Two signals:
OpenAI acquires a podcast: “OpenAI has acquired TBPN, a fast-growing daily technology podcast with a strong Silicon Valley following, featuring guests such as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.”
Corgi launches a physical newspaper and café: Corgi, a Tekedia Capital portfolio company and one of the fastest-growing startups globally, has introduced a physical newspaper alongside a café experience.
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Why are these companies doing this? Because in today’s web era, success is no longer defined by controlling supply; it is defined by influencing and shaping demand.
Supply has become effectively infinite. Anyone can build, publish, or distribute products and content online. The constraint is no longer production; it is attention, discovery, and preference. In a world of abundance, the winners are those who can guide users, shape narratives, and become the gateways through which demand flows.
This is a fundamental shift. In the pre-digital era, power resided with those who controlled supply. Think of newspaper publishers in the 1980s, they decided what information reached the public. By controlling distribution, they shaped narratives, influenced markets, and captured advertising value.
Today, that power has migrated. Platforms, media channels, and ecosystems that organize attention and influence demand now define modern dominance.
This explains why companies like OpenAI and Corgi are investing in media, physical experiences, and community touchpoints. They are not just building products, they are building demand engines. (In a lighter way, our Tekedia blog remains the One Oasis which powers everything we do in the market because it influences demand).
Modern empires do not just control supply. They control demand.
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