| Weekly News Roundup |
| 1. Swedish EV subscription company is firing 40 percent of its workforce – Dagens industri Vässla is cutting its workforce across all markets. Amidst growing demand for electric vehicle subscriptions, an unforgiving investment market is forcing the Swedish company to review its costs, says the CEO. “It’s a schizophrenic reality, where our business is doing better than ever. For example, we had an ‘all-time-high’ in Paris last weekend, when 43 new subscribers signed up to our Vässla Bike. That’s damn good. At the same time, the capital market is completely frozen, and you cannot take for granted that you will find external money.” Read more 2. Netflix will charge $6.99 a month for new ad-supported plan starting Nov. 3 in U.S. – CNBC Netflix is pricing its new ad-supported service at $6.99 a month, which will be $1 less than Disney+ and Hulu’s offers with commercials. Netflix’ commercials will be 15 or 30 seconds in length and will play before and during content. “Netflix is launching its first less-expensive plan with commercials after years of rejecting the concept. The move comes as subscriber growth has plateaued in recent quarters. Netflix lost subscribers in the first two quarters this year and expects to add just 1 million customers in the third quarter.” Read more 3. Sephora launches same-day unlimited shipping subscription – Subscription Insider The French beauty brand Sephora is dipping their toe back into the subscription world, this time, taking on same-day shipping in the U.S. Shoppers in eligible zip codes can get their beauty products from the beauty brand in as little as two hours, every time they shop. “The Same-Day Unlimited Shipping subscription starts with a free 30-day trial. After that, the subscription costs shoppers $49 per year.” Read more 4. UK homes cancel streaming services to reduce spending – The Guardian The total number of UK homes with at least one subscription fell by 937,000 from January to September as the cost of living crisis forces increasingly budget-conscious consumers to stop taking services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+, writes The Guardian. “The reason people are cancelling is the need to save money. The most recent quarter saw two of the most anticipated releases of the year, they ranked as the top two most enjoyed pieces of subscription video-on-demand content during the period, and yet we still saw a continuation of the negative trend of the market getting smaller.” Read more 5. Netflix launches new ‘Profile Transfer’ feature to help monetize account sharing – Techcrunch The feature is rolling out from October 17th, and subscribers worldwide will be notified via email. The feature lets a member on an existing account switch to a brand-new account without rebuilding their profile. This prevents their personal data from being erased. “As the streamer cracks down on account sharing, Netflix likely launched the new Profile Transfer feature to encourage freeloaders to finally pay for their own accounts.” Read more |
| Weekly Analysis Roundup |
| 1. Is Marketing-as-a-Service right for your company? – Recuro In an ever changing world of marketing, MaaS has become an increasingly popular option for companies wanting to drive revenue growth, while keeping their cost-base low and flexible. And in a looming recession, MaaS will be an increasingly popular option. In this article, Recuro’s Jonas Åström helps you determine whether MaaS is the right choice for your company. “One of the best traits of a functioning MaaS agreement is perfect cost-control. With the right stringent agreement, you will always be certain of the cost of your marketing efforts. With the right data points and close follow-up of all efforts, you can also calculate a steady ROI.” Read more 2. Zuora: Why Twitch is making a mistake with subscriptions – Subscribed Twitch recently announced that creators’ subscription revenues will be cut and that the streaming platform will no longer hand out exclusive contracts, instead urging streamers to focus on ad revenue. In this article, Zuora CEO Tien Tzuo discusses the controversial decision together with another representative from Zuora. “From the perspective of a streamer, Twitch has made three notable missteps: reducing revenue splits on subscriptions from 70/30 to 50/50, ignoring the recommendations of the creators, and generally has a track record of requiring massive public outcry to make changes.” Read more 3. The maths behind one-off vs subscription revenue – Recuro Several digital publishers are now evaluating one-off payment models as a complement to their subscription revenue stream. The idea is to complement subscriptions by allowing readers to access specific pieces of content for a one-off fee. Jonas Åström from Recuro goes through the maths behind one-offs, to help you know if it would be a successful venture or something that would cannibalise your existing business. “Finally, let’s highlight that there are other benefits of lowering the barrier for entry of new paying users. By converting some users with one-off you might increase the pool of subscription prospects and be able to upsell these to subscriptions in time.” Read more 4. 3 Reasons subscription services fail – Harvard Business Review What’s causing the subscriber boom and bust? What makes an otherwise promising subscription business bleed customers? And how can companies engender loyalty to hold on to their subscribers? These are the questions Stanford lecturer and bestselling author Nir Eyal tries to answer in Harvard Business Review. “A successful subscription business is a function of the strength of the habits they create. The author, who has studied the fundamental attributes of habit-forming products, has identified three reasons why these businesses typically fail: 1) There are too many steps to psychological relief; 2) They don’t offer enough novelty; or 3) They don’t offer enough “stored value” to build a long-term relationship with the customer.” Read more |
