What I Wrote Last Week
PayPal Should Deliver More Than It Promises
Business
Three decades in, Amazon is still working on its original bookstore business. When it comes to inventory, distribution and probably prices, Amazon is the undisputed king of books. Competitors will find it disheartening to see that the tech giant doesn’t neglect the category that gave its a start. Amazon continues to invest in books to maintain its grip. Independent stores’ best chance, in my opinion, comes from creating a great in-store experience, rare books, a sense of community and consumers’ sympathy for David in the fight against Goliath.
Microsoft Is the World’s Most Valuable Company. Now It Has to Prove It Can Stay There. A good recap on Microsoft’s incredible rise as the most valuable firm in the world. A lot of that explosion in valuation came from its partnership with OpenAI and the increasing popularity of AI. However, the author was correct in being cautious over the sustainability of this high valuation. So far, I have not been convinced by the commerciality or the practical use of AI. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying it’s useless. I am saying that there is a gap between what it actually can do and the hype around it. It is on Microsoft to continue to deliver results, following tremendous hype. If it was the AI narrative that drove valuation, what would happen when such a narrative cooled down?
Amazon Is Now Charging Prime Members Extra for Ad-Free Streaming. For Some, That’s a Deal Breaker. There will be unhappy customers like those quoted in this article, but I suspect they will be the minority. Prime customers such as myself subscribe because we can buy a lot of things at more or less the same prices elsewhere and enjoy the hassle-free delivery and return process. As long as Amazon can keep its end of the bargain, I think that most Prime users will tolerate some more ads or just watch less content on the channel.
23andMe’s Fall From $6 Billion to Nearly $0. 23andMe doesn’t have a sustainable business model in the first place. It makes life more difficult for itself with botched services and wasteful spending. And when the funding is more expensive due to rising interest rates, it’s a real struggle to find capital to fund multi-year and capital intensive product development. All in all, a recipe for disaster.
Why Tim Cook Is Going All In on the Apple Vision Pro. This interivew, besides the sales pitch for Vision Pro, has interesting nuggets. The black ops location on the Apple campus, the story in which Steve Jobs dropped the iPod in a fish tank, when Tim Cook tried the Vision Pro on for the first time. I am really interested in testing out this product. There are a lot of great reviews and the fact that it took almost 10+ years to create excites me.
Other Stuff I Find Interesting
A Publishing Giant’s Risky Fight Against Book Bans. I wonder Penguin Random House would join the fight against book bans if they didn’t had a lot of commercial interests on the line. Because they do have many books on the ban list, it’s easier to chalk it up as a moral obligation to advocate for free speech.
The World’s Biggest Jeweler Now Only Sources Recycled Metals. “Pandora, known for its affordable sterling-silver charm bracelets, is the world’s largest jewelry company by volume: The Danish chain sells more than 100 million pieces annually. This week, it announced that it is now sourcing only 100-percent-recycled silver and gold for its collections. By working with metals that have already been mined, Pandora won’t be digging deeper in search of new materials, allowing the company to substantially reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Mining requires more energy and resources than recycling and is a leading source of mercury pollution. In a 2020 news releaseannouncing its shift to recycled metals, Pandora cited statistics from the World Gold Council and other entities showing that the process of recycling gold reduces emissions by about 99 percent compared to mining it, while recycling silver reduces carbon emissions by about 66 percent compared to mining it. The term “recycled” can also obscure the origins of some metals, like those sourced by so-called cowboy miners, or outlaw refiners known for using child labor or running operations that fund the activities of criminal networks. Patrick Schein, a refiner and a board member at the Alliance For Responsible Mining, said the word can create the illusion that the recycling process always yields “newly born gold that is ethically acceptable.”
Electric cars are not the future. This is how it usually goes. A new technology receives plenty of hype. After some time, reality kicks in and we realize that said technology is not as big a game changer as we thought. The realistic use cases become much more narrow. Blockchain, cryptocurrency, self-driving cars and now EVs go into this category. In the future, there may be another breakthrough that renders electric vehicles more affordable and accessible. Right now, it doesn’t make sense to buy an expensive car for low usage. And if we want to talk about an environmentally friendly transportation mode, it’s public transportation.
Stats
Apple Card has 12 million active customers as of Jan 2024
It averages 21% of an order’s value to process its return
Minh Quang Duong 
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