📡 Getting eaten by software. Mmm, yum! 😋
Welcome to this week’s Pulse!
Coming to you from a scarily windy/rainy Manchester! I’m not joking; see my Snapchat story.
It’s been another super busy week, and it will get even more hectic next week… so… yay!
This is a pretty big issue, so scroll away - and remember: you’re smart enough to know how to share Pulse with a friend.
- 𝕭𝖊𝖓 𝔣𝔯𝔬𝔪 [ 𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖛𝖊 𝖎𝖝 ]
🗞 NEWS
OurMine briefly compromised Facebook’s Twitter and Instagram accounts, seemingly via a third-party service called Khoros [Verge].
The Trump administration has bought access to a database tracking locations of millions of phones in the US and is using it for immigration and border control [WSJ - paywalled]
Some users’ Google Photos videos in Takeout backups were exported to strangers between November 21-25, 2019 [9to5Google] - those affected were notified by email.
WeWork named commercial real estate veteran Sandeep Mathrani as its new CEO; SoftBank’s Marcelo Claure continues as WeWork’s executive chairman [NYTimes]; months after Adam Neumann walked away with more than $1 billion & WeWork laid off thousands of employees [SteveKopack].
A mother reunites with her deceased child in VR [Futurism] - Would you want to see a deceased loved one again — in VR?
Nvidia is no longer attending MWC (Mobile World Congress), citing coronavirus risk [Verge] - joining Ericsson, LG, and ZTE.
Apple has been fined 25 million euros (£21m, $27m) for deliberately slowing down older iPhone models without making it clear to consumers by France’s competition and fraud watchdog DGCCRF [BBC].
Instagram prototypes letting IGTV creators monetise with ads [TechCrunch]
Netflix has taken down only nine pieces of content in response to written government demands in its 23 years, according to its first-ever Environmental Social Governance report [Netflix].
💰 EARNINGS CALLS
Alphabet reports Q4 net income of $10.67B, up from $8.95B YoY, fiscal year 2019 revenues of $162B, up 18% YoY [Alphabet].
Google reveals it made over $15 billion from YouTube ads last year alone — up 36 percent from 2018 and 86 percent compared to 2017 [BrianFung].
Uber reports Q4 revenue of $4.1B, up 37% YoY, gross bookings of $18.1B, up 28%, and net loss of $1.1B; gross bookings from Uber Eats were $4.37B, up 71% YoY [Uber].
Twitter Q4: revenue of $1.01B, up 11% YoY, net income of $119M, down from $255M in Q4 2018, monetizable DAU of 152M compared to 126M a year ago [TechCrunch].
Pinterest Q4: revenue of $400M, up 46% YoY and net loss of $36M with global MAUs up 26% YoY to 335M; net loss for 2019 was $1.3B; stock up 16%+ after hours [Reuters].
Spotify reports Q4 revenue of $2B, up 24% YoY; 271M total MAUs, up 31% YoY, as paying users rise 29% YoY to 124M; 16% of its MAUs engage with podcast content [TechCrunch].
🧠 INSIGHTS
Software - Credit: Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Standing on the shoulders of giants
A big deck by Benedict Evans, digging into macro and strategic trends in the tech industry.
This year, ‘Standing on the shoulders of giants’ - the state of tech and the outlook for regulation, which was presented at a Nasdaq/Protocol event in Davos in January 2020.
Software ate the world, so now all the world’s problems get expressed in software.
Download the deck [PDF].
📊 STATISTICS
Twitter's YoY growth in monetizable DAU - Credit: Statista
Twitter Ramps Up User Monetization Growth
Aside from finally breaking past the billion-dollar mark for revenue, the headline figure focused on by Twitter in its Q4 earnings release yesterday was its increase in monetizable daily active usage (mDAU). The year-over-year growth rate of 21 percent represents the latest strong result in a growing trend for the social media giant. CEO Jack Dorsey commented on the improvement in the latest quarter, saying: “2019 was a great year for Twitter. Our work to increase relevance and ease of use delivered 21% mDAU growth in Q4, with more than half of the 26 million mDAU added in 2019 directly driven by product improvements”.
via Statista.
Mobile Users Spent $195 Million in Meditation Apps Last Year, Up 52% Over 2018
Global user spending in the top 10 highest-earning mobile meditation apps grew 52 percent year-over-year in 2019 to $195 million.
For this analysis, Sensor Tower studied the 10 most-earning meditation apps—defined as apps whose primary function is guided meditation—for each year between 2015 and 2019, finding that 2018’s cohort had generated $128 million in spending. In comparison, the top 10 earning meditation apps of 2015 generated slightly more than $8 million. Over the entire five-year period analyzed, combined revenue for the top 10 apps of this type had a compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, of 121 percent.
Read more on SensorTower.
Okta's data report on trends in apps used in big companies
An in-depth look into how organizations and people work today — exploring workforces and customers, and the applications and services they use to be productive.
📱 TOOLS & APPS
VANGOGH: Generate colour palettes using keywords, powered by AI
Milanote 2.0: Organise your ideas & projects into beautiful visual boards.
One of my favourite apps with a new look. I was a beta tester and I really liked the new look.
🔍 SPOTTED IN THE WILD
Instagram is working on video trimmer for Stories https://t.co/igzErbhjdO
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip - First Hands On Video https://t.co/4b8Uzt5kRB
Facebook has finally removed the Discover tab in Messenger https://t.co/sSMpwpKB5Y
🎧 AUDIO STIMULATION
Fear of Technology - Throughline
AI, gene modification, and self-driving cars are causing fear and uncertainty about how technology is changing our lives.
But humans have struggled to accept innovations throughout history. In this episode, Ramtin & Rund explore three innovations that transformed the world and show how people have adapted — and ask whether we can do the same today.
🐦 TWEETS of the WEEK
Complexity impresses your peers.
Clarity impresses your customers.
😬 grimacing + 🤯 exploding = https://t.co/2SnJDmFzL2
Just because it’s “free” for your brand to post on social media doesn’t mean it doesn’t cost you anything
one of the coolest selfies ever! 👇
Fine, visor up this time – but at least the magnificent Earth still makes an appearance too. All #spacewalk #selfies (and other photos) made possible with a Nikon D5 with a 28 mm lens in a protective housing (visible in center of 2nd photo). #SelfieSunday https://t.co/AlmUjvCWDj
🧠 @naval just liked my @yourstacks tweet and i went 🤯 https://t.co/LcJrtLhiLy
😂 FUN STUFF
Google Maps Hacks by Simon Weckert
Ikea Had a Great Reaction to Balenciaga Making a $2,145 Version of Its 99-Cent Blue Bag
https://t.co/p5UqJf34TV https://t.co/ngKGLhiXsz
17 designs Bell almost used for the layout of telephone buttons - via the Atlantic
That's all for this week...
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See you next week!
Ciao