Good morning, world, and greetings on a fresh Tuesday.
Jack is back, Tesla Model X is in, and Airbus wants to take no-frills flying to a new level. Long read…Enjoy!
Non-Travel Starters
Jack Dorsey is back at the helm of Twitter after a four-month search for a permanent CEO resulted in the board selecting the co-founder, who will be sharing his time between the public Twitter (share’s up 5.7%, Mkt Cap: $17.8Bn on the news) and soon-to-be-public Square. Dorsey joins a few luminaries returning to the companies they founded and just a handful of others running two companies at the same time — Steve Jobs at Apple and Pixar and Elon Musk at SpaceX and Tesla. Link.
Speaking of Elon Musk, he unveiled a masterful Tesla Model X and gave the keys to the first lucky drivers. While Musk’s charisma is no match of some of the greatest presenters, the car has gotten extremely positive reviews and will be a force in the SUV market. Link. In other Musk news, he wants to nuke Mars — that’s also on his daily to-do list.
Space is close to Mark Zuckerberg’s heart as well, at least in the sense of connecting the world. Internet.org just signed a deal with French Eutelsat to beam internet from the expected launch of a satellite in the second half of 2016. The target is sub-saharan Africa, where people are not yet connected. Facebook will be the internet for the next couple of billion coming online. Link.
Axel Springler just bought a large stake in Business Insider for $343M, pushing the value of the news outlet to $560M. Other investors, such as Jeff Bezos, will remain stakeholders. Link. Digital is transforming media, yes, especially in light of Buzzfeed’s growth. Even The New York Times boasts the highest number of subscribers these days, sitting at 1.1M. Link.
Snapchat wants your branded selfie — in an alleged upcoming initiative, the startup would like to charge tons of money so that every selfie is branded for a day. Maybe the model will work — one single advertizer per day at an extremely high price has the potential to reach all consumers. Then again, the long tail will not be able to participate and the total ad revenue is 365 days X insanely high price. Link.
No Apple.
Snacks
Airbus keeps filing patents, the latest one hinting at ‘cattle-class’ service. In all seriousness, not all patents need to turn into products, but this one is yet another one which can change the meaning of low-cost carrier flights. Link.
Speaking of LCCs, Norweigan and Ryanair might have a long-haul feeder agreement cooking, as LGW transatlantic flights for the Norway carrier seem to be booming. Link.
Still in aviation, China allegedly tested a manned flight at Mach 5. Long way before that tech becomes safe and commercial, but once there, a London — New York flight will be only 1.5 hours. Time travel, ladies and gentlemen. Link.
An enjoyable interview with Sherri Wu, head of Alitrip, and how to build a marketplace for travel — the new model, she says, is C2B — consumer to business. Link.
Dessert (Stats)
47GB: Size of Twitter notifications Edward Snowden received when he forgot to turn off the feature after opening an account.
$13M: Settlement LinkedIn needs to pay for a class-action against email practices.
$670.44: That’s how much Google gets for any paid click on the key word combination “San Antonio car wreck attorney.”
DL420: As Mr. HH points out, Delta’s sense of humor to get the flight number for its JFK — Denver service.
Some Cool Reading (Watching)
A masterful profile by Re/Code of a transformed Jack Dorsey, quite different from the depiction in Hatching Twitter. (8 min). Link.
Some more @Jack: Jack Dorsey’s San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge Talk and how everyone is a designer and the job of the CEO is to be the editor. (16 min). Link.
Multipotentialite = people with many callings. In a short talk we learn why it is OK to be interested in many things. 1. Idea Synthesis 2. Rapid Learning 3. Adaptability. Worth the time. (13 min). Link.
Our very own SVP Engineering, Bryan Dove, tells us why shipping is a muscle and the more you ship, the better you get at it. (8 min). 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/
