Weekly News Roundup
1. UK launches world-first ‘subscription’ model for antibiotic supply – Financial Time
The UK is set to become the first country in the world to pay drug companies a fixed fee for supplying antibiotics in an effort to tackle the growing global crisis over resistance to the drugs.
“The aim is to give companies a better incentive to develop new antibiotics, which would be held back to treat patients who really need them, while restraining overprescribing that leads microbes to develop drug resistance.”
2. Movs will be first in Sweden to issue subscriptions for electric scooters – Dagens industri
In April, Swedish Movs has broadened the range of vehicles in its subscription service and will be the first to offer electric scooters on subscription. “Unlike existing sharing services, renting a specific vehicle also requires personal responsibility” says Mov’s CEO Mikael Klingberg.
“We want to complement our new business model with a vehicle with which you can commute shorter distances. Most commutes are under 8 kilometers. The largest target group are those who cycle, but then come electric scooters and mopeds. So we want vehicles for all possible distances in our range.”
Read more (original language)
Read more (translated)
3. Musk proposes Twitter Blue subscription shake-up days after disclosing 9.2% Twitter stake – Reuters
Elon Musk, Twitter’s biggest shareholder, recently suggested a raft of changes to the social media giant’s Twitter Blue premium subscription service, including slashing its price, banning advertising and giving an option to pay in the cryptocurrency dogecoin.
“Twitter Blue, launched in June 2021, is Twitter’s first subscription service and offers “exclusive access to premium features” on a monthly subscription basis, Twitter says. It is available in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.”
4. Apple pilot tests feature that allows developers to automatically charge users for subscription price increases – Techcrunch
Apple may be changing how iOS subscriptions operate when price increases are involved. Recently, some developers noticed that the streaming service Disney+ was seemingly only informing users of upcoming price changes then automatically opting them in.
“As the news circulated on Twitter, several other people responded that they, too, had noticed similar issues with pricing increases for their streaming subscriptions. Instead of having to opt in and agree to the price change, as usual, the new system required them to opt out if they didn’t want to pay the higher price.”
5. Robot subscription services let companies automate on the cheap – Bloomberg
Right now, a nascent trend of offering robots as a service is opening opportunities to even small companies in the US, writes Bloomberg. The plans cost as little as $8 an hour, helping smaller businesses dodge high wages and labor shortages.
“I’m paying $10 to $12 an hour for a robot that is replacing a position that I was paying $15 to $18 plus fringe benefits.”
Weekly Analysis Roundup
1. Is the era of constant growth for streaming subscriptions over? – Linkedin
The short answer: Probably, writes Recuro’s Jonas Åström. Analysts covering the Netflix affair don’t quite get the root cause right though, he notes. Netflix estimated churn rate (2.5%) is best in class, bet because of the service huge subscriber base, Netflix’ churn in absolute numbers will seem quite high. As he sees it, Netflix still has a number of levers to pull to increase revenue.
“To keep growing their numbers, they need to unlock new markets as their current ones are saturated or in high competition. There are several ways of doing this, but I believe the biggest opportunity lies in cheaper plans/tiers to reach new markets globally and new target groups in saturated markets.”
2. How truebill turned canceling subscriptions into a recurring-revenue business – Protocol
Truebill tracks users’ subscriptions by analyzing their bank account and credit card data and helping them cancel those they no longer need, or aren’t even aware they have. Rocket Companies acquired Truebill for $1.3 billion in December. In an interview with Protocol, the founder looks back on Truebill’s journey.
“[By looking at transactional data] we basically were able to identify all of their recurring subscriptions. Then, beyond that, we started adding a knowledge layer. What actually are these subscriptions so we can detect them? What company is this? How does someone cancel it? And then we added our own service, which would cancel it for the user.”
3. In-car subscription services could be more profitable than selling new cars – The Investor
The market for in-car subscription services with high-end functions like autonomous driving and entertainment systems could be more profitable than selling new cars for carmakers, new market data shows, illustrating the reason why major carmakers are moving to develop their own software and in-car programs.
“According to a report from the Korea Automotive Technology Institute, the world’s top 11 finished carmakers and electric vehicle maker Tesla have garnered an average of $109 billion of their annual sales from 2019 to 2021 by selling new models. But […] they could make $118 billion each year, even only when just 30 percent of the [customers] choose to run in-car subscription services”
