The slogan for Stratechery’s sister podcast, Exponent, is “Tech and Society”; never has that felt more appropriate than 2017. This year I wrote 136 Daily Updates (including tomorrow) and 46 Weekly Articles, and, as per tradition, today I summarize the most popular and most important posts of the year: tech and society figure prominently.

You can find previous years here: 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013

Here is the 2017 list.

The Five Most-Viewed Articles

Stratechery not only had record traffic in 2017, but year-over-year growth was also the highest ever; unsurprisingly, the first three articles were in Stratechery’s all-time top five in terms of traffic (Amazon’s New Customer was number one by a long-shot), and the other two in the top twelve.

Amazon’s New Customer — The key to understanding Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods is to understand that Amazon didn’t buy a retailer: the company bought a customer. Microsoft’s Monopoly Hangover — There are striking similarities between Microsoft today and IBM in the Lou Gerstner era, but today’s IBM should be a warning to Redmond. Alexa: Amazon’s Operating System — Money is made at chokepoints, and the most valuable chokepoints are operating systems; Amazon has built exactly that with Alexa. Facebook and the Cost of Monopoly — Facebook gave one of the worst keynotes in a long time: there was no vision, just the adoption of Snap’s. It’s the inevitable outcome of a monopoly. The Uber Dilemma — Benchmark’s lawsuit against Uber is extraordinary; that is because Uber, despite everything, remains an extraordinary company. Game theory explains the implications.

Five Big Ideas

These five posts very much capture the biggest themes of 2017: the power of aggregators, one of the most important acquisitions in media history, Bitcoin, sexual harassment, and Apple and China.

Defining Aggregators — Building on Aggregation Theory, this provides a precise definition of the characteristics of aggregators, and a classification system based on suppliers. Plus, how to think about aggregator regulation.

Disney and Fox — Disney’s rumored acquisition of 21st Century Fox is all about competing with Netflix; whether or not that is a good thing depends on your frame of reference. (See also, Disney’s Choice)

Tulips, Myths, and Cryptocurrencies — Did you hear the one about the tulip bubble? It’s almost certainly a myth. It is myths, though, that explain why cryptocurrencies are here to stay.

Goodbye Gatekeepers — Harvey Weinstein was a gate-keeper — a position that existed in multiple industries, including the media. That entire structure, though, is untenable on the Internet, and that’s a good thing.

Apple’s China Problem — Apple had mixed earnings: most of the world was great, but China was bad again. The reason is that in China WeChat matters more than iOS.

Five Posts About Technology and Society

The biggest theme of all, though, at least in technology, was the impact technology is having on society broadly, and how society might respond. At the center of everything was Facebook.

See also: The Great Unbundling and the talk I gave at Recode Media:

The Year in Daily Updates

I am incredibly proud of the Daily Update this year: in my very biased opinion, in 2017 the depth and importance of Daily Updates easily matched Weekly Articles. Increasingly, Daily Updates were organized around a single company or topic, and often previewed themes that were later expounded on in Weekly Articles. Here are some of my favorites:

I also conducted four interviews for The Daily Update:

Finally, while I’m not sure if this will become an annual thing or not, for the first time I christened Tech’s Person of the Year: Susan Fowler. In addition, I have now made this Daily Update free to read — Fowler’s impact was extraordinary.

I can’t say it enough: I am so grateful to Stratechery’s readers and especially subscribers for making all of these posts possible. I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and I’m looking forward to a great 2018!

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