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Updated on Nov 3, 2023
1. Remember Facebook is free and always will be? Now you can pay to avoid ads 🔕.
Although not a voluntary shift in its business model, Meta is launching an ad-free version of its Facebook and Instagram platforms. Priced at €9.99 on the web and €12.99 on the app (they don't forgive the 🫰🏼 commission from the Stores and pass it on to the user), this launch comes to Europe for a strictly regulatorio🇪🇺 reason.
Europe has been forceful in its legislation on data tracking without the consent of usuarios🕵🏻, which is precisely what allows Meta to fine-tune when it comes to serving personalised advertising 🎯.
While Meta continues to defend free proposals based on an advertising model 📺, the European regulator continues to legislate to protect the privacy of European users' data and preferences 🔒.
The solution? A free model with advertising 📣 and a paid model without ads🔕. What should be a debate about ethics or accessibility ends up being a stalemate and creates different levels of exposure to advertising in the end. Something that, surprisingly, Europe has taken for granted✅.
Faced with what may be one of the first digital monetisation models driven by a change in the ley👩🏻⚖️, we will be very attentive to how users respond to this change that does not stem from a market need but from regulation. It's getting interesting 🤨.
👉🏻 Here to read the news about why and how the payment plans and the Meta-Europe tug-of-war will be 🧑🏼💻🇪🇺. 👉🏻 Here when Facebook changed their claim, although there was no intention to charge yet, they just had the Cambridge Analytica mess on top of it 📊.
👉🏻 Here in case you want to watch the documentary 🍿 on Netflix about the scandal of the use of data to manipulate elections, allegedly.
2. Musk goes all-in and wants to turn X (formerly Twitter) into a super app for everything ♾️🦸🏼♂️.
Internal meeting at X (former Twitter) about the future of the app 📲**. A conversation between Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X and Elon, who is still running the show 🎮.**.
During this conversation, live with X employees, Musk and Yaccarino take stock of the year and thank 🙏🏻 the team for their involvement and celebrate the achievements 🥳. But the most interesting part is undoubtedly what's to come. Elon communicates his vision 🔮 of what X will be in the immediate future. And when we say immediate, it's 2024.
The vision is to turn X into an all-encompassing super-app 💯. It's not clickbait (although Elon is himself quite clickbait 🤹🏻): he wants to compete with YouTube on video🎥, LinkedIn on recruiting 💼 and he wants to bundle financial 💳 and love life ❤️🔥 into X.
In a way, he looks at what WeChat represents in China for a user 🔛 and this is a big part of his digital life, which goes beyond the screen. It wants X to be a superapp 🦸🏼♂️ and these are the plans that are already underway:
- X Dating ❤️🔥 : they say it's just around the corner, a place where you can meet someone special 🧑🏻❤️💋🧑🏼 and replace all dating apps. It says if you like what someone writes... what can go wrong? 😳
- X Hiring 💼 : this is true, who hasn't hired or noticed a professional profile on Twitter? Recruitment product development within X is firm 🙌🏼
- Financial Life 💳 : not just that you can send the €20 dinner to your friend, talk about dispensing with having a bank and centralising everything in your X account. Securities, investments, etc. WOW 😦
- Video calls 🤳🏼, long text formats📝, comunidades🤝🏼: new functionalities aimed at making the user spend more and better quality time inside X.
- Not a Bot programme 🤖: for $1 a year, filter between real users and bots. Elon's little joke: advertisers shouldn't find bots attractive, unless bots can actually buy. 😬
If this takes hold, we're looking at one of the most drastic evolutions ever seen of an already established platform.
They take stock and congratulate themselves on the 200 simultaneous lines of innovation they have underway. Let's see if they get the return of advertisers 🤗 and return, at least, to the valuation of the company for which Musk acquired it ($44 billion) compared to the $19 billion valuation today, a fall of 55% 👎🏼.
