el producto #295 š
The Ethereum merge, Web3 explained, Disney "prime" membership, Apple surpasses Android in US, Snap adds BeReal-like feature, Choosing growth channels & more
Hey team,
Happy weekend & welcome to a new edition ofĀ el producto.
š° The week in figures
$3B: Video and events platform Triller is targeting a Q4 IPO at a $3B valuation, and recently raised $200M; the company is on a $250M revenue run rate in 2023
$300M: GoPuff is looking to borrow up to $300M as it tries to navigate slowing growth in the instant-delivery market; the grocery delivery startup has delayed plans to go public this year
$253M: Dublin-based Wayflyer has raisedĀ $253M; Wayflyer providesĀ funding forĀ eCommerce businesses, and also provides a free analytics tool that helps its clients betterĀ understand their metrics
$238M: SeatGeek has raised aĀ $238MĀ Series E, reaching unicorn status; SeatGeek is a live-events booking platform known for its marketing campaigns with influencers that target young audiences
$110M: EarlySalary,Ā an Indian consumer lending startup,Ā raisedĀ a $110M Series D
$95M: Landa has raisedĀ $95MĀ in an equity and debt deal;Ā Landa aims to democratize real estate investing by offering an online platform in which everyone can invest regardless of their income
$63M: Fintech firmĀ Solid, which provides fintech-as-a-service, raised $63M in Series B funding; the capital will help accelerate its entrance into new verticals like travel, logistics and healthcare; the company was in stealth mode for 18 months
$52M: Alloy, an identity verification API and operating system,Ā raisedĀ $52M at $1.55B valuation
$50M: Lightnet Group, which is building a blockchain-based cross-border payment infrastructure,Ā raisedĀ $50M
$10.5M: Crypto.comĀ refunded a userĀ $10,474,043 too much;Ā anĀ Australian received nearly $10.5M in error when she should have received a $100 refund; Crypto.com realized the mistake 7 months later and filed legal action
100x: Coinbase traders in Georgia (Europe) exploited a pricing bug that gave them aĀ 100x profit; they were able to sell crypto for 100x its actual value, but their accounts are now locked, and Coinbase wants the money back
+300%: Apple Podcast subscribers grew by 300%+ since June 2021 and >25% of the top 100 shows now offer a premium subscription, acc to the company
+24%: Klarna revealed its revenueĀ grew by 24%Ā YoY in H1 to $950M;Ā Klarna's pre-tax loss rose from $169.4M in H1 of 2021 to $581M in H1 of this year; Klarna was profitable between 2005-2019 but has continuously posted losses since 2020 as the company focused on growth
50%: iPhone US market shareĀ hit an all-time high last quarter at 50%; Apple also globally dominates premium smartphone sales with 78% of the $1k+ market and 57% of the $400+ market; in this article, Aakash Gupta explores some of the reasons that lead to Apple surpassing Android in the US
-20%: After announcing a 20% layoff and shuttering in-app games, Snap reported it is canceling original shows; CEO Evan Spiegel wrote that the company is "restructuring our business to increase focus on our three strategic priorities: community growth, revenue growth, and augmented reality;" Snap has alsoĀ endedĀ its startup accelerator Yellow as part of cost-cutting measures
š° Whatās going on
Disney is looking into an Amazon Prime-style membership that offers discounts or perks to incentivize buyers to spend more on its streaming, parks, resorts, and merchandise; the company currently provides exclusive event and merchandise offerings with its D23 Official Fan Club at $99.99-$129.99/yr
Snapchat is the latest app to add BeReal-style dual camera functionality, which they first teased in April; this follows Instagram testing āCandid Challengesā last week
A handful of Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to edit Tweets up to 30 minutes after publishing; the feature, currently in an internal testing phase, labels all edited posts with a history, including past versions of the Tweet
Twitter had started building an OnlyFans-esque feature to monetize adult content on its platform before a team of 80+ employees discovered that Twitter was not effectively preventing CSAM on its platform
Apple has filed trademarks for the names "Reality One," "Reality Pro," and "Reality Processor," causing speculation that it may be closing in on a name for its mixed reality headset; Apple last launched a new hardware category seven years ago with the Apple Watch
Microsoft and ByteDance are collaborating on a project called KubeRay, built on the open-source software project Ray, aimed at making software to help companies run AI apps more efficiently; two developers at Microsoft and ByteDance have been meeting once per week
Microsoft launchedĀ Teams App CampĀ to educate developers on building applications for Teams and selling them on its marketplace; the on-demand workshop contains videos and practical exercises for extending a simple web application to a full-featured Microsoft Teams application
Meta is establishing a Monetization Experiences division to build out "paid features" for its social platforms, which currently make a majority of their revenue from ads; the division follows the move of Tiktok, which started testing paid subscriptions for creators earlier this year
Meta isĀ now allowingĀ some U.S.-based users to post NFTs from their digital wallets to Facebook and Instagram;Ā the update comes after Instagram began allowing select users to test NFT ādigital collectibleā posts in May
Meta is forming a group that will help createĀ paid featuresĀ for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp;Ā the effort could help it find new sources of non-advertising revenue
Facebookās separate āFacebook Gamingā app, which enables fans to interact with streamers and gaming companies, will be ending in October; most of the apps functionality will be transferred to the main Facebook app; the shut down comes after Metaās increased focus on VR gaming and the metaverse
Google outlined plans for YouTube's handling of next week's 2022 midterm elections; tools will be used to limit the spread of misinformation, like highlighting recommended content from authoritative national and local news sources
