EC Consumer Applications

Why mobile subscription management platforms are enjoying tailwinds • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in Adapty, app revenue, app stores, Apps, EC Consumer Applications, mobile app developers, RevenueCat, StartupsNo Comments

Game engine company Unity and adtech company IronSource finalized their merger this week, aiming to “create an end-to-end for developers to build and monetize games,” ZebethMedia reported. While there’d be a lot to say about the deal from the perspective of game developers, we’d like to look at this from a different angle and wonder who might one day do the same, but for non-gaming apps. Earlier today, we reported that New York-based startup Adapty raised $2.5 million to date to help mobile app developers grow their revenue. While the company is perhaps more focused on customer revenue growth acceleration than some of its competitors, it is not alone in its broader space, which could be described as mobile subscription infrastructure. By magnitude of funding, the leader by far is YC-backed RevenueCat, which has raised $56.5 million in total, including a $40 million Series B in 2021. And with clients like Buffer, Notion and PhotoRoom, it is arguably the one that comes up more often in conversations.

Twitter just keeps getting more expensive • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 28, 2022Posted in EC Consumer Applications, EC Newsletter, Elon Musk, Social, The Exchange, TwitterNo Comments

That Elon Musk closed his buy of Twitter this week has been wall-to-wall news. With the former executive team out, jokes in, and Musk now in control of the social service, a long chapter in technology history has been written. Views vary regarding what’s next for Twitter, be it looser content moderation guidelines or the return of certain banned users. What Musk intends to do with his new company — a corporate entity he, variously, wanted to influence, take a board seat in, buy, not buy, and, ultimately, bought — will come clearer in the following weeks and months. You won’t be able to miss the coverage, given the centrality of Twitter to the news cycle and Musk’s ability to keep the press’ attention. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on ZebethMedia+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. But before we wrap up this period of tech history, we’d be remiss to not compare the new value of social companies with the price that Musk is paying for Twitter. It was well-established before the deal closed that Musk was overpaying for Twitter based on the changing value of tech shares since the transaction was agreed on.

Meta’s metaverse wager is also a bet on founder control • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in EC Consumer Applications, EC Newsletter, Facebook, meta, meta earnings, reality labs, Social, The ExchangeNo Comments

Meta’s other bet is making Alphabet’s long-running Other Bets segment appear cheap, both in cash and market cap terms. Shares of Facebook’s parent company plummeted after the company reported huge costs and losses associated with its future-facing metaverse project, accompanied by a revenue decline that, while forex-impacted, was still far from the heady days when Meta only seemed to grow no matter the business climate. And the company is signaling that more spending is coming. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on ZebethMedia+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. Meta’s trailing results and future operational guidance pushed its shares down just under 23% in pre-market trading. That the company is not changing course even after shedding more than half of its value, measured from 2021 highs, amid public calls from investors for a course-correction is notable. Today, I want to go over the company’s results as they relate to Reality Labs, or what is colloquially known as the Meta metaverse project, and what the company said in its earnings report. Meta, I believe, is behaving like a startup — wagering a large portion of its wealth on building what’s next. If you don’t agree with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for the future, I feel you.

Big Tech falls short in the first salvos of the Q3 earnings cycle • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 26, 2022Posted in big tech, earnings, EC Consumer Applications, EC Enterprise, EC Newsletter, Enterprise, google earnings, microsoft earnings, The ExchangeNo Comments

If you are a believer in the endless concentration of corporate power, the work of major tech companies to extend their reach into all areas of the digital economy must bring you joy. If you are more in favor of upstart companies attacking and bringing to heel incumbent wealth by the (figurative) sword, it’s probably less welcome. Big Tech companies, once they reach a certain scale, often have the wealth and influence to buy, build or bury their smaller competition. But no matter on which side of the platform wars you stand, the sprawl of the major tech companies means that they regularly off-gas a plethora of statistics that we can use to better understand the world. Given the ever-changing state of the world’s economy this year, the information that Big Tech earnings provide is even more important than usual. As we noted earlier this week, ZebethMedia+ has several questions that we want to be answered during this particular earnings cycle, and yesterday, thanks to Alphabet and Microsoft, we can begin to remedy our own queries. Today, we’re talking through the advertising, enterprise software, cloud and consumer-related inquiries. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on ZebethMedia+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. For broad-based looks at how Google etc. and Redmond fared in aggregated numerical terms, head here and here, respectively.

Korean internet giant Naver eyes North America, Europe as it grows its C2C marketplace business • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 26, 2022Posted in Commerce, EC Consumer Applications, EC Ecommerce and D2C, Naver, Poshmark, south koreaNo Comments

Did you know that Google isn’t the top search engine in South Korea? It’s not even a close second. Most Koreans actually prefer Naver for various reasons, and they like it so much that the search engine holds about 56% of the market, per Statista. Google is catching up, but it currently only has about a 35% share, and it’ll likely be a while before it can close the gap. Naver’s other offerings are also received quite well in the country, including its e-commerce platform, messaging, payments, storytelling, digital comics (webtoons), metaverse efforts, a selfie app, games, the cloud and more. But like any true tech company, Naver was never satisfied with its success at home. The company quickly expanded to Japan, and more widely in Southeast Asia. But instead of leading with its core search engine and e-commerce businesses, it instead opted for different strategies in each new country, such as expanding in Japan with its Line messaging app and increasing its footprint in Southeast Asia with its 3D avatar app, Zepeto, and other offerings. It’s now expanding its e-commerce business — wildly successful in South Korea with 18% of the market — with a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplace model that it aims to offer in North America, Europe and Asia. Unlike many B2C marketplaces, which usually sell large quantities of a few profitable, popular items, Naver’s e-commerce strategy is focusing on long-tail business, allowing sellers to sell small quantities of hard-to-find items to buyers looking for niche products. It wants to add a social network feature, which allows sellers to receive comments, likes and users in its e-commerce unit. To that end, the company earlier this month said it would buy Redwood, California-based social commerce marketplace Poshmark for $1.2 billion.