Archive
All writing, page 12
Lyft Rentals looked useful. Owning the fleet was harder.
Lyft Rentals was convenient in San Francisco, but its later shutdown showed how much harder fleet ownership is than adding a booking option.
Uber's Hertz deal put 50,000 Tesla rentals on the horizon
Uber's Hertz deal offered drivers Tesla rentals, but the weekly fee made net earnings the real EV-adoption test.
AMD beats revenue estimates with $4.31B
AMD's 54% revenue growth in Q3 2021 said more about its product position against Intel than the day's share-price move.
Intel readies 12th-gen Alder Lake chips
Alder Lake gave Intel a credible response to AMD, but its new mix of performance and efficiency cores also made software scheduling part of the test.
France protects book industry from Amazon
France's proposed book-delivery minimum made a real trade: protect local shops by raising the cost of cheap shipping.
Uber starts 15-minute delivery in Paris
Uber's 15-minute Paris grocery offer made a strong promise, but dark stores and standby couriers carried the cost of keeping it.
Facebook Q3 earnings: profit beats estimates
Facebook's Q3 2021 profit beat proved its ad business could absorb a shock for a quarter, not that Apple's privacy changes were harmless.
PayPal is exploring Pinterest acquisition
The reported PayPal–Pinterest talks in 2021 raised a product question: could payments improve shopping without spoiling discovery?
Facebook fined $69.6 million in the UK for Giphy takeover
The UK's £50.5 million Giphy fine targeted Facebook's conduct during merger review, which is more telling than the size of the penalty.
The WHO's mRNA project needed manufacturing know-how
The WHO–Afrigen mRNA project showed why patent access alone could not build vaccine manufacturing capacity.