“The rules of the game are different in tech,” argues — and has long argued, despite his views not being accepted at first — W. Brian Arthur, technologist-turned-economist who first truly describe...

Beyond the overly simplistic framing of trade as “good” or “bad” — by politicians, by Econ 101 — why is the topic of trade (or rather, economies and people adjusting to trade) so damn ...

“When a rising power threatens to displace a ruling power, shit happens.” It’s true of people, it’s true of companies, and it’s even more true of countries. It’s also the fundamental i...

Is a network — whether a crowd or blockchain-based entity — going to replace the firm anytime soon? Not yet, argue Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson in the new book Machine, Platform, Crowd. But that title...

“Mobile-first” (and now too AI-first) has been a mantra of sorts in design, but what does that mean at a company, product management, and competitive level? Especially given someone at company X will always...

We live in very interesting times, to say the least — whether it’s a shift in how technology is built and adopted today compared to the past; a changing international landscape with leapfrogging players; or ...

From glittery reaction gifs modded by grandparents to rage faces on Reddit, stickers (gifs and other layered images) and emotive “biaoqing” have taken over messaging culture in China and beyond. Stickers are ...

“Anybody who is interested in China, who’s developing things in China, who’s doing business with China needs to be thinking about the instinct towards politics over pragmatism”, argues New Yorker ...

In India, where many small towns do not have "organized" retail, mobile and web retail is leapfrogging over physical department stores. How do new companies connect people to products when the logistics infrastructure is still nascent?

Editor’s note: It’s Summit Week at a16z, so each day we’re re-sharing some of our favorite talks from the last few years. a16z Summit is an annual, invite-only event bringing together thinkers, builders, and innova...

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This year, we saw a transition of presidential administrations — and all of the accompanying policy and bureaucratic reshuffling that inevitably comes with such a change. Issues of innovation and tech policy have r...

We’ve talked a lot about the rise of QR codes in Asia, but they may now finally be moving from being a “joke” to being more widely adopted in other places as well. Simply put, QR codes let you hyperlink and bookmar...

watch time: 24 minutes

From emoji and selfies-as-stickers to filters and the “Instagrammification of everything”, there’s a new era of social self-expression happening.