el producto #289 đ
Apple's AR patents and strategy map, Q2 results, Meta's chat payments, Facebook redesign, Netflix new pricing strategy, Uber scheduled groceries, Thinking risks & more
Hey team,
Happy weekend & welcome to a new edition of el producto
đ° The week in figures
$3.9B: Primary care organization One Medical is set to be acquired by Amazon as the latter looks to make further inroads into healthcare services. The total transaction value of the deal is $3.9B
$600M: Contentsquare, a Paris-based web/app analytics company, raised $600M total ($400M equity, $200M debt) in a Series F at a $5.6B valuation; the company has 1000+ enterprise customers, incl BMW, Samsung, and Sephora
$260M: Whatnot, an LA-based social commerce platform for collectibles, raised a $260M Series D at a $3.7B valuation; sales grew 20x y/y in 2021
100k: Vitalik Buterin says that Ethereum will be a much more scalable system after the merge (transition from proof of work to proof of stake); the network will be able to process over 100,000 transactions per second, which is much faster and more scalable than the current system
54: this week Apple was granted 54 patents from the U.S. Patent & Trademark office; around half are related to future AR capabilities, including a patent for "AR selfies" and 21 patents about its ongoing experimentation with AR measurement tools
-25%: London-based Blockchain.com, a cryptocurrency exchange, will lay off 25% of its employees amid the crypto winter; the company is reducing its workforce and will lay off 150 staff members due to market conditions
-22%: In Q2, US VCs invested ~$16B in Series A and B rounds (-22% y/y); Aside from Q2 2020 (COVID outlier), that was the largest quarterly y/y decline in early-stage funding since 2010
-2%: Lyft has laid off ~60 people (~2% of staff) from its ops team and has paused its car-rental program, which had five locations; the company said it will still work with third-party car-rental cos
đ¸ Q2 results
Netflix: $7.9B revenue (+8.6% y/y), $1.4B net income, 220M memberships (lost 970K subscribers q/q, a smaller loss than the 2M predicted in Q1); in 2023, the company will release a lower-cost tier with ads; in Q3, it expects to increase subscriber count by 1M
Snap: shares fell more than 33% on Friday after the company missed expectations in its Q2 earnings report. Snap said it plans to âsubstantially" slow hiring after reporting its slowest ever quarterly growth rate and a net loss of $422M. Q2 revenue was $1.1B, up 13% y/y. The company said economic headwinds, less demand for its online ad platform, competition from TikTok and other rivals, and the Apple iOS update are to blame for the poor performance. In one positive area, Snap's DAU rose by 18% to 347M, more than the 343M expected
Twitter: missed analysts predictions on earnings, revenue, and user growth; the social media platform is blaming revenue numbers on ad industry headwinds and the pending acquisition involving Elon Musk
Q2 average monetizable daily active usage (mDAU) was 237.8 million, up 16.6% compared to Q2 last year
Q2 revenue totaled $1.18B, a decrease of 1% YoY
đ° Whatâs going on
Netflix is testing a new pricing strategy in five Latin American countries; users will have to pay an extra fee if their account is used for 2+ weeks outside of their primary residence; the fees will cost $1.70 in Argentina and $2.99 in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic
Amazon announced new tools that simplify the process of creating new skills for Alexa; unveiled during the Alexa Live developer event this week, the tools are meant to streamline the software testing workflow for developers building new Alexa skills
Discord and Microsoft are introducing Discord voice calls to Xbox; the feature is currently only available to insiders; previously, Sony announced they would enable a Discord integration for Playstation
How Microsoft won the Netflix ads deal: with technology from a recent acquisition, Xandr; other factors included Microsoftâs data privacy approach, its sales team, and supporting Netflix as it builds out its own ad network
Apple will slow hiring and spending growth in 2023; it plans to not refill roles of departing employees on some teams; Apple is still planning to release its mixed-reality headset in 2023, its first major new category since 2015
Google will start public tests for its smart glasses, aiming to have several hundred pairs in the field by EOY; the glasses enable users to translate, transcribe, search virtually, and navigate; this comes ~8 years after Google Glass launched
Google Wallet starts rolling out worldwide; the Wallet, which is replacing the Google Pay app, will let users manage their payment cards, gift cards, rewards cards, as well as things such as event tickets, ID and more; it is being rolled out in 39 countries; in most it will replace Google Pay, although the two will both be available in the US and Singapore
Uber customers can now order groceries even after the store has closed, with orders being fulfilled the next day; Uber introduced other new features on Thursday, including allowing customers to pre-schedule their deliveries and choose replacement products
Slack will raise prices on September 1st for its Pro tier from $8/user/month to $8.75/user/month billed monthly or $6.67/user/month to $7.25/user/month billed yearly; Slackâs Business+ and custom enterprise tier pricing will not change; this is Slackâs first price increase since it launched in 2014
Snap announced Snapchat for the Web, the desktop version of its mobile app
The Facebook app is getting a makeover that splits it into a personalized TikTok-like video experience and a separate side feed for family and friend posts; Meta says the changes can give users more control over what content they discover:
