el producto #272 🚀
Apple hardware subscriptions, Web3 salaries, Global research at Spotify, Apple Wallet IDs, Company building lessons from Stripe & Notion, Metaverse real estate & more
Welcome to a new edition of el producto
🎰 The week in figures
$7B: Spotify reported their 2021 payouts to creators; $7B paid to rightsholders (+40% vs 2020), ~1K artists generated $1M+ in payouts (up ~20% vs 2020), 450 generated $2M+, 130 generated $5M+; 16.5K generated $50K+, 52K generated $10K (up ~25% vs 2020)
$750M: Ramp, an NYC-based finance automation platform and corporate card designed to help businesses spend less, raised $750M, bringing its valuation to $8.1B; with more than 5,000 businesses on the platform, the company saw its revenue grow by nearly 10x in 2021 and is powering over $5B of annualized payments volume; Ramp also continued to enhance its platform with the launch of B2B payments tool Bill Pay, its fastest-growing solution to date, integration of Buyer to deliver negotiation-as-a-service, and launch of Ramp for Travel
$450M: Yuga Labs, the company behind the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs, raised $450M at a $4B valuation; Yuga Labs has plans to introduce its own metaverse titled "Otherside," although it's unclear when it will be rolled out; leaked slides revealed its 2021 revenue was $137M, and it has a 95% profit margin
$230M: ClearBank secured a $230M investment; the company offers faster payment transactions and is used by 200 large companies, including Tide, Oaknorth, Coinbase, and Gemini; its customer base in the U.K. includes over 13M bank accounts amounting to ~$4B in assets
$180M: Jeeves, a startup offering corporate cards and expense management software, has raised a $180M Series C at a $2.1B valuation; Jeeves has an international focus with over 3000 customers in 24 countries representing ~$1.3B in annualized GTV
$160M: Rokid, a China-based AR-glasses maker, has raised a $160M Series C; Rokid originally started out as a smart speaker maker but in recent years has pivoted to focus on augmented reality; use cases include field work and auto repair
$150M: Rapid API raised a $150M Series D round at a $1B valuation to become a unicorn; the new investment will enable adding new capabilities to its API hub and expand its enterprise capabilities to grow the customer base; Rapid API currently has 4M developers using its platform and added 1M users in the last year
$150M: Apple has acquired UK-based open banking startup Credit Kudos for a reported ~$150M; Credit Kudos provides insights on loan applicants drawn from bank data; their API enables lenders to make less risky decisions at a faster pace increasing acceptance rates
$150M: UK-based Fetch.ai raised $150M; Fetch, a blockchain AI lab, offers a decentralized machine learning platform for applications such as asset trading; for example, one of its applications can help users of the Uniswap crypto exchange automate their trading; Fetch.ai is powered by its native Ethereum-based token, FET
$120M: Omnipresent, a London, UK-based provider of a SaaS-based employment platform, raised $120M in Series B funding
$110M: Capitolis, an Israel-based startup helping banks and institutional clients yield higher ROE (return on equity), has raised a $110M a Series D at a $1.6B valuation; Capitolis has processed $13T in trades from 100+ financial institutions on its platform
$100M: TokenEx has raised $100M from K1 Investment Management; the startup helps companies secure the financial data they process; its cloud service can replace financial information in a company’s system with algorithmically-generated files called tokens that don’t contain any sensitive data
$900k: Web3 salaries have soared to as high as $900,000 as companies compete for the best talent. Much of the compensation comes from token incentives; nevertheless, they are still 2-5X as high as traditional silicon valley software jobs. Examples:
A senior Solidity dev from lending protocol Silo Finance reported a salary ranging from $300,000-$750,000. For the $750,000 job, $300,000 is the base salary with $450,000 coming in tokens
Olympus DAO fork TempleDAO posted a job ranging from $300,000-$900,000.
