What's New: New regulations aim to curb big tech

(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)

US lawmakers unveiled 5 major antitrust bills to transform big tech:

• The proposed regulations appear to directly target Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple for anti-competitive behavior. Critics argue that enacting these laws could crush innovation and end consumer favorites, like free shipping on Amazon Prime.
• Nearly 886,000 podcasts were started in the US in 2020, triple the amount from the year before. As podcasts have exploded, so have opportunities in creating and distributing products for them.
• Founder James Traf used 3 no-code tools to set up his website, and it took him 2 hours. He now hits $28,000 in monthly revenue.

Want to share something with over 75,000 indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing

🏛 New Regulations Aim to Curb Big Tech

from the Indie Economy newsletter by Bobby Burch

US lawmakers unveiled five sweeping antitrust bills that aim to transform big tech. For tech founders, these changes could be monumental.

New regulations may be coming

What it means: The group of antitrust bills don’t specifically name any companies, but they appear to directly target Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple for anti-competitive behavior. If made law, the measures would be the largest shift in how the US regulates monopolies since the advent of the internet.

Curbing big tech: US House lawmakers believe that Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple are too dominant in their respective markets. That dominance, they argue, allows the companies to demolish their competition through anti-competitive mergers. Lawmakers also have concerns about big tech manipulating prices and exploiting the marketplace to benefit their products or services. US House Rep. David Cicilline explained:

Right now, unregulated tech monopolies have too much power over our economy. They are in a unique position to pick winners and losers, destroy small businesses, raise prices on consumers, and put folks out of work. Our agenda will level the playing field and ensure the wealthiest, most powerful tech monopolies play by the same rules as the rest of us.

What would change: The bills would make it more difficult for big tech to complete anti-competitive mergers and acquisitions. They would also bestow more power on government regulatory agencies to break up monopolies. Finally, they would target conflicts of interest within company marketplaces, and beef up the Federal Trade Commission and US Justice Department’s antitrust enforcement resources.

How long? The US has not meaningfully addressed anti-competitive behavior since 1914, when the horse and buggy industry was competing with the new invention, the automobile. The United States’ two major anti-trust laws are the Sherman Act (1890) and Clayton Act (1914).

Crushing innovation?

The critics: Big tech trade groups say that the bills would stifle innovation and make it harder for consumers to reap the benefits of tech companies' integrated services and products. Skeptics argue that the laws could limit the value of integrated products like Google Calendar and Gmail, or inhibit the quality control of Apple’s App Store, for example.

Big government: Other critics say that the bills would break down the incentive structure of innovation in the US. Many founders build new technology in hopes of it being acquired, and the bills could cripple a key reward in startup innovation. The president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association argued:

The House bills would put the government in charge of industrial organization. They disregard the principles that have governed the US market economy, and would stop successful tech companies from providing consumers with the products and services that improve their lives.

Crushing consumer favorites: A company released a list of 15 tech conveniences that the “bills would effectively ban.” On the list are Amazon Prime’s free shipping, Google Maps in Google search results, and Apple’s App Store recommendations.

The bills

• The American Innovation and Choice Online Act would prohibit discriminatory conduct by dominant platforms, including a ban on self-preferencing and picking winners and losers online. Self-preferencing refers to when digital platforms like Amazon Marketplace or Google Search, that connect competing services with potential customers, also offer (and sometimes prioritize) their own products and services.

• The Platform Competition and Opportunity Act bans anti-competitive acquisitions by dominant platforms that expand or entrench the market power of online platforms.

• The Ending Platform Monopolies Act eliminates the ability for dominant platforms to leverage their control across multiple business lines to self-preference and disadvantage competitors.

• The Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching (ACCESS) Act aims to boost competition by lowering barriers to entry and switching costs for businesses and consumers.

• The Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act increases filing fees for mergers to provide more enforcement resources for the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission.

What are your thoughts on these proposed regulations? Please share in the comments!

Subscribe to Indie Economy for more.

📰 In the News

from the Volv newsletter by Priyanka Vazirani

💤 Companies now want to target your dreams for advertisements.

🚫 Thailand has banned digital exchanges from trading meme-based tokens and NFTs.

🚙 This startup is digitizing parking lots to make parking easier.

🎁 The Xbox mini fridge is set to drop this holiday season.

🎧 Apple has launched Beats Studio Buds, its "tiniest" earbuds to date.

Check out Volv for more 9-second news digests.

