Teardowns
Practitioner-level teardowns of real products. Not review journalism, not academic analysis. Each one isolates a decision, explains the product logic, names the tradeoff, and leaves you something to steal.
Products
Amazon DSP
Amazon
platform
AppsFlyer
AppsFlyer
b2b
Claude
Anthropic
ai product
Cursor
Anysphere
developer tool
Display & Video 360
platform
Google Analytics 4
platform
Google Cloud Platform
platform
Meta
consumer app
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
platform
YouTube
Alphabet
consumer app
Latest
Spend Caps: Google Finally Ships the Killswitch Enterprises Were Hand-Rolling
Google Cloud's new Spend Caps let you pause a service before the bill lands, not after. It is a real fix for a real problem — and its narrow, single-project scope tells you exactly whose problem Google solved first.
Amazon DSP and the Retail Data Moat
Amazon DSP's moat isn't the buying tech — it's closed-loop purchase data. It can tie ad exposure to actual sales and prove incrementality through AMC because Amazon owns the transaction. The bet is to become the outcome-proving DSP for commerce. The catch is how far that edge travels off-platform.
DV360 and the Integrated DSP Dilemma
DV360's superpower is privileged access to Google demand, data, and unique supply like YouTube. That same vertical integration is exactly what the DOJ ad-tech case targets. The buyer's dilemma is buying through the company that also runs the auction and owns the inventory.
GA4: Why Google Gives Away the Measurement Layer
Google Analytics is free because measurement isn't the product, it's the moat. GA4 is optimized for Google's ads auction first and the analyst second, which is why rivals keep finding oxygen.
The Trade Desk's Bet Against the Walled Gardens
TTD's whole pitch is that it owns no media and competes with no one. That neutrality is its growth engine, and UID2 is the bet that the open web can answer Google's identity layer.
AppsFlyer: How Neutrality Became a Moat
AppsFlyer's durable edge is that it doesn't sell media. The networks can't grade their own homework, so the neutral referee became the source of truth.