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WeWork and Counterfeit Capitalism

mattstoller.substack.com

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Re: WeWork and Counterfeit Capitalism

#251

Post by munk-a »

lliamander wrote: post #236
munk-a wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bookstores provide a lot of service value, a decent bookstore will allow you to find similar material, allow you to browse as you please (instead of the skimpy sample pages), usually contain an expert that can offer advice and allow you to walk out with your purchase. Additionally it's common to see a heavy effort at investing in the atmosphere. Amazon has succeeded at beating bookstores in none of these categories -…

My favorite Pratchett book is probably Men at Arms, though he has many greats (and I have not even read all of them yet).

The Vimes series is amazing... I think it's a bit above the Moist series but I absolutely love Raising Steam and, to a lesser extent, Making Money - because both characters are coming together. Still, I think my top pitch is somewhere within Night's Watch, Men at Arms & Jingo - I think Guards! Guards! is also quite good but Night's Watch did nearly everything Guards! Guards! did... but did it better.

Honestly, his books are just amazing though, quite worth a read.... possibly skipping to start at Equal Rites since The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic were less polished than his later works - but do check out the Tim Curry having movie covering those first two books... maybe bring a power point presentation or two along to appease any power hungry wizards though.

Re: WeWork and Counterfeit Capitalism

#252

Post by maerF0x0 »

iamkroot wrote: post #80
40acres wrote: post #74

For me, this whole WeWork fiasco has shown just how valuable the SEC and the S-1 filing process is. Let's be clear -- Neumann was fired because any investor who read the S-1 was mortified and wouldn't touch the company with a 10 foot pole. If anything, this shows how lawless the private markets are and the lack of guardrails that are present to protect private investors -- perhaps this will lead to some reform in the…

Why do private investors need protection? Why can't they be held responsible for the foolishness of their actions?

I think part of the article's point is that private investors cannot be held responsible for their foolish because they cause "ripple effects" as externalities (eg: dismantling of a functioning taxi industry)

Re: WeWork and Counterfeit Capitalism

#253

Post by Wowfunhappy »

crumpets wrote: post #225
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you return prices to market value wouldn't competitors just appear again. No, because at this point the barrier to entry is substantial. And, if a competitor does come in, the incumbent with a huge warchest can just drop the price again temporarily to drive them out.

>No, because at this point the barrier to entry is substantial. Not really. Unless the product has a powerful network effect, people can easily enter. If that weren't the case, starbucks would have run every coffee shop out of business by now.

Starbucks has caused a lot of coffee shops to close. Boutique coffee shops have a significant advantage however—people like variety in their café's. This exists in some industries more than others.

Re: WeWork and Counterfeit Capitalism

#254

Post by buboard »

legitster wrote: post #35

> WeWork then used this cash to underprice competitors in the co-working space market, hoping to be able to profit later once it had a strong market position in real estate subletting or ancillary businesses. > This is of course Amazon’s model, which underpriced competitors in retail and eventually came to control the whole market. This is wrong, wrong, wrong. The difference is Amazon saw what the marginal costs coul…

> WeWork fundamentally has no way to drive down the margin on real estate

But they can make the spaces more popular and raise their prices (thats the added value they claim). Coworking at full capacity can be quite more profitable than any other RE investment

Re: WeWork and Counterfeit Capitalism

#255

Post by buboard »

rossdavidh wrote: post #237
streetcat1 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only difference between wework and amazon is the way they finance their money-losing ventures. Wework does that via the private market, hence the game is up when it needs access to the public markets. Amazon does that via AWS. AWS is the money that fuels the eCommerce side. The game will be up when: 1) Kubernetes will move AWS customers back to on-prem, or at least turn clouds into a commodity. Amazon knows that…

It's interesting that you bring up the importance of AWS to Amazon, nowadays, because...companies like Uber, Lyft, and WeWork spend a lot on AWS. In other words, like Yahoo getting a lot of their late-90's advertising from dot-com bubble companies that evaporated in 2001, AWS is massively exposed to the current bubble in "we have so much VC cash we don't know what to do with it" companies. When that goes away (i.e. t…

Amazon must know that and i guess thats why they dont give up the commerce biz

Re: WeWork and Counterfeit Capitalism

#256

Post by baddox »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #253
crumpets wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>No, because at this point the barrier to entry is substantial. Not really. Unless the product has a powerful network effect, people can easily enter. If that weren't the case, starbucks would have run every coffee shop out of business by now.

Starbucks has caused a lot of coffee shops to close. Boutique coffee shops have a significant advantage however—people like variety in their café's. This exists in some industries more than others.

> Starbucks has caused a lot of coffee shops to close.

Sure, but normal legitimate competition causes worse-performing competitors to close, so some distinction should be made between this supposed "predatory pricing until competitors shut down" strategy and the normal "cause competitors to shut down by simply being better than them" strategy.

Re: WeWork and Counterfeit Capitalism

#257

Post by knolax »

jerf wrote: post #146
kizer wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, it's just a t-shirt.

That is pretty much exactly the same thing as seeing a character wearing a T-Shirt in a movie and trying to argue it must have just been what the actor came on to the set wearing that day.

Or the curtains are just blue.

Re: WeWork and Counterfeit Capitalism

#258

Post by bsder »

hef19898 wrote: post #143
_23sd wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The difference is Amazon saw what the marginal costs could be, and had a specific roadmap to drive investment into bringing them down. WeWork fundamentally has no way to drive down the margin on real estate in any meaningful way. Especially as a lessee. That's what the article says: >At first, with companies like Walmart and Amazon, predatory pricing can seem smart. The entire retail sector might be decimated and co…

Totally agree with the last pint, people completely tend to ignore the effort and attention to detail Amazon puts into executive and planning. That plus a very sound strategy. Also Amazon was profitable, even if just barely, for the most time while growing appr. 20% constantly. Not comparable to, say, WeWork from what I know. But it shows how powerful that narrative can be.

Amazon had an in-built 5-10% advantage for a very long time because they weren't required to pay tax. This clobbered small retail--and bookstores in particular.

Now that they are on an equal footing and have to collect tax, Amazon's retailing isn't doing as good.

Re: WeWork and Counterfeit Capitalism

#259

Post by [deleted] »

alephnan wrote: post #63

> if Adam and Rebekah have not contributed at least $1 billion to charitable causes as of the ten-year anniversary of the closing date of this offering, holders of all of the Company’s high-vote stock will only be entitled to ten votes per share instead of twenty votes per share.

[deleted]

Re: WeWork and Counterfeit Capitalism

#260

Post by buboard »

crumpets wrote: post #228
cfors wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you have it reversed, AWS accounts for most of Amazon's profit and is used to fund other ventures. > AWS revenue came accounted for 13% of Amazon’s total revenue. Of Amazon’s total $3.1 billion in operating income, 52% came from AWS. [0] [0] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/25/aws-earnings-q2-2019.html

No, long before AWS, Amazon intentionally re-invested all of the excess revenue that would be reported as profit back into the business instead (expanding capex and opex).

I thought aws sprung out of investment in their own infrastructure. A happy accident of sorts, not some preplanned mammoth investment in building AWS from the ground up
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