On February 19, 2014 the top social network Facebook acquired instant message app for smartphones WhatsApp for a mind-blowing $19 billion. The acquisition of WhatsApp was a brilliant move by Facebook. WhatsApp has over 700 million active users and generating health annual revenue yields for Facebook. Today we take a look inside why Facebook quickly […]
Netflix is testing a cut-price mobile-only subscription as it explores new packages aimed at widening its appeal in Asia and other emerging markets. CEO Reed Hastings told Bloomberg last week that the company would test lower-priced packages and it hasn’t taken long for those experiments to come to light. The first reports are from Malaysia, where Netflix quietly rolled out a mobile-only tier priced at RM17, or around $4, each month. That’s half the price of the company’s next cheapest package — ‘Basic’ — which retails for RM33, or around $7.90, per month in Malaysia. A Netflix spokesperson confirmed the Malaysia trial. They added that similar trials are “running in a few countries” although they declined to provide details. It remains to be seen if this new subscription tier will roll out to other parts of the world. The mobile-only trial cuts the price of Netflix in Malaysia by around 50 percent The move makes sense for Netflix. While it has added plenty of international users — those outside of the U.S. represent 79 million of its total base of 137 million customers — I have argued in the past that it is missing out on even more customers because its rigid pricing is too expensive in many parts of the world. Indeed, to prove that point, a number of rivals in Asia price their services more aggressively. Rivals including fast-growing Hotstar in India, iFlix — which is backed by Sky and covers 28 countries — HOOQ and Viu are priced from $3 upwards per month. While it isn’t clear how many users they are pinching from Netflix, there’s clearly a pricing disparity which this new mobile-only offering goes some way to addressing. Aside from offering cheaper options, Netflix is also doubling down on local content in Asia. India is a key focus and the company this month revealed a slate of eight new Netflix Original movies and one new series from India. The mobile-only package isn’t the first time Netflix has tinkered with its pricing strategy. The company tested a strategy to bypass Apple’s App Store with its own web-based payment system over the summer. Rather than using in-app payments for billing, and in turn paying Apple a 30 percent share of the spoils, this approach enabled Netflix to collect all the money for itself. More money is better, of course, but the cost is that the user experience is clunkier without the App Store and that may put some prospective customers. It isn’t clear how well the test performed for Netflix. ... Read More
Bain Capital Ventures (BCV), the venture capital arm of the private equity giant Bain Capital, has brought in $1 billion to invest in startups across industries and stages. The capital has been spread across three funds: $650 million for its eighth flagship vehicle, $250 million for a co-investment fund focused on growth-stage investments and an additional $100 million directly from the partners at Bain Capital, which will be deployed on every investment out of the latest fund. Founded in 1984, BCV is known for its investments in LinkedIn, Rent the Runway, SurveyMonkey, SendGrid and DocuSign. Initially, the firm was more of a growth-stage investor, though it’s warmed to early-stage companies, making a total of 106 early-stage investments, 52 of which were at the seed stage, since 2013. The firm says that’s triple its total volume of seed and Series A investments from previous years, thanks to the members of its West Coast investment team, who are responsible for striking a majority of BCV’s early-stage bets. The firm opened its first office in San Francisco in 2016. BCV also has offices in New York, Boston and Palo Alto. BCV’s seventh flagship fund closed on $600 million in 2016; its latest core vehicle is even larger. Ajay Agarwal, one of BCV’s eight managing directors since 2003, said that’s because of the bull market and lack of liquidity in venture capital, which has caused several VC funds to raise larger and larger pools of capital. Just look at Thrive Capital or GGV Capital, for example, VC funds that have surpassed $1 billion with recent fund closes. Bain Capital Ventures is headquartered in San Francisco. “We, like many of our peers, have far more demand for our funds than we have the capacity for,” Agarwal told TechCrunch. “Companies are taking longer to go public and therefore require more capital, but we don’t want the fund size to get too large.” “It’s certainly an environment where lots and lots of capital is coming into the market … It puts even more of an emphasis on firms that have a real competitive differentiation — something unique to offer entrepreneurs.” BCV invests in 12 to 14 companies per year, not including its seed-stage portfolio companies. Recent investments include Ribbon, a real estate tech startup that brought in $225 million in October; Basis, a cryptocurrency startup that raised $133 million in April; and messaging startup Attentive, which closed a $13 million round in February. With the three additional funds, BCV has $4.9 billion in assets under management. Bessemer Venture Partners has a brand new $1.85B fund ... Read More