We remain vigilant and with our dollar 🪙 ready if we have to prove that we are not bots 🙋🏼♀️, if only to see the implementation of all these features on European territory 🇪🇺. GOOD LUCK 🤞🏼
👉🏻 Here to read the news about the future of X in The Verge (inside the news, if you keep scrolling, there is the full Yaccarino-Musk conversation 🗣️).
👉🏻 Here for the article on X's falling valuation to get a full picture🤓.
3. How long does it take to consolidate a new consumption behaviour? 📦🤑.
Quick answer: how long it takes for the company to charge extra for something it already gave you. It is fascinating 🤩 to see how most of the companies that have managed to radically change our way of consuming, introduce price increases for something they already gave as part of their offer. And we accept it because we have become accustomed to it and can no longer do without it. First world problems 💅🏼.
1. DoorDash: the all-powerful US delivery service tells you that if you don't want your food to arrive cold, you'll have to tip. Hey, that's practically extorting a pizza from me 🍕 But who's going to stop ordering delivery as a sign of protest? Not me🫣.
👉🏻 Here is the news about the DoorDash ad and the cold dinner.
2. Netflix and account sharing: they let us do it for years, we got used to not watching TV and suddenly account sharing is forbidden🚫 Who is going back to watching Antena3 or TeleCinco now? WHO? 😱 Well, we pay. 👉🏻 Here's when Netflix went Roman with account sharing.
3. Uber / Cabify / Bolt: what was closed and predictable pricing, with excellent quality, suddenly became all about extras and upgrades. Rate seguridad🛡️, Alta Demanda🙋🏻♂️, Uber Comfort 🎩. So if you want to be picked up and you don't see a taxi, you have to pay extra. 👉🏻 Here's how much Uber pocketed for the security fee.
4. Amazon: what used to be Prime delivery was always as soon as possible. We got used to (got used to) ultra-fast delivery and now everything seems too little. From 24-48h we went to the next day and from there to paying for 2-hour delivery or 1-hour delivery 🚛. Not to mention exponential price increases from one year to the next for Amazon Prime. Of course, any speed is too slow for that hand-cranked apple peeler to arrive 🍎.
👉🏻 Here are Amazon's changes to its tariffs.
In short, how long does it take for a new habit to settle in? As long as it takes for a company to overcharge you for what it already gave you because you can't do without it 🥺.
PS: sushi home is non-negotiable and that one doesn't get cold on the way 🍣.
4. The chat with AI that solves exporters' doubts for decision making 🤖🚚.
Entrii has developed a tool for exporters that helps to solve doubts 🤔 and make the best decisions ☑️ with data, powered by Artificial Intelligence 🤖.
Based on the information processed by the EntriiAnalytics platform (millions of data on specific products 🥑, regulation, importers 📦 and markets in real time ⏱️), it provides valuable, easy-to-interpret information to assess entry into new markets 🗺️.
Thanks to the incorporation of AI, questions are asked via Whatsapp 📱 by export professionals and the answers returned are backed up by data and graphs 📊 that help to make decisions when entering new countries and detect business opportunities beyond our borders ✈️.
👉🏻 Here is the news about the launch of Entrii's AI chat to help exporters in their expansion 🌎.
👉🏻 If you are planning to start a startup 🚀 we can help you with the optimal business model 👌🏼 and the most reliable technology. Make an appointment with us 📅 and one of our experts 📲 will call you to discuss your project.
5. LUDA Partners, the network for pharmacies to locate out-of-stock medicines 💊🛜.
LUDA Partners is a network that connects pharmacies to find 🔎 the medicines they lack in other pharmacies that can supply them 🚚. In addition, they also offer pharmacies the possibility to improve their online sales.
This is a real and common problem for pharmacists 🫙 and offering a space where contact is limited to professionals has generated great expectation among investors in the pharmaceutical sector💉.
The initial round, raised to raise the first €100,000, has ended up being extended to €400,000, a goal that has been successfully achieved 👍🏼.
👉🏻 Here is the news about the investment that LUDA Partners has raised.
👉🏻 See here how we are transforming the home pharmacy with Phill, the first app that delivers medicines to your home in less than 2 hours directly from your local pharmacy 📲.
