What Threads can teach us about leveraging our existing network when launching a new service.
July 22, 2023
Threads, a new Twitter-like service from Meta, the owner of Instagram, launched this month and almost immediately attracted 40m active daily users. The service’s growth has since stalled and now has just over 10m daily users, but that is still commendable. The Wall Street Journal shared that this impressive launch was largely possible because Meta used its built-in network of one billion Instagram users. This user base helped it overcome the “cold start” problem of acquiring ...
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Scott Galloway, the NYU business professor and firebrand, pens a weekly, attention-grabbing article about business trends. In last week’s post, he noted the rise of the attention economy. (...Yes, my post is an attention-seeker writing about an attention-seeker writing about attention.) Comparing our current economy to those of the past, Mr. Galloway notes that today’s oil is time. He tracks the growth of digital companies like Netflix, Microsoft, Facebook, and TikTok that...
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In the early 2000s, the board game Cranium became a hit. The game combined elements of Scrabble and Pictionary with the goal of helping more people enjoy playing a game. Richard Tait, who created Cranium and sold it to Hasbro in 2008 for $77.5m, passed away in July. Like Mr. Tait, I had been a paperboy, but he went beyond what I ever offered: he came up with a new service that sold breakfast sandwiches along his newspaper route. He increased profits and made customers happier. ...
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In the movie Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon, who plays a handsome MIT janitor moonlighting as a math savant (can one say, “Hollywood career vehicle”?), woos a young lady (played by the actress Minnie Driver) by outmaneuvering a few competing, obnoxious cads. When Damon’s character gets the girl's telephone number, he proudly shows it to the other guys and boasts, with his South Boston access, “How 'bout ‘dem apples?” I imagine Tim Cook imitating this...
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When I flew home yesterday from Charleston, while most people were seeking relief from their sunburns and reminiscing about their vacations, I was delving into The Wall St. Journal’s profile on Tracy Britt Cool, an ex- Berkshire Hathaway star. Mrs. Cool’s new company Kanbrick invests in businesses with $10m - $50m in revenue. What does Mrs. Cool look for when investing in a company? People and moats.
At Bridge, we’re reading Jim Collins’ Beyond ...
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Yesterday I spoke with an independent jewelry store that was targeted by cybercriminals. The criminals created a ransomware attack and held the store’s computer data hostage. The store had to scramble to find backup data and reopen. The store called the FBI and didn’t pay. The hackers then sent phishing emails to all the store’s customers—attacking the store’s customers and trying to infect them.
I recently saw an advertisement for Windows 11 in Wired magazine. I thought: “Wow, finally something from Microsoft that someone can understand: a logical name for their software offering.” I recall a time when Microsoft had a confusing litany of software names including: NT, 98, 2000, Millennium (ME), Windows XP, and Vista--before finally relegating those clumsy names to the desktop recycle bin and adopting a simple, progressive number system. Apple has been naming its ...
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When I was 24-years old, a market research company sent me to Philadelphia to survey potential users about a new offering from General Electric Finance. Your first question may be: "Wait, Jason was once 24?" Your second may be: "GE had a consumer finance arm?" Yes, and yes. GE was once a conglomerate with its hands in many industries, from television to nuclear reactors to jet engines. GE, like Toshiba and Johnson & Johnson, has since shrunk. But the era of the ...
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Amazon Prime, Grindr, and Instagram do not seem to have much in common with each other. But, a recent study by PCloud found that these apps are some of the biggest 'data burglars': they are downloading our data at an alarming rate.
Many brands and retailers in our industry promote Facebook, yet Facebook and its sister company Instagram are the leading thieves of personal data. It’s akin to them suggesting their friend sit next to a digital pick pocket.
Imagine if a mob of people came into your store with no intention of buying and blocked real users from entering. That is what Microsoft and Amazon are doing to our digital storefronts.
This is a screenshot of my inbox with error alerts on Friday morning. Microsoft (to power its MSN search engine) was hitting our sites hundreds of times per minute. This scraping takes up bandwidth from real users and customers. It stops customers from being able to make purchases at indie stores ...
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November 15, 2019
November 15, 2019
New E-mail Scam Targeting Invoices and ACH Payments
There is a new scam where hackers take over a brand’s email account and request payment via ACH. This financial scam recently happened to a brand that we know. Please note: Bridge has not been a victim of this scam. We are warning businesses to ensure it does not happen to our friends.
Here is how the scam works:
1. A hacker takes control of an employee’s email account such as their Microsoft email user ID and password. This is likely done via a...
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Walmart and Microsoft team up to stop Amazon reports today’s WSJ.
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January 25, 2018
January 25, 2018
Cormac Kinney, founder of a new online jewelry rental service called Flont, made an observation that I liked. He said:
“Look at software. People don’t buy it anymore—they subscribe to it. A lot people don’t buy cars anymore—they use Uber, Zip Car or lease them. No one buys computer servers anymore—they use Amazon, Google or Microsoft. All the things that we used to buy is now a service."
I agree with Cormac. And there is a good reason that 'software as a service' is good for retailers. Any store...
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January 23, 2015
January 23, 2015
If you owned a coffee shop, would you pick the web dude to be your successor? Starbucks just did, according to today's WSJ
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February 15, 2008
February 15, 2008
Microsoft Office Live Small Business Suite David Pogue in his New York Times column this week reviews the new Microsoft Office Live Small Business suite. He first notes:
Half the small businesses in America, and 70 percent of one-person businesses, don’t even have Web sites. Obviously, the percentage that exploits Internet marketing tools like e-mail newsletters, search engine ads and online stores is even lower.
The immediately brings to mind all the mom and pop and small tableware companies. For...
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