Facebook's main feed is now called "Home" and features algorithmically selected content that will surface in a vertical display of posts
The personalized content includes Facebook Stories and Instagram Reels; Meta says most of the surfaced content still comes from followed accounts
It plans to increase the amount of new content over time through gradual improvements to its recommendation algorithm
In addition, a new Facebook "Feeds" tab shows recent posts from categories including friends, groups, favorites, and pages in chronological order and without personalized ranking
The move can be partially attributed to regulatory pressures for social media platforms to enhance their data privacy and further combat misinformation
Meta will roll out a new âpayments in chatâ feature, enabling users to purchase items from some small businesses in the U.S. via Instagram DMs; once a user expresses interest in buying something, companies can request payment, and users will be shown a prompt that lets them complete their purchase
YouTube announced content creators can now sync their Shopify store to their channel; they'll be able to promote their products on their channel, and viewers can purchase them on YouTube
Twitch has rolled out new tools for moderators, one new update allows channels to swap ban lists with up to 30 other channels; the intent is for communities to work together on blocking serial trolls
Baidu unveiled a new autonomous vehicle that it plans to deploy in China as a robotaxi service; the electric Apollo RT6 has Level 4 self-driving capabilities and a detachable steering wheel for removal while in full autonomous mode
TikTokâs parent company ByteDance is looking into designing its own chips as Chinaâs tech industry looks to become more self-sufficient with semiconductors; ByteDanceâs chips will be customized to deal with video platforms and entertainment apps
Nike is experimenting with new in-store models that include immersive XR experiences; on Friday, the company opened a proof-of-concept store in Seoul, Korea; the store has a Mixed-Reality content studio and QR codes that unlock bespoke AR experiences
Andreessen Horowitz has opened new offices in Miami, New York, and Santa Monica while saying its new HQ will be in the cloud; the decision may affect how other companies in Silicon Valley approach remote work
đ Good reads
How to think about risk, by Reid Hoffman. âSuccumbing to complacency is one of the riskiest things you can do. Inaction is often much riskier than action. Risk is everywhere. And thatâs okay. You just need to learn to work with it.â
When your buyers arenât your users. Teresa Torres explores this frequent b2b challenge, highlighting how itâs ultimately about solving usersâ problems, and doing effective discovery work
The Standards Innovation Paradox. An interesting view by Michael Mignano on how standards can hinder innovation in the long run (despite a faux quick-start). âTechnical standards can help new technologies get momentum and reach critical mass, but over the long run can hinder innovation as more stakeholders adopt the standard. Thatâs in contrast to proprietary, closed systems where developers are free to innovate and change technology as they see fit without needing buy-in from a broader ecosystemâ
The number of new unicorns slowed in Q2â22, although the pace was still greater than any quarter prior to 2021. 85 more were added to the list over the course of the quarter. Collectively, the worldâs unicorns are worth $3.85T. CB Insights mapped all 1,170 global unicorn companies according to the primary markets in which they operate:
Appleâs strategy map. Another good one from CB Insights this week. CBI mined Apple's acquisitions, investments, and partnerships to discern the company's emerging strategic priorities
đŽ Emerging trends
Educators are split on the future of the so-called "Metaversity" as Meta and VictoryXR begin expanding into Europe and India. In the U.S., experts are voicing their concerns about the program's affordability, safety, and efficiency. Metaversities are digital twins of college campuses where students can attend classes and enjoy immersive learning experiences. Last November, Meta committed $150M to developing metaversities across the U.S.
Some educators laud Meta for affording students a more immersive and engaging in-class experience. For example, Chemistry professor and Director of "Morehouse in the Metaverse," Dr. Muhsinah Morris, told reporters: "a lot of my students came away from this saying, 'Wow, if I had this my first year, I would have been a better chemist, I would have been a little bit stronger as a student'"
If effective, the program could lower the cost of attending college and improve learning outcomes
Conversely, University of Massachusetts professor Nir Eisikovits is hesitant. He augurs that universities are buying into "non-critical hype"Â
The philosophy professor believes the program could further class divides: wealthier students attend class in person, and poorer students attend a university's digital twin
Eisikovits explained, "it's just sort of inevitable that capitalism will take us to this point. It allows people to repackage higher education at different price points"
Educators are also worried about student privacy:
In May, Human Rights Watch reported that ed-tech providers shared students' data with large corporations, including Meta and Google
VictoryXR has said they will only collect students' emails and names
VictoryXR told reporters they hope to open metaversities at every U.S. campus over the next 5-7 years. The company is opening its first European metaversity in August and is launching in India this September
Thatâs all for today! Let me know what you think by replying back to this email
Angel
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