Shopify is telling merchants to avoid Amazonās one-click checkout service as it violates its terms of service; the feature āBuy With Prime,ā which launched in April and is a competitor to Shopifyās āShop Pay,ā enabled merchants to tap into Amazonās delivery offerings on their website
Cash App users canĀ makeĀ purchases on e-commerce platforms that aren't in the Square network;Ā previously, consumers could only use Cash App Pay at physical retailers with a Square terminal or e-commerce retailers that had partnered with Block (formerly known as Square)
Chinese e-commerce giant PinduoduoĀ rolled outĀ its Temu cross-border e-commerce website in the U.S.Ā Temu is selling products in 14 categories, such as beauty and apparel; while Pinduoduo owns Temu, the platform is being run by a U.S.-based company called Whaleco
African e-commerce firm Jumia willĀ startĀ delivering orders via drone in Ghana as part of a partnership with Zipline;Ā the move will make it easier for Jumia to deliver packages in rural parts of Africa, which made up 27% of its orders in 2021
BinanceĀ andĀ MastercardĀ are partnering toĀ launchĀ a crypto-to-fiat payment card; the cryptocurrency payment card that enables users to convert their holdings into fiat for transactions at Mastercard terminals worldwide
Vitalik Buterin expressed concerns overĀ Bitcoin's long-term prospect sahead of the Ethereum merge;Ā the merge event will happen on Sept. 15, and some opponets have argued that it will limit decentralization, which Buterin says is "plain wrong"
š Good reads
Web3 explained. Web3Ā is the likely winner of the most-hyped tech term of the last 12 months. So what exactly is it? From the metaverse to decentralized finance to NFTs and beyond, CB Insights breaks down what Web3 is today, what it could mean for the future of the internet, and what challenges it faces
A guide to talking about layoffs. Sadly, we've been seeing a lot of layoffs in the tech community in the past few weeks in response to larger economic factors. If you've been impacted, this articleāwhich features advice from recruiters in many well-known tech companiesāis a helpful guide for reframing your experience, thinking through how you'll discuss it with potential employers, and planning specific next steps you can take
Churn and 3 common myths. While products can't be successful if too many customers churn, many product people approach reducing churn incorrectly. This insightful article by Reforge outlines three common myths about churn and provides plenty of real-life examples of how to reframe them in a way that's more likely to positively impact your business
Choosing the right growth channel for your product. Building new products is easier than ever, thanks to no-code tools and web builders. But what's much more challenging is competing forāand winningācustomers' attention. It helps to think about which growth channel like sales, SEO, or virality is the right choice for you. This article will help you weigh the pros and cons of each growth channel
No product-market fit? Hereās 7 steps to pivot a failed product based on a real case, by Desmond H
Lean Product Playbook: the rigorous framework to validate your idea. A nice and brief guide to find and validate product/market-fit
The state of central banks digital currencies. Over 100 countries are exploring digital currencies (cryptocurrencies). Introducing regulated crypto issued by countriesā central banks presents many opportunities. This article and graph explore them:
š® Emerging trends
Using AI to decode speech from brain activity
Meta AI researchers said they developed an AI model that helps toĀ decode speech from a person's brain activityĀ without surgery.Ā Meta says its work is meant to help scientists accelerate the use of AI to better understand the brain. It's a step toward technologies that can decode language from noninvasive brain recordings at high accuracy, improving the lives of people who have traumatic brain injuries and cannot communicate effectively:
The method relies on noninvasive brain scans such as electroencephalograms, EEG, and magnetoencephalography, MEG. These scan the brain from the outside, meaning no surgery, and provide snapshots of its activity
The problem with EEGs and MEGs is they are very "noisy," making it hard to determine exactly what a person is thinking
To address this, Facebook AI Research Labs (FAIR) scientists used machine learning algorithms. They "cleaned up" the noise using FAIR's own open-source AI model, wave2vec 2.0, for automatic speech recognition
The researchers tapped open-source EEG and MEG datasets containing 150+ hours of recordings of 169 healthy volunteers listening to audiobooks and isolated sentences in both English and Dutch
This data trained the wave2vec 2.0 model to better pick out words that a person heard. From only a few seconds of brain activity, the model could infer the words the person most likely heard
According to Meta, it could decode the corresponding speech segments from the brain scans at up to 73% "top-10" accuracy for 793 words
The Ethereum merge will result in a reduction ofĀ carbon emissions by 99%
The second largest cryptocurrency will complete the planned merge event on 15th September, migrating to a proof-of-stake network:
Energy consumption on the network is around 72 terawatt-hours a day, enough to power Colombia. In efforts to reduce electricity use:Ā
The Ethereum proof-of-work network will switch to an energy-efficient proof-of-stake network
The merge will also end the role of miners on the network
Proof-of-stake is a mechanism used by blockchains to achieve distributed consensus. It will allow users to stake capital in the form of smart contractsĀ Ā
The newly staked ether acts like collateral that can be destroyed if the validator behaves dishonestly
If users want to participate as validators on the network, they must deposit 32 ETH and run three separate software programs
Challenges ahead during the merge:Ā
Users need to be vigilant about scams and hackersĀ
"Do not send your ETH anywhere in an attempt to 'upgrade to ETH2'"
No ETH2 token exists, and scammers may use this as leverage for illicit activity
The final stages of the merge will begin on Sept. 6, and the old blockchain will switch off between Sept. 10 and 20
Thatās all for today! Let me know what you think by replying back to this email
Angel
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