It’s definitely a good time to pick up a HomePod. Apple just started selling refurbished models for $299.99, while Best Buy will sell the Siri-equipped speaker for $249.99 on Black Friday, and now B&H Photo is offering that same price right now — no need to wait for post-Thanksgiving carnage. That represents $100 off the sticker price, a startling 29-percent reduction for an Apple product still in its first year on sale. The HomePod isn’t for everyone, as it only really makes sense as a smart speaker if you use Apple Music and are invested in the Apple ecosystem. But its sound quality is amazing for the size, and $249.99 is a great price even if you only ever use it as an AirPlay 2 speaker. Continue reading… ... Read More
“Let the Vapors of the Vishanti drive you from the sight of man! Let the mystic Hosts of Hoggoth prevent you from ever returning again!” You may not have read those immortal lines before, but superhero comics fans can probably instantly identify the author. Stan Lee, who died yesterday at age 95, wrote like no one before him — or, in spite of his massive influence, anyone since. Though he initially became famous as a comics writer, Lee’s writing is perhaps the least-celebrated aspect of his career and legacy. He’s mostly known as the co-creator of hugely successful characters like Spider-Man, the Hulk, Thor, and the Fantastic Four, even though he probably had less input into them than his collaborating artists, Steve Ditko and Jack... Continue reading… ... Read More
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jBG0aVX2nM3mXj6xgqCaVIPGK-Q=/0x0:2040x1360/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/62324737/jbareham_180202_2266_0295.0.jpg" /> <p id="2rk5QW">It’s definitely a good time to pick up a HomePod. Apple just started <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/13/18092918/apple-refurbished-homepods-black-friday">selling refurbished models</a> for $299.99, while <a href="https://www.theverge.com/good-deals/2018/11/8/18075796/best-buy-black-friday-deals-sale-surface-pro-ring-video-doorbell-2-2018">Best Buy will sell</a> the Siri-equipped speaker for $249.99 on Black Friday, and now B&H Photo is offering that same price <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1514734&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bhphotovideo.com%2Fc%2Fsearch%3Fsts%3Dps%26ci%3D9581%26Ntt%3Dapple%2520homepod" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">right now</a> — no need to wait for post-Thanksgiving carnage.</p> <p id="VCccZ4">That represents $100 off the sticker price, a startling 29-percent reduction for an Apple product still in its first year on sale. <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/6/16976906/apple-homepod-review-smart-speaker">The HomePod isn’t for everyone</a>, as it only really makes sense as a smart speaker if you use Apple Music and are invested in the Apple ecosystem. But its sound quality is amazing for the size, and $249.99 is a great price even if you only ever use it as an AirPlay 2 speaker. </p> <p> <a href="https://www.theverge.com/good-deals/2018/11/14/18094178/homepod-black-friday-sale-price-bh-249">Continue reading…</a> </p>... Read More
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EQ39Ow0leu9JKBQC6kZuMo7ffXA=/0x0:3204x2136/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/62320005/174038808.jpg.0.jpg" /> <p id="TLQzDK">“Let the Vapors of the Vishanti drive you from the sight of man! Let the mystic Hosts of Hoggoth prevent you from ever returning again!”</p> <p id="njqEvp">You may not have read those immortal lines before, but superhero comics fans can probably instantly identify the author. Stan Lee, who <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/12/18088554/stan-lee-death-obituary-marvel-comics">died yesterday at age 95</a>, wrote like no one before him — or, in spite of his massive influence, anyone since.</p> <p id="LzJsVF">Though he initially became famous as a comics writer, Lee’s writing is perhaps the least-celebrated aspect of his career and legacy. He’s mostly known as the co-creator of hugely successful characters like Spider-Man, the Hulk, Thor, and the Fantastic Four, even though he probably had <a href="https://comicbookhistorians.com/marvel-1960s-jack-kirby-stan-lee-steve-ditko-who-created-what/">less input into them than his collaborating artists</a>, Steve Ditko and Jack...</p> <p> <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/13/18093048/stan-lee-rip-appreciation-comics-marvel-writing-doctor-strange">Continue reading…</a> </p>... Read More
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