🎙 Podcast Kits Are The Hottest New Trend

from the Exploding Topics newsletter by Josh Howarth

885K new podcasts were started last year, according to Chartable. 104M Americans now listen to podcasts on a regular basis, which is higher than ever before.

Podcast kits

The trend: Podcast kits are just what they sound like. They include several pieces of podcasting gear bundled into one product. Because they're generally geared towards beginners, they're also often called "podcast starter kits."

The info: The concept of podcast kits began to emerge as blogs and tech review sites recommended different product pairings. For example, you'd see a specific microphone paired with a specific shock mount, pop filter, and boom arm.

Manufacturers and merchants quickly caught on. Now, an Amazon search for "podcast kit" displays over 1K different products. These include simple microphone accessories kits for $20 to multi-microphone bundles with professional mixing boards and headphones for $1K+.

What's next: Podcast kits are part of the "mainstream podcasting equipment" meta trend. Other products and services taking off as part of this trend include podcast cameras and microphones like the Blue Yeti and ZOOM recorder.

The opportunity: Podcast advertising platforms and marketing services are in demand, as creators look to grow their shows. Podcast ad revenue hit $800M in 2020, and is expected to double by 2024. Founders can explore opportunities in podcast ad management, graphic design for podcasts, and marketing services.

Podcast hosting software packages are also on rise. Tutorials, guides, and other products help new podcast hosts get started, and provide resources and materials for intermediate to advanced hosts to hone their skills and grow. Finally, podcast editors are also in demand.

Check out the full post to see this week's other two exploding topics.

And join Exploding Topics Pro to see trends 6+ months before they take off.

Would you explore an opportunity in the podcast space? Share in the comments!

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Exploding Topics for more.

🧠 Harry's Growth Tip

from the Marketing Examples newsletter by Harry Dry

This campaign pulled in 80 links, and Missguided soared from #30 to #1 in results for the search “dog jumpers."

No big budget or photoshoot. Just the idea to link two pre-existing products with a clever headline.

Go here for more short, sweet, practical marketing tips.

Subscribe to Marketing Examples for more.

⏲ Founder James Traf Hit $28K MRR With a Site Built in Two Hours

from the Listen Up! IH newsletter by Ayush Chaturvedi

Founder James Traf made more than $100K in six days from an icon pack that took two hours to design. He rode a viral trend, got randomly boosted by a celebrity, and made a ton of money just sitting in his home looking at his notifications. In his latest venture, he built a site in two hours using no-code tools, and now hits $28K MRR.

The origin

In September 2019, Apple released its iOS 14 update. The launch gave users the ability to customize their home screens using widgets. This meant that, for the first time ever, Apple users could have custom icons for their Apps.

Before iOS 14, people had to jailbreak their phones to make any kind of theme changes. Once Apple made it official, designers could build and sell beautiful themes and icons for the iPhone, and users could buy and install them legally.

James took advantage of the update. He put together several icons, installed them on his phone, and posted screenshots on Twitter. This tweet garnered lots of attention, and led to people asking to buy the icons.

Then, tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) featured James' icons in a video and got 9M views. The day after the video was released was James' biggest sales day. He made $30K in 24 hours. Over the next six days, he made $116,147 from 4K+ users.

The latest

James had been making iOS icons and themes since 2013, but in May 2020, he turned to delivering software.

He founded a Notion based SaaS company called Super, a no-code website builder that provides templates and CSS tricks to create beautiful sites.

James used three no-code tools to set up his website in two hours:

1. Gumroad to handle payments.
2. Notion to manage the content.
3. Super to tie it all together in a beautiful website.

All you need is to get started, according to James:

The biggest thing is that you need less than you think to get started. You don't need a degree in software engineering. You don't need to quit your job. You need two things: One, a computer with an internet connection. [Two,] some initiative. And with those, I think sky's the limit.

Super now hits $28K MRR, becoming the latest testament to the power of no-code tools.

Insights for indie hackers

James shared five key insights that contributed to his success:

1. Publish often: Create proof of work on the internet.
2. Act immediately: Be quick to ride a trend.
3. Be transparent: Share what works and what doesn't.
4. Charge more: Don't undervalue your work.
5. Do it for the art: Love the art and honor that.

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Listen Up! IH for more.

🐦 The Tweetmaster's Pick

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

🏁 Enjoy This Newsletter?

Forward it to a friend, and let them know they can subscribe here.

Also, you can submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter.

Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Nathalie Zwimpfer for the illustrations, and to Bobby Burch, Priyanka Vazirani, Josh Howarth, Harry Dry, and Ayush Chaturvedi for contributing posts. —Channing