OpenSea competitor LooksRare offered compensation packages reaching $600,000
📰 What’s going on
Uber reached an agreement to list all NYC taxis on its app; this could help alleviate driver shortages and surge pricing in the city; this is Uber’s first citywide partnership in the US; NYC has roughly 14K taxis that will now integrate their software with Uber’s; Taxis will cost similar to an Uber X
Spotify will rebrand its live audio app Greenroom to “Spotify Live” and move the content into its main streaming app; the app will be used as a space for creators to organize conversations with their subscribers; Spotify acquired what was originally called “Locker Room” in March 2021; the changes are expected to happen in Q2 of this year
Google reached an agreement with Spotify to allow the music streaming platform to offer its users an alternative in-app payment option; Spotify has required users to sign up for its paid services through its website to avoid Google’s Play Store commission fees, which are as much as 30%; the in-app alternative payment option is expected to become available later this year
Google will introduce a search feature that shows the appointment availability of doctors nearby; the initial rollout will occur in the "coming weeks" and show open appointments at CVS Health's MinuteClinics; the search feature will display dates and times at clinics for different services, such as skin conditions and vaccinations.
Apple could sell iPhones and iPads through a new hardware subscription service in the near future; customers could pay a recurring fee, similar to a monthly app fee, to eventually own the hardware and upgrade to new models at little to no cost; according to initial reports, Apple is eyeing a launch for the service in 2022 or 2023; it could combine Apple's services and monthly iPhone payments into one subscription; this could be similar to Microsoft's subscription for the Xbox Series S, which allows customers to pay for the console and other services in a single flat monthly fee
Apple rolled out new creator tools for Podcasts Connect; the features include followers counts and increased access to Apple’s paid subscriber-only program; for paid podcasts, Apple will take 30% in year 1 and 15% in year 2
Apple planning a 15-inch MacBook Air; the upcoming MacBook Air redesign has been extensively reported on, but new information suggests it may come in two sizes; according to Display Supply Chain Consultants, Apple is working on a 15-inch version of the laptop to sit alongside the 13-inch model, which may itself get a slightly larger screen as well
Apple announced Arizona would become the first state to offer driver’s licenses and state IDs inside Apple Wallet; Apple device owners will be able to tap their iPhone or Apple Watch to present their ID, starting at select TSA security checkpoints in Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, with more TSA locations supported over time; other states are coming on board, including Colorado, Hawaii, Mississippi and Ohio, and the territory of Puerto Rico, in addition to the previously announced Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma and Utah
Meta has filed for eight trademark applications for its logo; six of these applications explicitly refer to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology
Meta partnered with e-commerce technology firm VNTANA to help brands launch 3D ads on Facebook and Instagram; users will be able to rotate the ads to see the product from multiple angles; the VNTANA integration will enable marketers to launch 3D ads for clothing, footwear, and handbags
Amazon launched AWS for games with capabilities to enable developers to build and grow their games; AWS is partnering with Epic Games, Databricks, NVIDIA, AMD, Parsec, Slalom, Snowflake, and others through this initiative; AWS for games offers products and services, including Cloud Game Development, Game Servers, Game Security, Live Operations, Game Analytics, and Game AI & ML
Shopify introduced its own link-in-bio tool for use across the web and social media app profiles; Linkpop, as the tool is called, allows creators to sell products directly to their followers from their social profiles
Twitter added a new feature to its iOS app that allows people to use their camera to create GIFs; the GIF recording is just a few seconds long and is meant to be tweeted, not shared to other platforms
Twitter’s TweetDeck product could become the next Twitter Blue (subscription service) feature, based on discoveries made in the app’s code; the shift would make sense, given that Blue is aimed at power users and TweetDeck is certainly a tool for that market
Zoom's new Avatar feature includes a virtual character that copy users’ expressions, similar to Apples Memojis; the feature, included in the Zoom 5.10 update, currently only lets users become animals, but new options will be added in the future
Twilio launches Flex Conversations, a unified chat API for contact centers
Robinhood launched its new cash card this week, which allows users to spend money directly out of their Robinhood account and round up purchases to the nearest dollar to fund their investments, similar to something like Acorns, or more recently, Venmo
EU lawmakers have agreed on a new set of laws, called the Digital Markets Act, which is intended to rein in big tech companies like Google, Meta, Apple, Amazon and other cos with a €75B+ market cap; the laws include data and privacy restrictions and a requirement that messaging apps like WhatsApp and iMessage interoperate with each other and other smaller messaging platforms
