What I wrote last week
Should you stay at a job for more than 2 years, no matter what?
Business
($) Amazon Adds Revenue Streams as Holiday Season Approaches. I wrote a bit about Amazon’s influence on US-based merchants. Let’s say if these merchants manage to sell 10,000 items per minute on Amazon, the increase in fees will result in an extra $5 million per day for Amazon or approximately around $375 million for the quarter. It’s not insignificant, even for a firm that big. I am curious to see the reaction from sellers. On one hand, nobody likes to see costs rise. On the other hand, can these sellers afford to leave Amazon?
How Amazon’s DSP program has created $26 billion in revenue for owners. Amazon has more than 3,000 delivery partners around the world. It may not sound like a lot, but I don’t imagine it’s easy to figure out the kinks of running a complex delivery system involving the internal operation and that of external partners. VRIO is about finding and cultivating Valuable, Rare, Inimitable and Organized capabilities or resources. This can be Amazon’s one of many such capabilities.
($) Instacart Revenue Growth Accelerates Ahead of Planned IPO. Now is not a great IPO environment for Instacart. Growth yet unprofitable companies have seen their stocks plummet in the past 10 months. It’s very likely that Instacart will be another name in that group. A quick comparison of the quarter ending 30th June 2022 between DoorDash’s publicly reported numbers and Instacart’s numbers reported in this piece – Booking volume: $13 billion for DoorDash vs $7.1 billion for Instacart; Revenue: $1.6 billion for DoorDash vs $621 million for Instacart.
Consumers Are 19% More Likely to Complete a Purchase with Venmo Over Traditional Payment Methods. Venmo is incredibly popular among end users, especially the younger crowds. To merchants, Venmo can be a value add as well. “In another study of more than 300 thousand U.S. consumers and an analysis of more than 3.4 million transactions,1 we found that Venmo users shop over 2 times more frequently than the average shopper and are 19% more likely to make repeat purchases. ” How PayPal monetizes Venmo will play a crucial role in the company’s future.
Secret ‘Batgirl’ Screenings Hit the Warner Bros Lot. Putting away content that took hours and millions of dollars to create just for tax write-down purposes seems a bit extreme.
Amazon bought Whole Foods five years ago for $13.7 billion. Here’s what’s changed at the high-end grocer. One frustrating aspect of following Amazon is that the company doesn’t break out Whole Foods’ financials. It’s almost impossible to gauge the success of this expensive acquisition. Nonetheless, it’s good to read through the operational changes since then.
Microsoft employees love Figma, and it’s testing the company’s cozy relationship with Adobe. Usually, an upcoming challenger is more popular among small companies while the incumbents are favored by big corporations. In the case of Figma, it’s widely popular at a giant shop like Microsoft. It’s good for them, but a warning for Adobe
WhatsApp grocery shopping is already huge in Brazil. One startup wants to take it over. An intriguing concept to use Whatsapp groups for e-Commerce. Trela manages multiple Whatsapp groups, posts weekly deals in the groups so that users can place orders as well as manages orders and deliveries. Merchants save time. Users get informed of the deals and can buy goods conveniently. What concerns me are the management of groups and scalability. First, Whatsapp groups are limited to 256 users. A medium-sized city will require like more than 100 groups. What about a big city then? How does Trela manage the groups, the communication and the orders? Second, people move from one city to another. How does Trela manage the changes? What if somebody leaves the old group but can’t find a spot in any new group?
Other stuff I find interesting
Deep Time Sickness. An interesting long read on Mexico, its history of earthquakes and the consequences.
Fleeing Putin, Russian tech workers find a home in Armenia. Reading this article, I cannot help but feel that Russia is living off only its natural resources and former glory. The brain drain will deplete the country of valuable human capital and innovation; something that is not easily reversed.
France is now offering a €4,000 e-bike subsidy to people who trade in their car. The initiative sounds great on paper: stimulate exercise, encourage folks to ditch cars for e-bikes. The 2nd-order effect will be more space for cities and outdoor activities for everybody. I am sure there will be scientific research into how much this initiative benefits the country and cities and I really look forward to reading such research.
The utterly delightful site dedicated to classifying plastic bread tags. Such a quirky hobby
For Japanese Uber delivery drivers, gig work is working. “The word “freedom” crops up when talking to Tokyo’s delivery drivers. Their full-time employment alternative, after all, is likely an all-consuming office job, involving long, draining hours and a demanding work culture; part-time at a bar or convenience store, they’d face fixed shifts and constant supervision. While the gig worker industry has come under fire around the world for years of shrinking wages and poor conditions, Japan’s experience, so far, is different; in stark contrast to global lawsuits, protests, and strike action, Japan’s workers, by and large, appear content with the rare flexibility their jobs provide. A recent Japanese study, the first of its kind, surveyed roughly 14,000 delivery drivers from major companies across the country. While most of the workers were new entrants — around 60% have been working less than a year, and the vast majority worked 40 hours or less — 63% said they were “satisfied” with their work; 82% reported that they would like to stay in their jobs “for a while” or “forever.”
Stats
35% of Venmo customers are between 18 and 29 years old, versus 23% across the US
‘House of the Dragon’ draws nearly 10 million viewers
Bank of America Clients’ 1 Billion Digital Logins in July 2022
Minh Quang Duong 