| Weekly News Roundup |
1. Invygo raises $10M to make long-term car subscription a breeze – Techcrunch Invygo, a startup operating in UAE and Saudi Arabia, has raised $10 million in its Series A funding as it works to scale its car rental service in the region. Invygo offers three kinds of rental services, short-term (<9 months), long-term (>24 months) and a subscribe-to-own model. “Invygo takes a cut from the subscription price, but the company didn’t specify how much. It is not profitable yet, the startup said. Roughly 200 cars are available for subscription in Saudi Arabia and 100 in UAE on the platform on a typical day. The startup works with partners including local car rental services and dealerships to source the cars, it said.” Read more 2. Swedish startup offers subscription to ‘finfluencers’ and their portfolios – Breakit A group of former executives at Trustly and Bambora has, backed by 8 MSEK in funding, launched FinFollow, an app allowing users to subscribe to the portfolios of financial influencers. The ‘finfluencers’ set their subscription fee themselves. “We want users to be able to share their portfolios in the way that suits them. Some spend the majority of their waking hours analyzing the market and want to be able to charge for their knowledge on good grounds. We will make that possible with FinFollow.” Read more 3. Want a blue check mark on Twitter? It may soon cost you $19.99 a month – CNN Twitter is considering offering verified accounts to users who are willing to pay $19.99 a month for a subscription service, and it may take away the coveted blue check marks of existing users if they don’t start paying for the product within 90 days, according to internal Twitter documents viewed by CNN. “”The whole verification process is being revamped right now,” Musk tweeted on Sunday. Later that day, Musk engaged with a poll tweeted out by Jason Calcanis, a member of the billionaire’s inner circle, asking how much they would pay to be verified on the platform. A large majority of responders selected the “wouldn’t pay” option. “Interesting,” Musk tweeted in response to the poll.” Read more 4. Spotify added 7 million premium subscribers in Q3 – and rumors of a “Platinum”-tier spreads – Mediavision Spotify reported a net addition of seven million premium subscribers for the third quarter of 2022. The streaming service now has a total of 195 M premium subscribers. In addition, rumors have surfaced regarding a new “Platinum Tier”, double the price of today’s individual Premium tier, but offering, for instance, HiFi audio. “A Spotify subscriber who recently cancelled his subscription reportedly received a survey from the company. The survey shared details of Spotify’s upcoming subscription tiers and asked if the consumer would come back to Spotify “within the next 30 days” to sign up for one of these tiers.” Read more 5. Lyft relaunches monthly subscription plan at half the price – Techcrunch Ride-hail giant Lyft has relaunched Lyft Pink, its monthly subscription plan, at half of its previous price. At $9.99 per month or $99 per year, the new membership offers perks like free priority pickups and a discount of “at least” 5% on some types of rides. “Previously, Lyft Pink provided members with discounts on all rides. The company said, on average, members saved $29 per month on rides, excluding the cost of membership. So really they saved $19 on rides on average.” Read more Weekly Analysis Roundup 1. 6 tips for creating a successful onboarding journey for your subscribers- Recuro Building an engaging onboarding journey for your new customers is crucial in terms of creating customer loyalty. It is the first interaction with your customers and this is your chance to make sure they are hooked, writes Recuro’s Loïc Bushayija in a guide on how to navigate the task. “As a final advice, it is beneficial to keep the copy short and simple for the purpose of not losing your readers and make sure that they take part of the value you are offering them.” Read more 2. How far will the automotive industry take subscription features? – Automotive World The subscription model will soon dominate the automotive industry as manufacturers look for new revenue streams to fund their autonomous vehicle plans. But Automotive World warns that taking the concept too far could threaten driver safety. “There are currently no direct safety-related systems available through an optional subscriber system in the industry. But this will become more likely if automotive businesses continue seeing these subscriber models as a better chance of monetisation.” Read more 3. Subscribe and thrive: Why TikTok and YouTube adopted Twitch’s subscription model – Forbes In April 2011, Twitch launched its subscribe button, allowing viewers of a channel to directly support a streamer on the free-to-watch platform. More recently, Youtube and TikTok have followed suit. Forbes explains why. “The subscription model is also attractive to viewers. Not only has the model created new revenue for platforms, but it’s also taken on a social and cultural element for viewers to demonstrate loyalty by subscribing to a creator. Viewers have many reasons for engaging with a subscription model.” Read more 4. Why Patreon is struggling – Simon Owens Patreon, a platform offering tools helping content creators run a subscription service, has seen its valuation drop over 70 % over the past year. Apart from growing competition (Substack et al), media analyst Simon Owens points out a couple of missteps Patreon has taken to put itself in this situation. “It’s rare that someone will convert into a paid subscriber for a creator without sampling their content first; in fact, it usually requires months of free newsletters, podcasts, or videos before that person even thinks about making the jump to a paid membership. And yet a creator’s ability to distribute free content via Patreon is limited.” Read more |