Netflix has acquired mobile game developer Boss Fight Entertainment; the company has ~130 employees and is Netflix’s third game studio purchase since last summer; the terms of the deal were undisclosed; eventually, Netflix plans on creating and developing their own games in-house
Ola to acquire fintech Avail Finance, a financial services startup that serves the blue-collar workforce; the ride-hailing giant looks to expand its financial services offerings; terms undiscloser; Avail Finance raised about $38.5M across multiple rounds and was valued at $86.6M
Snap acquired the neurotech startup NextMind, developer of an augmented-reality headband that measures brain activity using sensors and machine learning tools; Snap could use NextMind's brain-computer interface and technology in its augmented-reality glasses
Quick commerce startup Gopuff partnered with British supermarket chain Morrisons to offer grocery delivery in 15-20 minutes; this is the first partnership with a supermarket chain that Gopuff has formed; Gopuff is operational in 20 cities in the U.K. and entered the market in Nov. 2021
Toronto is now the third-largest tech hub in North America, trailing only SF and NYC; Microsoft, Google, Stripe and others have recently opened offices in the area; Toronto’s tech workforce is growing faster than any city in the US
Clearview AI said it released version 2.0 of its facial recognition platform, which now claims a database of 20B facial images. It's the largest upgrade since the company released its first version of the system in 2016-2017
📚 Good reads
Building games and apps without touching a ling of code, entirely through natural language using OpenAI’s code-davinci model. OpenAI has a new code generating model that’s improved in a number of ways and can handle nearly two times as much text (4,000 tokens.) There are limitations, and coding purely by simple text instructions can stretch your imagination, but it’s a huge leap forward and a fun experiment
Scaling user reasearch according to global needs at Spotify. Constant shifting trends in culture at a macro and micro level will be a continuous challenge for thinking carefully about how we approach research. User researchers at Spotify look at how to adapt and stay ahead of shifting global patterns, ensuring an engaging, relevant experience for users everywhere
23 tactical company building lessons, learned from scaling Stripe & Notion, by Cristina Crodova, ex Head of Platform & Partnerships at Notion and creator of the Partnerships function at Stripe; “So many people delude themselves when they think they can just slot a new project on top of everything the team’s already doing. You have to put in the work to figure out if that shiny new object is worth throwing off the roadmap for“
Productivity addiction: when we become obsessed with productivity, and how to manage it, by Anne-Laure Le Cunff
Common UX/UI mistakes startups make, by Sakky B
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin graced the cover of Time Magazine. He is worried about a few things in crypto:
Investors are getting burned by betting more than they can afford on things like NFTs and altcoins
The high transaction fees limit ETH to finance and speculation
The perception of crypto is tarnished by people flaunting wealth
About Vitalik:
Ethereum is technically a non-profit; thus, he can't directly steer its ship.
He was a whiz kid growing up:
Using Excel by 4
Knew 100 digits of pi by 7
His dad showed him Bitcoin when he was 17, and he founded Ethereum at 19
He freelanced for Bitcoin Weekly for 5 BTC/article ($4 at the time) and then founded Bitcoin Magazine
🔮 Emerging trends
The (Metaverse) land rush of 2022 is on. Major brands are spending some serious cash on buying virtual land in the metaverse. In recent months Snoop Dogg, J.P. Morgan, HSBC, and Samsung have all purchased digital land. More:
Samsung and others have bought virtual land that they intend for developing various services in the digital world
The value of digital land has already increased — last year, a plot of land in Decentraland or The Sandbox was less than $1,000, and today it is sitting around $13,000
Why are people buying virtual land?
People invest in virtual land for the same reason they buy physical land: they hope for the value to increase over time based on the property's location
Some investors are buying virtual land to build a storefront, house, or building in which you can do business. For example, the Nikeland virtual store on the Roblox platform has close to 7 million visitors
Others view it as an investment opportunity, but of course, it's a risky investment because there is no guarantee that the property's value will go up. It's all speculation at this point
How do you buy virtual land?
Purchase is made using cryptocurrency, and you need a wallet such as the Metamask or Binance wallet
Ethereum is a popular crypto choice
Cryptocurrency is connected to gaming platforms such as Decentraland and The Sandbox, and the sale of land is recorded by the transfer of NFTs
Selling land is done through platforms like OpenSea and nonfungible.com, where buyers can negotiate prices
The problem with buying virtual land:
The market is highly deregulated and risky, and there is no buyer protection in place in case a fraudulent transaction occurs
Second, there are technical risks, such as forgetting your password and losing access to your digital assets
However, because everything is secured on the blockchain with smart contracts and safe encryption, the risk that someone can steal your password or steal your digital property is minimal
Scarcity problem: In the physical world, the price of land increases due to a limited supply, but in the virtual world, the supply is unlimited because developers can simply add more plots of land
Have a great weekend
Angel
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