Gm. Hoping this isn’t your portfolio…
Welcome to Issue 08 of The Quest Digest, where we break down Silicon Valley news for you every week, in 3 minutes.
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Netflix shares down more than 35% after loss of subs in Q1
In Q1 of 2022, Netflix reported a loss of 200,000 subscribers – it’s first subscriber loss in over a decade. Netflix forecasts a global paid subscriber loss of 2 million in the second quarter.
Revenue in this quarter reached $7.78B, which was below analysts’ estimates of $7.93B.
Shares fell by more than 35% in after-market trading, eliminating $45B in market value.
Our Take
In response to declining subscribers, Netflix attributes it to several factors such as the suspension of its service in Russia, password sharing among subscribers, and even inflation affecting user acquisition.
In turn, the platform is trialing charging extra to subscribers if they are sharing with people outside their household and a cheaper subscription model which includes ads.
There’s no question a lower-priced, ad-supported plan will work (from seeing Hulu, Disney, and HBO’s track record), however, falling subscribers could also be a question of Netflix’s programming as streaming platforms face fiercer competition.
Coinbase launches NFT marketplace
Coinbase announced that its NFT marketplace is now in beta. The marketplace only supports Ethereum and users log in using wallets such as Coinbase Wallet or MetaMask.
To start off the marketplace has zero transaction fees (asides from ETH gas fees and creator-implmeneted royalties), but it will eventually implement a “low, single-digit fee”.
The company is looking to differentiate against established players by adding social features such as upvoting and downvoting, comments, and an algorithmic feed (imagine a cross between OpenSea and Instagram…)
Our Take
NFT marketplaces are yet to incorporate social media-like features despite the NFT community’s attachment to community-focused platforms like Discord. Coinbase might be hitting the mark by allowing users to be closer to their NFT communities via social features.
Even so, any Ethereum-based NFT marketplace will have to compete against OpenSea, which has hosted 95% of all Ethereum-based NFT traders in the past 30 days.
Elon this week…
Elon has been in the news a lot this week, so we thought we’d simply get you up to speed…
Recap:
He launched a $43B hostile takeover of Twitter
Tesla smashed revenue estimates, making $18.8B in Q1 (up 81% from last year)
Boring Company has raised a $675M series C round bringing its valuation to $5.7B
Musk claims Tesla’s robot, Optimus (to be introduced in 2023), will be “worth more than the car business, and worse more than full self-driving.”
Our Take
Elon has proven to show an incredible track-records in his businesses time and time again.
In regards to the Twitter fiasco Musk has made the position that his offer of $54.20 a share was final, but a bidding war could be on the horizon, with the buyout firm Thoma Bravo LP expressing interest to Twitter to make a competing offer.
Public polls and shareholders are keen to see the serial entrepreneur win out in this bidding war. But internally and on the Twitter board tells a different story. Only time will tell how this might play out for Elon.
🔥 Press Worthy
Andreessen Horowitz launces a16z START accelerator. Apply here
Uber no longer requires masks for riders or drivers in the US
Zoom announces Zoom Whiteboard and gesture recognition features
Apple increased use of recycled material in its products by 20% in 2021
AWS launches new $30M accelerator program for minority founders
Meta Quest gaming showcase: Ghostbusters VR, Among Us VR, Beat Saber Electronic Mixtape
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The Quest Digest is written by Hannah Ahn and edited by Brent Liang, two dropouts who hate long tech newsletters. You can sign up to our next issue below.