Is internet shopping like The Truman Show–a movie about a man who thinks himself free, but whose life is actually controlled by a TV producer? Are we online consumers like Truman Burbank, hopelessly and blissfully naive while titanic companies control our fate? Are the prices we pay online a function of a competitive market, or are our choices framed in ways we don’t quite fathom? These provocative questions are posed in a fascinating book about how platform internet companies (Amazon, Facebook, and so on) are changing the norms of economic competition. Virtual Competition: The Promise and Perils of the Algorithm-Driven Economy argues that these companies, with their immense data advantage, are effectively making their own rules in the marketplace, beating back new market entrants, and disadvantaging customers. As the internet took off in the 1990s, it was said, by some dreamy-eyed commentators, to be a giant-killing, democratic medium–a sort of anti-Walmart. You could start a business from your bedroom. You could win a $100 million in venture capital while still in your bathrobe. The internet was to emancipate commerce and to embody Adam Smith’s “invisible hand”–the beneficial, and mutual, economic effect that comes from people acting aggressively in their own self-interest. “We have no idea about how, and the extent to which, we are being exploited.” [Photo: © 1998 Paramount Pictures/IMDB]In Virtual Competition, economists Ariel Ezrachi and Maurice Stucke document the... Continue reading at 'Fast Company'
[ Fast Company | 2017-08-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Expect to see more pictures of your friends' pets and wedding announcements from extended family members in your Facebook news feed in the coming weeks. And expect to see less news. In yet another blow to publishers that have spent years building audiences to build traffic and revenue, the... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2016-06-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Snapchat is developing an algorithm to control how publishers’ content is doled out to followers, according to sources familiar with the plans. Publishers are becoming increasingly beholden to Snapchat for audiences, especially young ones, and an algorithm would affect the reach of their... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2016-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Instagram last week unveiled its updated algorithm, which will reorder the images and videos users see in their news feeds based on their interests instead of how the posts were published chronologically. The development followed a similar move by Twitter six weeks ago to reorder users' time... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2016-03-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Literary Platform's Sophie Rochester on publishing by numbers, and whether the industry can keep its soul in an increasingly data-driven future. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-03-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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You’ve heard about it. You’ve read about it. You may have even Tweeted about it. But it looks as if Twitter’s non-chronological “algorithmic” timeline is almost here.According to a BuzzFeed report published Friday, the company plans to unveil its algorithmic timeline “as soon as next week.” An... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2016-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Atlantic has signed a book on the economy from former business secretary Vince Cable, who left Parliament earlier this month after being voted out in the general election. Cable served as a Liberal Democrat MP for Twickenham for nearly 20 years, and for the past five years has been business... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook study considered the political leanings of news posts by US users before determining which posts were reached via the site’s social algorithmsThe algorithms used by Facebook to filter news posts have an effect on the information seen by users – but not nearly as much as the choices made... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-05-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In his opening speech, Elsevier chairman Y. S. Chi emphasized the need to regard industry changes as opportunities instead of threats or diversions. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-03-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With so much content being produced online, it's hard to stand out as a digital publisher to your target crowd. Heard, a new anonymous social sharing app, believes it has solved the discovery problem. The platform applies the Netflix algorithm for films and TV shows to online content, ideally... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2015-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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We should resist the easy cynicism that has greeted the sudden emergence of Go Set a WatchmanFew 88-year-old one-hit wonders could expect more than a shrug if they announced they were producing their second piece of work in 55 years. But news that Harper Lee is publishing what is essentially a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-02-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With the content marketing and native advertising scene getting increasingly crowded with tech players such as Outbrain, Sharethrough and Nativo, just to name a few, OneSpot thinks it's found an edge on those competitors. The Austin, Texas-based marketing vendor, which has big clients such... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2014-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A successful experiment to make one status-update widely seen—and the social publishing site still won in the end. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2014-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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VigLink Inc., which helps digital publishers monetize their sites via native ads, has raised $18 million to fuel international expansion and focus on the needs of marketers. The Series C funding was led by RRE Ventures with participation from existing backers Google Ventures, Emergence Capital... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2014-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New research on subscription ebook models from BISG shows publishers are still reticent, while consumers who embrace the model continue to buy books. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers are claiming that content they share on Facebook pages isn't reaching as many readers as it used to. Adweek reached out to comScore to find out how referral traffic through Facebook has changed from Nov. 2013 to Feb. 2014 for several top properties. For reference, we also tracked the... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2014-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Like it or not, viral publisher Upworthy has had a huge influence on the world of online publishing. Spotting that growth, a huge range of copycat sites have emerged attempting to mimic its strategy to build audiences of their own.The post The rise of the Upworthy-clone economy appeared first on... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2014-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent which brought the Millennium trilogy to millions of English-language readers puts company up for saleThe publisher behind The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, independent press Quercus, has put itself up for sale in what it has described as a "challenging" and "increasingly competitive"... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A group of security researchers has published a pair Snapchat security exploits, claiming the popular social startup has ignored requests to address them since August -- prior to any Facebook acquisition talk. The Gibson Security team is hoping ... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-12-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When you’re shopping for gifts, try getting a recommendation from an actual human expert at your local bookstore, suggests Ross Ufberg of New Vessel Press. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Responding to growing Washington attacks on data brokers, the Direct Marketing Association is mounting its biggest defense by unveiling a new study Monday during its annual conference in Chicago. The study quantifies how much of the economy is driven by companies that use consumer-level data to... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2013-10-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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