Good reads #220- 7th July 2026

Dear Reader,
Welcome to the 220th edition of the Good reads newsletter by Malpani Ventures. Sharing your weekly dose of articles for this week’s reading!

• Chinese housing construction plummeted

• Overall unemployment was recorded as rising only a small amount.

Deflation is a classic sign of low aggregate demand and a slowing economy.

It should be noted that there are a few analysts who disagree, and think that China’s growth numbers are basically accurate. But most independent assessments conclude that China’s growth not only suffered a sharp hit in 2022, but has been weaker in the years since the end of the pandemic.

It makes sense that China’s government would continue their traditional approach of smoothing out growth numbers in the short term in order to project an attitude of stability and calm. But smoothing only works if the economy eventually bounces back. If China is on a new longer-term trajectory of lower growth — which of course remains to be seen — then there will be too few good years to “pay back” the growth that was “borrowed” in the bad years of 2022 and beyond.

• Five studios on the way out

• Major downsizing of platform team

Two of Microsoft’s crown jewels, Minecraft and King (Candy Crush) will be moved within the company’s gaming organization to report directly to Sharma, instead of to the division’s content and studios chief Matt Booty.

Sharma considers Minecraft to have been massively underinvested, a source familiar with Microsoft’s plans told Game File. They noted that Roblox, the hugely popular platform for player-made games, and Minecraft, more or less the virtual Legos of gaming, were comparable in size six or so years ago. But they estimated that Roblox has been investing more than five times as much in its business as Microsoft has on Minecraft. Minecraft was funding much of the rest of the Xbox gaming team, the source said, rather than being deeply funded itself.

• Distribution Is the New Moat

• The New Competitive Advantage

In response, Silicon Valley has declared that taste is the new moat. That might be right, but taste means nothing without reach.

The rivers of capital flow to the companies and founders that command attention. This was true even prior to the AI-fueled boom in entrepreneurship. A 2017 study out of Wharton, Harvard Business School, and Indiana University found that startups active on social media were more likely to close funding rounds and raise more capital than less active companies. The differences were substantial: One standard deviation increase in the attention startups commanded on Twitter was estimated to produce an extra $1.5 million in funding.

Until next time!