Podcast of the Week: Modern Monopolies

Patrick O’Shaughnessy put up a replay of his interview with Alex Moazed about “building modem monopolies.” Moazed does some of the more interesting writing on platform businesses and it’s worth a revisit or a first listen. Platform businesses often create network effects of both consumers/users and sellers/suppliers. Years ago, the original shopping mall offered consumers a social environment to display and consume status. Today, Amazon will let you shop from your phone from a million vendors with detailed customer reviews of each product.

Understanding how platforms operate can give us lots of insight into how our own businesses fit into the modern economy. Even if we don’t operate a platform, there is a ton to learn about operating like one, or more commonly, operating on one.

For a deeper dive, explore Moazed’s writing or take the deep dive with Ben Thompson at Stratechery.