1
The China Cultural Clash
The NBA controversy in China highlights a culture clash that both tech companies and the U.S. government need to take to heart. Plus, why Tiktok being Chinese is increasingly a problem.
Ben Thompson
On the business, strategy, and impact of technology.
- Popular posts
- 180
- Total points
- 43,593
- HN comments
- 32,136
- Rank
- #6 personal
Visit stratechery.com → On Hacker News May 2013 – Oct 2026
Tech Industry & Business 180Society, Policy & Culture 48AI & Machine Learning 21Hardware & Electronics 17Career & Management 7Security & Privacy 4
2
United States vs. Google
The Justice Department’s lawsuit against Google is appropriately narrow, and if it fails it gives a template for Congressional action.
3
The TikTok War
How TikTok exposed Facebook’s blindspot, thanks to its Chinese roots, and why those Chinese roots make TikTok a genuine concern.
4
Facebook Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Buy Tbh
Facebook is acquiring tbh, another burgeoning social network; regulators erred in allowing the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions, but there is no better place to start enforcing the law than now.
5
Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends
Trends in medium, AI, and user interaction underpin Instagram’s response to TikTok, and will determine Meta’s long-term moat.
6
Facebook and the Cost of Monopoly
Facebook gave one of the worst keynotes in a long time: there was no vision, just the adoption of Snap’s. It’s the inevitable outcome of a monopoly.
7
Netflix's New Chapter
Netflix waited out Blockbuster with better economics, and it’s seeking to do the same with its competitors today; the key to the company’s differentiation, though, is increasingly creat…
8
New Defaults
The pandemic and vaccine rollout have highlighted where the West has lost its way; we need new defaults about information, change, and speed.
9
Meta
Facebook’s reorganization into Meta is the ultimate bet on the power of founder control.
10
American Disruption
A new take on Trump’s tariffs, including using a disruption lens to understand the U.S.’s manufacturing problem, and why a better plan would leverage demand, not kill it.
11
Where Warren’s Wrong
Senator Warren’s proposal about how to regulate tech is wrong about history, the source of tech giant’s power, and the fundamental nature of technology itself. That doesn’t mean t…
12
Meta Myths
Meta deserves a bit of a discount off of its recent highs, but a number of myths about its business have caused the market to over-react.
13
Ajit Pai is right
Any regulation, including those around net neutrality, should be put to a cost-benefit analysis. In this case regulation advocates come up short.
14
Meta Meets Microsoft
Meta’s new hardware is more impressive than expected, and the Microsoft partnership makes a lot of sense. The question is if Meta will capture enough value to outweigh their costs.
15
The Deal That Makes No Sense
Early this morning Microsoft acquired Nokia for €3.79 billion (plus €1.65 billion for patents). It is a deal that makes no sense. While industry observers love to pontificate about mergers and acqu…
16
The Slack Social Network
Slack lost to Microsoft head-to-head, but has smartly shifted to a horizontal strategy that the vertically-oriented Microsoft can’t match.
17
Tech and Liberty
The First Amendment is not about a law, but rather a culture — specifically a culture of liberty. It is essential to tech, and in this context, Facebook is mostly right about political ads (but can…
18
MKBHDs for Everything
Marques Brownlee has tremendous power because he can go direct to consumers; that is possible in media, and AI will make it possible everywhere.
19
The European Union versus the Internet
The EU is back to regulating tech companies, and getting the Internet wrong in the process. That, though, helps illuminate an approach that could work.
20
The Internet and the Third Estate
Mark Zuckerberg suggested that social media is a “Fifth Estate”; in fact, social media is a means by which the Third Estate — commoners — can seize political power. Here history matters…
21
Visa, Plaid, networks, and jobs
The history of credit cards helps explain why Plaid is valuable to Visa, and how Visa can make it significantly better.
22
Microsoft Full Circle
Microsoft has come full circle from the company that cared more about Windows than Office; the retirement of the Office name is possible precisely because Microsoft gave up on Windows and went to t…
23
Rights, Laws, and Google
Google is not bound by the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments, but its actions in a false positive CSAM case show that it is flouting the spirit behind them.
24
AT&T, Time Warner, and the Need for Neutrality
It is no surprise that a judge allowed the AT&T-Time Warner acquisition to proceed given the government’s poor case; the question is if a better case could have been made. What is ultima…
25
The Amazon Empire Strikes Back
Amazon’s logistics investment makes the company increasingly attractive to 3rd party merchants.
26
Clubhouse’s Inevitability
Clubhouse will do for audio what Twitter, Instagram Stories, and TikTok did for text, images, and video.
27
The Great Bifurcation
Tracing the evolution of tech’s three eras, and why the fourth era — the Metaverse — is defined by its bifurcation with the physical world.
28
The Reality of Missing Out
Tech is entering a period of inequality where the big winners lift the sector as a whole even as smaller companies suffer. The best example is Facebook, Google, and digital advertising.
29
The Lightness of Windows
The Windows 11 announcement was fun and interesting, but there is a reason that Windows is no longer the center of Microsoft’s business.
30
Sovereign writers and Substack
Substack is at the center of media controversy, most of which misses the point that sovereign writers — not Substack — are in control.