(#35) Disney's new strategy; Temu's ascension; EVs plateau and TikTok is recruiting a Head of luxury. Why?
(#35) Disney's new strategy; Temu's ascension; EVs plateau and TikTok is recruiting a Head of luxury. Why?
OpenAi might end up bankrupt by the end of 2024
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I wanted to say that not that much happened in the last week, but it did…
1/ Disney reportings
2/ Temu’s ascension
3/ EV plateau and what should be done
4/ The Smoke-Free Partnership coalition helped forbid in-car smoking in three European countries
Onto the update:
Strategy
Disney
The company reported a $460m loss for the quarter that ended on 1st of July. LINK
Before going deeper, here is the strategy map written on a napkin by Walt Disney himself back in 1957:
…and here’s the updated version from 1967:
There are some takeaways from what’s happening at the company:
1/ The traditional cable TV business is dying (ESPN is an exceptions but without a real distribution)
2/ The core was and will remain the Walt Disney Studies: movies made there are shared on the platform and later cashed through the amusement-themed parks. Why not have a Marvel park or a Star Wars park? People do grow up and fairy tales are not that fairy anymore, instead, Star Wars could be the next big thing.
Disney is not in the same business as Netflix. Disney should focus on a world of scarcity and in that world is the best-positioned company to offer entertainment. Disney should be the Tailor Swift of entertainment conglomerates. LINK
TikTok is recruiting: Head of luxury
A short recap of TikTok’s revenue stream: ads, in-app purchases, commissions from creators, and others. So, if most Gen Zs are spending most of their time on the app, why not monetize it to the max? LINK
Temu
The last 5 years have been dominated by new players entering the e-commerce & entertainment space, mostly Chinese companies. Temu is one of them and is going after Aliexpress, Shein, and Amazon with its unique strategy, which I’ve written about in a previous newsletter. While how it produces cheap products it’s well known, where it sells them and how was a little bit unclear. Now we know. LINK
The interest in Temu (blue) can see below vs. Shein (red) and AliExpress (yellow) in the last year:
Reaching an EV plateau
It seems that from this point EV sales will have to change its strategy.
Besides building the infrastructure to charge these cars (ie. at home, at work, and basically everywhere), you need to focus on entertainment. Crossing the chasm to “early majority” is Mt. Everest to each organization. The main challenge is that the motivation/incentive to buy is much lower than the ones from early adopters and innovators. LINK
Knowledge Partners: EY Romania
The EY Future Consumer Index 2023 explores how consumers around the world relate to the benefits of technology.
To find out all the findings of the study - click HERE.
Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI might go bankrupt by the end of 2024. The company is burning 700k per day. The main reason? It might be API cannibalization: while companies forbid their employees to use Chat GPT for work, they are ok using APIs to leverage their LLM according to their needs. LINK
How AI is helping airlines mitigate the climate impact of contrails. The impact can be around 30%. LINK
Amazon will sell its Generative AI tool to help companies with writing product descriptions. LINK
Data
2 billion MAUs are watching Youtube Shorts. Time is scarce, so at this point, Google and Meta contained TikTok’s exponential growth. LINK
Top economies by GDP ($)\
Everything we do (individual, company, or country) has an effect. Sometimes, the consequences can take years to be seen.
Three key observations from the GDP values:
1/ USA remains 'No 1' because it fosters innovation better than others.
2/ The growth of the EU comes from Central and Eastern Europe.
3/ Japan had the same GDP for the last 30 years (!).
We should promote less regulation and taxation. Unfortunately, the opposite is happening.
Roblox
Every kid I know is playing Roblox and all of them spend $ in-app purchases.
A new market for EVs: trucks for short and medium distances
"U.S. Department of Energy data shows that the vast majority of freight tonnage is shipped distances of less than 250 miles — easily within the range of an electric semi.*"
In 2021, 87% of U.S. Truck Freight Tonnage Was Shipped Less than 250 Miles (402 km). LINK
Outside interest
An FT interview with Belligcat’s Christo Grozev. He’s the guy behind the Oscar-winning film Navalny. Interview; Navalny
Buy your name as a domain in web 3.0 (btw, some names are available yet) LINK
In each place (ie. city, neighborhood) you will always have the good and the bad. Now, the bad came after the Copenhaga’s Christiania hippie neighborhood. LINK
The Smoke-Free Partnership coalition helped forbid in-car smoking in three European countries: Italy, Lithuania, and Latvia. Probably will extend to the rest of European countries. LINK
Uruguay wasn’t supposed to run out of water. LINK
Europe's 1st humans were likely wiped out by a sudden freeze 1.1 million years ago. Nobody lived here for 200,000 years. LINK
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