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I collect my writing and research on marketplaces, products, technology, and the economy here. New work appears first.
The Marketplace Is Dead. It Will Call You
How Timur Turlov's Freedom is buying a marketplace that stopped paying people, why the holding is resurrecting it under its own name — and why Kaspi, for the first time in a decade, faces a challenger with real ammunition.
The State Closed the Statistics. The Market Opened a Jerrycan.
Russia's fuel shortage can't be announced — but it can be counted. How sales of empty jerrycans on Wildberries became the crisis barometer once the official numbers went dark.
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Silicon on Coal
Kazakhstan signed $10 billion in deals with NVIDIA and Firebird — and the electricity to run all that AI will be dug straight out of coal. What's actually in the deal, what it will cost, and where we've seen this movie before.
Lazy Arithmetic: How AI Mines Gold Out of Kaspi
An MCP connector for Kaspi — Kazakhstan's dominant marketplace: Claude pulls niches, prices, and the “no-brand” share on its own.
Lick Beauty: Seven Million Followers vs. 420 Tenge
How a brand with 7 million followers lost to a knockoff that sells for under a dollar.
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