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Comment by sudhirj | Hacker News Reader

The economy will bifurcate into two sections: a corporate economy that builds platforms, and an individualist economy that uses those platform for creative purposes.

Think YouTube + video creators, Spotify + artists, Netflix + more long tail video content, Substack + writers, TikTok + influencers, Doordash + indie chefs, Apple + indie developers.

I believe this will feel like visible people are losing jobs and making less money, but humanity as a whole will see wealth increase.

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Isn't this just a continuation of the service economy? It won't feel like people are losing jobs and making less money, people will lose jobs and make less money as they transition to creative domains that AI/automation hasn't captured yet.

Damn I never thought about indie chefs! I heard about ghost kitchens which I think is brilliant but building and promoting your individuality as a chef unlocks a whole new world of possibilities.

I think the more savvy term for it is cloud kitchens.

Cloud kitchens are actual commercial kitchens run by corporations. Indie chefs just cook out of their own homes.

Ah, I was not aware of that distinction

I think Kalanick (the Uber cofounder) trademarked that.

Any source on that? I tried searching for it, seems like Kalanick does have a new venture called CloudKitchens but can't find anything on whether the phrase 'cloud kitchen' itself is trademarked.

I was going by the “®” in their logo. From https://trademarks.justia.com/879/58/cloudkitchens-87958653.... it looks like USPTO acked a plan to use the mark within three years. I don’t know whether that means they could complain if you opened “Talukder’s Pizza Cloud Kitchen.”

Hmm, I see a few publication using the `cloud kitchen` term in a generic way. But maybe if I opened a business, maybe they will see that as trying to take advantage of an existing brand. No idea if that's how trademark works.

Isn't Netflix the odd one out there? They control both the platform and the content.

They’re buying smaller and smaller projects as time goes by, catering to more niche audiences. They understand that they’re in a unique position to work the long tail. Having tiktok like individuals creating content on Netflix is the logical extension of their current strategy, alongside some shows with broader appeal.

Hmm, I think I get your point. But still, I don't see if it will ever be as effective a market for individual creators as youtube.

It won't be a market, but it will be a living. Netflix can pay people a contract or a salary to produce content.

Yeah. But it is still Netflix controlling both end, they are just extending their supply chain to include more indie creators but at the end of the day who gets to get on the platform and how much they can earn isn't a direct function of that creator and their audience. That economy is not a directly individualistic economy like the other examples. But I would really like to see a mix of kickstarter and patreon for indie creators that can run parallel to the OTT platforms, enabling them to create more ambitious projects and enabling their audience to directly support it.

I think Kickstarter itself is a pretty popular way to get projects running https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/kickstarter-film-projects/

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