el producto #360 🚀

Amazon's AI assistant, Apple+Paramount to bundle streaming, Meta's Threads launching in EU, Substack video, Principles for managing up, Why WeWork died & more

Dec 02, 2023

Hey team,

Happy weekend and welcome to a new edition of el producto!

🎰 The week in figures

$12.4B: U.S. digital sales on Cyber Monday rose 9.6% YoY in 2023. Online shoppers made widespread use of BNPL. U.S. shoppers spent $12.4B online on Cyber Monday

$9.8B: Black Friday achieved a record-breaking $9.8B in U.S. online sales, experiencing a 7.5% YoY increase as consumers prioritized maximizing discounts through online deal hunting. The growth, bolstered by $5.3B in mobile shopping, suggests that influencers and social media advertising have fostered consumer comfort with mobile spending, potentially contributing to impulse purchases

$3.2B: Microsoft announced a $3.2B investment in the U.K., its largest to date in the country, to support AI growth and expand data center capabilities

110M: On its first anniversary, ChatGPT's mobile applications have achieved over 110 million installs and nearly $30 million in revenue, highlighting this platform’s impact and widespread adoption

$102.5M: Together AI, which helps pre-train and fine-tune open source foundation models more efficiently, raised a $102.5M Series A

-$75M: X stands to lose up to $75M in ad revenue by the end of 2023 as advertisers withdraw over concerns about antisemitic content

11%: Salesforce reports Q3 revenue up 11% YoY to $8.72B, vs. $8.72B est., and raises its FY 2024 forecast for operating cash flow growth; CRM jumps 6%+

📰 What’s going on

Apple and Paramount are discussing bundling their streaming services, which could offer subscribers a wider variety of content and reshape the streaming market landscape

Apple is reportedly shutting down its credit card product it launched in partnership with Goldman Sachs. The product is understood to have underperformed vs expectations and is a blow to Apple’s services revenue stream

Meta plans to launch Threads in the EU in December, its largest expansion since its July 2023 debut, but only for consumption, no profiles or posting

On December 1, Google will start deleting personal Google accounts that have been inactive for at least two years; once deleted, no data can be recovered

Amazon launches Amazon Q, a workplace-focused AI assistant starting at $20/user/month that competes with ChatGPT Enterprise, Microsoft's Copilot, and other

Amazon releases its own AI-powered image generator. “[You] can use the model to easily swap out an existing [image] background to a background of a rainforest [for example]”

Spotify Wrapped 2023 adds an AI DJ and Blend to the annual personalized insights

OpenAI's GPT Store will not launch this year as originally planned but is scheduled for an early 2024 release. Last month, OpenAI announced the GPT Store, a marketplace for users to publicly share and sell their personalized AI chatbots

Uber is launching a new partnership with London taxi drivers that will see black cabs become available on the service for the first time

Substack rolls out video creation and editing tools to enable creators to publish video podcasts, create interactive AI-made transcripts, and customize clips

Telegram has updated its channels with discovery and customization features, enhancing user experience and offering more control and engagement options within its messaging platform

Discord ditched its AI chatbot Clyde after introducing it in March as an experimental feature

Pinterest begins testing a ‘body type ranges’ tool to make searches more inclusive

Ikea debuts a trio of affordable smart home sensors: Parasoll, for doors and windows, Vallhorn, for motion, and Badring, for water leakages, available in H1 2024 for under $10

Reddit is reportedly talking with investors about holding an IPO. The social media firm may go public as soon as 2024

Alibaba has divested its quantum computing lab and plans to shift its tech research focus more toward AI. Alibaba's Damo Academy, its cutting-edge R&D institute, has donated the quantum lab and equipment to Zhejiang University

🧑‍🔬 Tools & Products

Plane takes on Jira with an open-source project management tool for software teams

ChatPRD is an on-demand chief product officer that drafts and improves your PRDs

DocuReview - review legal contracts before signing. Handy if you’re planning to work with any third party providers

📚 Good reads

15 principles for managing up. Managing up is the skill that combines competence, communicating well, and following through. It’s important for everyone, but especially for Product people who need to collaborate cross-functionally and at different levels within their companies. This article offers tons of insights from leaders as well as sample scripts to get you on the right track. Definitely worth bookmarking and returning to often

How to strengthen your curiosity muscle. Curiosity is such an important quality that Teresa Torress named it as one of the 7 core traits of a good PM. But can you intentionally develop your curiosity? Yes you can, says Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic. This Harvard Business Review article offers several specific steps you can take to become more curious

How to do QA. Demystifying this confusing function with Jon Perl, founder and CEO of QA Wolf. Video interview + writen summary

Why WeWork died - another great case study by Jaryd Herman. WeWork, once America's most valuable startup, backed by prominent investors, went from a $47B valuation to bankruptcy in just 4 years, primarily due to the flawed leadership of CEO Adam Neumann and deceptive business practices. Despite being a short-term landlord masquerading as a tech startup, WeWork attracted excessive investments during the tech boom, leading to a gross overvaluation, operating under an unsustainable and not truly innovative business model

The "15% + 1 level" rule for creating buy-in and moving immovable things, by Leah Tharin. Many PMs and Growth leaders struggle to get buy-in for their ideas despite clear problems within their organization. By thinking one level higher and considering the resources available to higher-ups, PMs can better assess the feasibility and timeline of their ideas

That’s all for this week! Let me know what you think by replying back to this email or commenting on Substack

Angel

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