📲 Quibi's quick demise (it bites)
Hey Snackers,
We just want to congratulate Reuters on one of the cheekiest headlines of 2020: "Brazilian police catch senator hiding cash between his buttcheeks, source says." Bummer.
Markets ticked up yesterday as weekly jobless claims dropped to their second-lowest level since March. Also: House Speaker Pelosi said a coronavirus aid deal was “just about there." We'll see.
Quibi is sadly shutting down six months after launch (it's not about timing)
Calling it quiti... Quibi, short for "quick bites," is shutting down just six months after launching. The video startup raised a gargantuan $1.75B before debuting in April — now it's quitting to avoid losing investors any more money. In the likely chance you never downloaded it: Quibi is (was?) a mobile-only short video streamer (~8-minute episodes). It drummed up massive hype for three reasons:
- Major backers: With DreamWorks founder Jeff Katzenberg and former HP CEO Meg Whitman at the helm, Quibi got mega bucks from investors like Disney and Comcast.
- Big stars: Quibi splurged on HBO-level production quality shows and big names like Liam Hemsworth, Reese Witherspoon, and Chrissy Teigen.
- Cool tech: Quibi's "Turnstyle" feature lets you seamlessly switch between horizontal and vertical viewing (but it got sued for that).
No "Quibi and Quaker Oats"... Quibi was made for "in-between" moments. But we're not subway-and-Quibi'ing since the pandemic killed commutes — we're also not Quibi-ing while nuking oatmeal during WFH. Quibi missed paid subscriber targets, and reportedly lost 90% of early users after kindly sending a "your trial is expiring" email (#bless).
Content is king... While Quibi has partly blamed timing, it likely failed because its content wasn't compelling enough to charge $5-$8/month (see: show about a golden arm). Those "in-between" moments still exist — but they're dominated by extra-short, user-generated content on free apps like Instagram, TikTok, and Snap. And those are thriving during the corona-conomy.
Venmo-owner PayPal will let users buy, sell, and shop with crypto
Requesting 1/1000 of a bitcoin... for the truffle pizza we shared last night. Venmo-owner PayPal is launching crypto buying, selling, and shopping on its service. While buying/selling crypto isn't novel, the spending part is:
- PayPal users will be able to shop at the 26M merchants on its network starting in early 2021. Think: paying for your burger or Bloomies in bitcoin.
- US account holders can start buying virtual coins on PayPal in the next few weeks — PayPal's planning to bring this to Venmo and other countries next year.
- BTW: The merchants won't actually get paid in crypto. PayPal is basically handling sales on the backend to turn your bitcoin into regular bucks.
Big on the crypto... small on the currency. Crypto hasn’t been widely adopted as a real currency for three key reasons: lack of trust, lack of acceptance, and price volatility. You don't want to spend a bitcoin on a Birkin bag if that same coin could be worth double next week. Also: crypto transactions tend to be slower than traditional payments.
This could be crypto’s mainstream moment... or not. With 346M active accounts, PayPal has waaaayy bigger reach than other crypto-slinging fintechs. That's why bitcoin hit a record high for 2020 on PayPal's news. Just like GM’s EV Hummer could bring non-EVers to the electric side, PayPal could help normalize crypto. There's also a big chance that people won't see any value in using it, too.
What else we’re Snackin’
- Treat: The FDA approved Gilead’s remdesivir, making it the only fully approved COVID-19 treatment in the US.
- Snacky: Unilever, the CPG giant which makes everything from Ben & Jerry's to Tresemme shampoo, had a strong return to sales growth.
- Homeland: Data company Palantir is developing a tool to help the US government track the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines (#vaxspy).
- Zucked: Facebook is building a "Neighborhoods" feature that could rival Nextdoor, which is reportedly gearing up to go public.
- Bulky: GM shares closed at a new 2020 high after it successfully debuted "the world's first all-electric supertruck," aka Hummer EV.
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Friday
- Earnings expected from American Express and Barclays
ID: 1381642