Mind Tavern Edition #6
Welcome to the 6th edition of Mind Tavern. Thank you for subscribing to this free newsletter, I don't intend to capture any data, but do consider sharing it on your social networks if you like it! Let’s dive write in.
A Case for ads on Netflix
In this week’s stratcherry issue, Ben Thompson takes a deep dive into the company’s affairs, and its ability or the lack thereof to turn profits. They are nearing the end of the road in mature markets like US/Canada and price obstacles stall their growth in countries like India. Especially when competitors are beating them by a margin in terms of new subscriptions (Hotstar added 11.8m in Q1) After dabbling in games, ads might be the only way left to turn green. Read here.
..advertising would make it easier for Netflix to continue to raise prices: on one hand, it would provide an alternative for marginal customers who might otherwise churn, and on the other hand, it would create a new benefit for those willing to pay (i.e. no advertising for the highest tiers).
This feels like solipsism: Netflix’s executives think a lot about their business model, so they are looking for growth opportunities that seem to leverage said business model; I’m not convinced, though, that customers appreciate or care about the differentiation that Netflix claims to be leveraging in gaming, whereas they would appreciate lower prices for streaming, and already have the expectation for ads on TV.
A primer on the Semiconductor ecosystem
Talks around chips, processors and semiconductors have become common parlance now but we barely do understand how the actual industry is structured. This fantastic explainer takes us through every layer step by step, from the chip IP cores to fabrication foundries. Read here.
The charade of Exponential Growth
This long read takes a deep dive into the definitions of terms like hyper and exponential growth by giving examples of various startups, both old and new. Very useful statistical insights for marketers and product managers. Read here.
It’s great to add a feature to an existing product, but significant additional growth comes from increasing carrying capacity or creating a new avenue of growth. Early on you should focus on winning market share in one space, creating the first Elephant Curve, but after the product matures, something more drastic is required: Wholly new products, or updates significant enough to address new markets.
Decline of the English language in popular music
In this increasingly globalised world, as they say, music has now traversed beyond borders and languages. This interactive article in the Economist trawled through the top 100 tracks in 70 countries according to Spotify. Examining 13,000 hits in 70 languages grouping them on the basis of other data like genre, lyrical language and nationality of the artist. There was a clear emergent pattern of rising affinity for music from other local languages, especially Spanish. Read here.
You can hover over the blocks to see which was the most streamed song on Spotify in the country in that particular time frame. This will keep you occupied for hours trying the new music, I surely was.
A new set of tech rules in Europe
This new package tries to tackle the rampant monopolistic traits of big tech in the Digital Markets by announcing some fresh stringent provisions and hefty fines to the tune of 10% of global turnover, and 20% for repeat infringements. They call for interoperability, self-referencing and seek explicit permissions before using personal data to show targeted ads. Unlike GDPR, which gave 24 months for the companies to comply, this time they only have 6 months to mend their ways. Read here.
"We have achieved something unprecedented, legislation that paves the way to open, fair, contestable digital markets, so everybody has a fair chance of making it," Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president at the European Commission, said on Twitter. "The gatekeepers will now have to take responsibility."
Something Beautiful
This beautiful poem reminded me of one of my favourite quotes from Derek Sivers book, called Anything you want,
“Never forget why you're really doing what you're doing. Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn't that enough?”
Thread(s) of the week
HDFC’s consolidation
All you wanted to know about the merger of HDFC Bank and HDFC this week: probably the most important financial development in the country this year, this takes it closer to SBI in its quest to become the largest bank in the country.
Scientific reasoning about how EV charging is cheaper than fossil fuels
This Reddit thread definitively establishes in quantitative terms how electric vehicles are more fuel-efficient than conventional ones.
Internet is Beautiful
Fun stuff for you to click on
From Dot Matrix printers and cassette players to AoL, this online library acts as a nifty little museum of endangered old electronic sounds.
This incredible Visual Capitalist infographic tries to rank your transportation options with respect to their carbon footprints
92% of global lithium production is just concentrated in the 4 countries of Australia, China, Argentina and Chile. Check out this video explaining the battery crisis for EVs globally.
Check out these outrageously beautiful ceramic patterns.
I love the internet. This to that offers glue advice.
Make music in your browser in one of the new chrome experiments.
Chinese fast fashion app beloved by Gen-Z has reportedly raised a fresh round of investment that values the company at $100 billion. It has a grand total of zero physical stores.
Trivia Corner: 'Most Beautiful Woman' By Day, Inventor By Night
Meet Hedy Lamarr, considered one of the most beautiful women of her time, she was much more than just a pretty face. She had a number of patents to her name. One of the more prominent ones was in the field of radio hopping (named Secret Communication System in 1942), she quietly invented what would become the precursor to many wireless technologies we use today, including Bluetooth, GPS, cellphone networks and more.
"She understood that the problem with radio signals was that they could be jammed. But if you could make the signal hop around more or less randomly from radio frequency to radio frequency, then the person at the other end trying to jam the signal won't know where it is," Richard Rhodes says. "If they try to jam one particular frequency, it might hit that frequency on one of its hops, but it would only be there for a fraction of a second."
She wanted to help the country against the Nazis in World war 2 and offered the patent to the Navy for free. But they laughed her off for the usual reasons and apprehensions. Lamarr was told to sell kisses for war bonds instead. And the daredevil that she was, in a single night, she raised $7 million, just by “standing still and looking stupid.” Over time, she raised $25 million. In today’s money, that’s more than $220 million. Their technology was used decades later during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but they never earned any money from it as the patent had expired.