Good morning, world, and happy Tuesday!
Some very exciting news around us, covered by the Financial Times, as we announce a fundraise to the world. Super happy and humbled to be part of the team and have Mr. G in Sofia this week when we are breaking the news.
Non-Travel Snacks
Facebook is officially ‘and a hardware’ company, after the release of the Oculus Rift set at $599, starting shipping on March 28th. While the set itself poses its hardware challenges (weight, battery life, etc), the true test will be content generation. No worries, Zuck got this under control as well — just see some of the 360 videos already circulated in the Facebook feeds — that will be the fuel of the Oculus rocket. Link.
Twitter’s stock is decreasing, while its character limit is going through the sky — CEO Jack Dorsey is considering increasing the limit to 10,000, making Twitter essentially an almost copy of Facebook. Not sure how this will go down yet, as product experiments continue — Re/Code gives us a good overview of the main things at the company after Jack’s return at the helm (at least part time). Link.
Neflix announced a move to another 130 countries, +1 for India, but still not China, thus increasing the content distribution to more than 190 globally. In theory, after YouTube and a few other streaming sites, the on-demand service could become the biggest ‘cable/cableless’ provider in the world. With its own content and potentially some deals to live stream TV to its subscribers, Netflix is building the distribution gateway for TV aficionados. Tip of the hat to Reed Hastings for the continued innovation — from DVD shipping to digital distribution to creating its own content. Link.
Snacks
Consolidation in travel continues. After the swap share between CTrip and Qunar and the ultimate shake ups at the C-level at the Chinese meta/ota giant, CTrip continues at pace and invests $180M in MakeMyTrip.com, the largest OTA in India. Now there might be an alternative to Expedia and Priceline with the entrance of a new player. Wait, didn’t Priceline own 15% of CTrip? Link.
Spirit Airlines’ CEO Ben Baldanza is not at the helm of the ultra-low cost carrier anymore. In a shakeup, which suggests that investors are not happy with the expansion strategy, Robert Fornar, former CEO of AirTran Airways, will take over. For reference, Spirit’s operating margins hit 27.3%, which for the airline industry is unheard of (Apple’s LTM is at 30.5%). Oh well… Hat Tip Stuart Middleton. Link.
As oil rock bottoms and is reaching $20 per barrel, airlines decide to hike some fares to increase PRASM (passenger revenue per available seat mile), the critical metric for the industry. Seeking Alpha tells us that Delta is leading the pack with an average increase of $3 for one-way flights — financial results for carriers will. be. good. Link.
Staying with profitability and financial, IATA estimates that the US airline industry suffers from $858 million annually in costs related to fraud. Of that, about 75% is directly the hit on the carriers, while the remaining is split with resellers and agencies. That’s a big problem and payments will be critical as the industry is even more online and even more global. Link.
Dessert (or Stats)
74.5%: Global smartphone penetration, according to Goldman’s charts. A compilation of some of the most interesting ones are here. Link.
800,000,000: Facebook Messenger standalone app is slowly reaching Whatsapp level of penetration. Rumor has it that it will also be an independent desktop app, going head to head with Slack, especially with Messenger for Work. Link.
55M: Number of iPhone to be sold up till March, according to Piper Jaffray. Pick up in the second half of the year, given expectation of a smaller iPhone at a more affordable price point. Link.
10M: Paid subscribers to Apple Music, or roughly half of what Spotify has. Given the recent legal activity against the Swedish company, Apple Music is slowly trucking towards streaming music dominance. Link.
1: Our new car hire white label goes live with Mundi. Thank you team, for making this happen. Link.
Some Cool Reading (Watching)
Couldn’t resist.
Andrew Golis from This., an outstanding app for content sharing, gives the best explanation of the buzzfeed phenomenon and the noise and signal in news sharing and why it is broken. Great piece. And a great app. (5 min). Link.
American Panorama is an interactive historical atlas that gives you a superb experience in exploring different periods and how things changed. Forever entertaining and engaging. Link.
A fun excel spreadsheet called Autopsy that gives you an overview of the digital graveyard of failed startups and the reasons why. In an almost brutal way, it also shares the social media accounts of the founders and chief execs. (5–10 min). Link.
Published last year and right in the midst of Marissa Mayer’s ups and downs at Yahoo! recently, this 99-page by SpringOwl Asset Management makes an argument why she should go. A must-read for us in tech. (Take an hour, a lot to absorb). Link.
//Expressed views and opinions are my own.
Photo Credit: National Geographic is amazing. Please share and give credit to their photographs and photographers. Here’s the link for your daily inspiration: http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/
