Rishi Taparia - Issue #109
Rishi Taparia - Issue #109
This week we look at a record breaking Singles Day, Google’s entry into banking, Disney’s monster first week of streaming, the business of Baby Shark and more. Enjoy!
Singles Day sales for Alibaba top $38 billion, breaking last year's record
Holy moly Singles Day. This year China’s annual Singles Day online shopping bonanza has brought in a record $38 billion in sales for Alibaba. That’s up over 20% from last year’s $31bn and a major indicator that Chinese consumers are willing to spend, despite a somewhat slowing economy and a trade war with the US. Shoppers were even able to buy real estate at a discount on this 11th annual 11/11 celebration. Given tourists are now able to use China’s payment platforms, expect these numbers to go up in the years to come as consumers worldwide will now have greater access to the shopping event of the year!
Next in Google’s Quest for Consumer Dominance: Banking
Google has (re)entered the financial services game, this time with a checking account product. Codenamed Cache, unlike a lot of other players in the space who have also entered the space, Google’s approach seems designed to make allies, rather than enemies, in both camps. The financial institutions’ brands, not Google’s, will be front-and-center on the accounts, and Google will leave the financial plumbing and compliance to the banks—activities it couldn’t do without a license anyway. Banks (and everyone, really) are nervous that datasets across Google can be leveraged to drive more in depth value for customers that will eventually lead Google to circumvent the banks entirely. The reality is Google can probably just use the transaction data and their AI/ML models to do some cool stuff for customers. I don’t see them trying to get their own licenses and go full end to end. Why would they when they can have banks do the dirty work for them?
Disney+ surpasses 10 million subscribers on first day
Disney’s still got to the magic. The House of Mouse launched its streaming service, Disney+, this week and saw more than 10 million subscribers in its first day and that’s despite some users’ connection problems. The app was downloaded more than 3.2 million times.
To put everything into additional context, analysts projected that Disney+ would have anywhere between 10-18 million subscribers in its first year. Disney has signed up more than half of those projected numbers in 24 hours.
It was a well executed launch with content that reinforced that found a lot of parents paying for their kids but staying for themselves. Where else are you going to watch Gargoyles? The streaming content war is heating up, and it’s a win for consumers (still cheaper than cable!)
China’s Internet Is Flowering. And It Might Be Our Future.
What most Westerners don’t know about China’s highly integrated approach to mobile apps: It’s amazing. Asia is chock full of apps that hope to reach ‘one app to rule them all status’. WeChat is closest. With over a billion monthly active users, WeChat is where the the users are. Naturally, that’s where businesses will go, using WeChat as “the starting point of [their] digital transformation.” Now companies in the West are trying to figure out how to replicate some of that magic outside of Asia.
‘Baby Shark’ Smells Money Onstage
If you’ve come within shouting distance of a toddler in the last 3 years, you’re familiar with Baby Shark. The “song” is beloved by children of all ages and since its annoyingly catchy beat with nonsense lyrics that you can’t help but hum along to even when there isn’t a toddler in sight because the tune sticks in your mind like an earworm decided to buy up your entire consciousness and build a housing development complete with a mall and theme park was uploaded onto YouTube in June of 2016 it has been viewed almost 4 billion times (sometimes it feels I’ve contributed about a billion of them…). It’s so popular “during the World Series, entire baseball stadiums acted out the video’s shark-bite hand jive…water fountains dance to its beat”. Now, as you’d expect, anything this popular would have created shark spawn to capitalize on the early successes. While Smartstudy, the South Korean media company that released it, “seemed unprepared at first to exploit its hit meme” they are making up for lost time. Soon you’ll find Berry-fin Tastic cereal in aisles thanks to a partnership with Kellogg’s, a Nickelodeon TV show and a feature film about a family of sharks who, for reasons still unclear, have to ‘run away’ while on a hunt. Baby Shark has also hit Broadway with Baby Shark Live! A live action show that will run for the next 3 years, it is complete with confetti cannons, LED backdrops and ends before bedtime. Doo doo doo doo doo doo.
This Tom Hanks Story Will Help You Feel Less Bad
Tom Hanks just seems like a good dude. Someone you’d want to hang out with. Someone who would be there for you if you needed a favor or were in some kind of trouble. Last year when all of the #MeToo scandals broke, the two people at the top of the “If This Man Turned Out to be a #MeToo'er” were Tom Hanks and Barack Obama. Tom Hanks is playing Mr. Rogers in a movie releasing next week called A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Mr. Rogers’ reputation as a good human needs no introduction. Tom Hanks is such a natural fit for the role, his agent feels it necessary to get in front of “the notion that Tom Hanks wasn’t acting when he was playing Mister Rogers.” This is a terrific profile of a phenomenal actor and, from all accounts, a wonderful person.
Quote I’m thinking about: “Think of appreciation as a valuable gift, something to be cherished. If a good friend came to your housewarming party with a gift, would you give it back to him and say you didn’t want it? Or give it to someone else in front of him? Would you close the door and send him away? Most people wouldn’t refuse a gift, yet they refuse appreciation, which is the emotional equivalent.” - Jim Dethmer