Laws of Tech: Commoditize Your Complement · Gwern.net
A classic pattern in technology economics, identified by Joel Spolsky, is layers of the stack attempting to become monopolies while turning other layers into perfectly-competitive markets which are commoditized, in order to harvest most of the consumer surplus; discussion and examples.
--- title: "Laws of Tech: Commoditize Your Complement" description: A classic pattern in technology economics, identified by Joel Spolsky, is layers of the stack attempting to become monopolies while turning other layers into perfectly-competitive markets which are commoditized, in order to harvest most of the consumer surplus; discussion and examples. thumbnail: /doc/ai/nn/diffusion/imagen/2026-06-18-gwern-claude48opus-nanobananapro-illustration-commoditizeyourcomplement-kingbarcode.jpg thumbnail-text: "Commoditize your complement: one profitable chokepoint, many interchangeable complements.
saved by
related reading
- Laws of Tech: Commoditize Your Complement · Gwern.netgwern.net
- Strategy Letter V – Joel on Softwarejoelonsoftware.com
- Stratechery by Ben Thompson – On the business, strategy, and impact of technology.stratechery.com
- On Commoditization, Pricing, and Assetsevanjconrad.com
- The power of defaults << julian.digitaljulian.digital
- Commoditize Your Complements - ben-miniben-mini.github.io
- Monetization & Monopolies: How The Internet You Loved Died | Conrad Bastableconradbastable.com
- The inevitable showdown between Twitter and Twitter appscdixon.org
- Aggregation Theory – Stratechery by Ben Thompsonstratechery.com
- Consoles and Competition – Stratechery by Ben Thompsonstratechery.com
- Monopoly Moneywheresyoured.at
- Six strategies for overcoming “chicken and egg” problems — cdixoncdixon.org