Netflix's Nobody Wants This - NY Fan Screening

Everybody wants this? More than half of Netflix sign-ups were for ad-supported memberships last quarter. Adam Brody and Kristen Bell screen Netflix’s “Nobody Wants This” (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Netflix)

Ad-ding up

More than half of new Netflix signups were for the cheaper advertising tier

In markets where ads are an option, over 50% of potential customers chose them. Now Netflix just has to figure out how to sell the ads.

Rani Molla

10/21/24 10:13AM

More than half of Netflix sign-ups were for its tier with advertising last quarter, a number that’s been steadily climbing since the company unveiled its less expensive ad-subsidized memberships at the end of 2022.

Growing interest in the ad tier, which costs $6.99 in the US compared to $15.49 for the cheapest ad-free tier, is good for Netflix’s two-part plan to have the ad tier become a primary revenue driver.

“Priority number one was we have to grow our ad-tier memberships so that we can get to a sufficient scale to be relevant in each market for advertisers,” co-CEO Greg Peters said on the company’s earnings call last week. “And the big priority number two is we have to improve our capabilities and attractiveness to advertisers and, therefore, the monetization of all that inventory.”

In other words, Netflix has to get better ad tech and more advertising customers to sell more ads and make more money off them.

Currently, Netflix isn’t making as much money on its ad-supported memberships as it is on ad-free, putting it at odds with other streaming competitors.

As Netflix improves its ad technology and viewership, it’s hoping that the ad tier will becoming a “more meaningful contributor” in 2025 and a “primary” revenue contributor after that.

Jon Keegan10h

Pentagon adds xAI’s Grok to its AI platform

Grok is going to war.

Today the Pentagon announced that xAI’s controversial Grok chatbot will be added to GenAI.mil, the Department of Defense’s “bespoke AI platform.”

Launched earlier this month, GenAI.mil joins Google’s Gemini on the platform, which the Pentagon says will usher in an “AI-driven culture change” at the agency.

Federal workers have had access to Grok since the White House ordered the chatbot added to the GSA’s approved AI vendor list in August.

xAI has had some embarrassing episodes as it scrambles to monetize Grok, after spending billions on its Colossus data centers. Just this summer, several examples emerged of Grok responding to user queries with antisemitic tropes, and even praising Hitler.

The War Department to Expand AI Arsenal on GenAI.mil With xAI

Launched earlier this month, GenAI.mil joins Google’s Gemini on the platform, which the Pentagon says will usher in an “AI-driven culture change” at the agency.

Federal workers have had access to Grok since the White House ordered the chatbot added to the GSA’s approved AI vendor list in August.

Jon Keegan16h

Alphabet acquires data center company Intersect for $4.75 billion

Google parent Alphabet announced a deal to acquire data center and energy infrastructure builder Intersect. Alphabet already held a minority stake and a partnership with the company. The acquisition is for $4.75 billion in cash.

According to Alphabet CEO, Sundar Pichai: “Intersect will help us expand capacity, operate more nimbly in building new power generation in lockstep with new data center load, and reimagine energy solutions to drive US innovation and leadership. We look forward to welcoming Sheldon and the Intersect team.”

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026.

Alphabet Announces Agreement to Acquire Intersect to Advance U.S. Energy Innovation

Alphabet Is ‘Most Valuable Company’ on AI Strength, Moffett Says

Rani Molla16h

Tesla might get to a 1,000 Robotaxis in the Bay Area this year after all

Tesla has registered 1,655 ride-hailing vehicles in California, up from just 28 when it launched the service in August, according to California Public Utilities Commission data cited by Business Insider. That growth suggests Tesla — which currently has about 130 Robotaxis operating with a driver using Full Self-Driving in the Bay Area — could realistically hit CEO Elon Musk’s target of 1,000 vehicles in the region by the end of the year.

Registered vehicles aren’t the same as an active fleet, but the increase signals that Tesla is gearing up for significant expansion.

Google’s Waymo remains in the lead, with nearly 2,000 driverless vehicles registered across its two California markets, including more than 1,000 operating in the Bay Area and 700 in Los Angeles.

It’s less clear whether Tesla can meet Musk’s other goals, including deploying 500 Robotaxis in Austin, where just 32 vehicles are currently operating, or removing safety monitors by year’s end. Only two of those Austin vehicles are currently testing without drivers.

Tesla has registered more than 1,000 new vehicles for its 'Robotaxi' fleet in California in just a few months

Registered vehicles aren’t the same as an active fleet, but the increase signals that Tesla is gearing up for significant expansion.

Google’s Waymo remains in the lead, with nearly 2,000 driverless vehicles registered across its two California markets, including more than 1,000 operating in the Bay Area and 700 in Los Angeles.

Jon Keegan17h

Activists claim to have scraped most of Spotify, planning release

An activist archiving group claims they have scraped a large part of Spotify’s library of music.

Anna’s Archive, a self-described “open source search engine for shadow libraries” announced in a blog post that the pirated Spotify files will be a “preservation archive,” meant to archive the snapshot of music for future generations.

Anna’s Archive says they have scraped 86 million tracks. Spotify says their platform hosts over 100 million tracks. The group has already released a database of metadata from Spotify’s collections, having reportedly scraped 256 million rows’ worth, per Billboard, with plans to release music files later down the line.

Such a large corpus of publicly available music data would be a goldmine to AI companies, looking for fresh data to train their models. Spotify told Billboard that it is actively investigating the incident.

Spotify Music Library Scraped by Pirate Activist Group

Rani Molla19h

In the absence of official statistics, Bloomberg attempted to tally the number of US deaths linked to crashes in which Tesla’s door functionality may have impeded escape or rescue. The analysis identified “at least 15 deaths in a dozen incidents over the past decade in which occupants or rescuers were unable to open the doors of a Tesla that had crashed and caught fire.”

In September, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into whether door issues in certain Tesla vehicles can prevent emergency access, following a separate Bloomberg report.