Content-first and advertising-first will break down the dominant social networks over the long run.

In the age of mass media, companies only needed to compete with one another to win attention. Ad space on TV, radio, and print was only affordable for deep-pocketed corporations. Individuals, meanwhile, rarely had the means to outbid companies to get noticed.

What changed was the feed, something uniquely enabled by digital. Whereas a newspaper had to be defined up-front, such that it could be printed and distributed at scale, a feed is tailored to the individual in real-time — and so are the advertisements. Suddenly it was print that was worth pennies, while the Internet generally and mobile especially ... See more

What does this mean? All of the infrastructure and services that were once optimized for physical SMBs / mom-and-pops need to be overhauled to accommodate internet-first businesses. If you were a YouTuber and you walked into Bank of America asking for a small business loan, you would be met with a quizzical look followed by a polite but firm dismis... See more