Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Why Almost All Questions for Connectivity Providers are About Business Models

My interest in business models became very pronounced around 2000, as this chart by Benedict Evans might illustrate. If you were involved in “old media” (it was just “media” at the time), the growth of internet advertising, and the decline of magazine, newspaper, TV and radio advertising shows why business models became such an acute issue.


As somebody whose core business model for decades was “media,” this has been immediately relevant as a business challenge. 


The whole problem of “how do we make our money” and “how much can we make” has been a consistent issue for lots of people who run lots of companies, ever since the internet emerged. If you ran a media business at any point since about 2000, all other questions were subsidiary to the primary question of sustainable business models. 


Some of you with roots and history in the former telecom business know the challenge as well. Global statistics can be deceiving as more human beings start to use mobile phones and the internet. But in developed markets, there actually is less “communications” revenue being earned than there was in 2000, for example. 


That explains the absolute relevance of thinking and leadership around business models in the connectivity business. As with media, huge changes have taken place, and are taking place, in the sustainability of revenue and business models.


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