. direct relationship with users; 2. zero marginal costs for serving users; 3. and demand-driven multi-sided networks with decreasing acquisition costs.[11]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The ingredients of a great newsletter . Felix Salmon . February 6, 2015 . . June 25, 2016.
  2. Web site: 10 tech podcasts you should listen to now . Jordan Novet . April 3, 2015 . . June 25, 2016.
  3. Web site: Postmodern Computing Summit . June 2014 . . June 25, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160717142655/http://www.postmoderncomputing.com/people . July 17, 2016 . dead .
  4. Web site: Stratechery goes solo: Ben Thompson on Asia, Apple, and the shifting tides of online media . Josh Horwitz . April 16, 2014 . Tech in Asia . June 25, 2016.
  5. Web site: Jony Ive's iOS 7 Influence Will Be More Than Skin Deep . Juli Clover . May 6, 2013 . . June 25, 2016.
  6. Web site: Rise of the prosumer analyst: How mobile is driving a new brand of business analysis . Jonathan Libov . October 5, 2013 . . March 2, 2017.
  7. Web site: Ben Thompson's Stratechery Expands and Goes Freemium . Kara Swisher. Kara Swisher . April 16, 2014 . . 25 June 2016.
  8. Web site: Matthew Ingram. April 17, 2014. Can a little-known blogger turn his site into a business by selling memberships? Ben Thompson is sure going to try. June 25, 2016. Gigaom.
  9. Web site: Ben Thompson: The one-man blog isn't dead, it's better than ever . Mathew Ingram . February 2, 2015 . . June 25, 2016.
  10. News: Kafka. Peter. 16 October 2017. Meet the startup that wants to help you build a subscription newsletter business overnight. en. Vox.
  11. Web site: Brandom . Russell . What does aggregation theory tell us about Google's antitrust case? . The Verge . 2 December 2020 . The Verge . 3 December 2020.