Netflix laid an egg
IPO ball, Apple event, and Insta keeps creeps at bay.
Hi 👋, Tanvi here.
Filter Coffee hits your inbox every morning with notable tech and business news scoops to jump start your day.
Sign up below for free. 👇
Let’s go ahead and get started:
Market summary: 📊
Indian markets continue to drop like a rock, with no bottom in sight. US had a good but measured rebound.
US:
S&P 500 - up 0.93%
Nasdaq 100 - up 0.91%
India:
Nifty 50 - down 0.44%
Sensex - down 0.51%
What’s brewing hot? ☕
✅ World was watching—the trial of ex-cop Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on George Flyod’s neck for 9 minutes causing his death in police custody, which led to worldwide protests, finally reached a conclusion—with a jury convicting Chauvin of all charges including manslaughter. Far from India sure, but the outcome of the case will be a historical legal landmark in mankind’s fight against racial inequality, and in checking the overbearing reach of those granted the authority to safeguard society.
✅ Coinbase ain’t kidding around—blockbuster IPO is done, and with cash in the bank the company is setting eyes eastward. Coinbase snatched former Google Pay executive, Pankaj Gupta, who led Google’s engineering efforts in India and APAC, to kick off its Indian operations amidst much pomp! Company statement seemed pretty aggressive about hiring plans, as well as plans of making some acquisitions in the Indian crypto space. Quite refreshing to see this bullishness despite GOI’s active pushback on crypto, and who knows… maybe brute force from a $100 billion global company is what it finally takes to push GOI to take the crypto space seriously?
SPONSORED
Banking doesn’t have to be boring
Most banks, designed around the needs of the older generations, leave huge gaps that fail to meet the needs of today’s teenagers.
Yodaa’s out to change that. The company’s financial lifestyle app is designed for emerging demands of modern teenagers in India and SeAsia.
Users get their own cool card powered by Mastercard, with complete control over their finances, and a chance to master their money game early-on in life, through practical experience in a safe environment.
Besides, the Yodaa app also ensures parents have complete control and visibility over a teen’s expenses, making it super easy to set budgets, or even contribute to savings plans.
Yodaa’s mission is to raise a generation of financially aware teenagers for the new decade, and the product is part of Singapore-based financial technology company Atlantis.
Netflix lays an egg 🐣
What happened—Netflix reported its first quarter numbers yesterday… and the results were extremely underwhelming. Although revenues grew an awesome 24%, and cash flows looked cute, the company added only 4 million new subscribers.
That may seem like a lot… but Netflix had promised it’d add 6 million, and overenthusiastic analysts on Wall Street told everyone they’re expecting for an even better 6.2. So… you see the problem.
Explanations, explanations, explanations—CEO Reed Hastings obviously had to do some answering, and he blamed 2 reasons for the debacle.
Strong forward pull in 2020—basically, just too many people subscribed to Netflix during the lockdowns that they’re finding it hard to fish for more subs so fast.
No good content slate—you know how global movie production has mostly halted, and all the hollywooders are vacationing on paradise islands never to see the mainland until the virus leaves us, so the entire industry is kinda struggling with high quality content that can lure people into subscribing.
Both excuses are honestly pretty believable, but investors were in no mood to offer consolation, and dragged Netflix’s stock down 10% immediately after the print.
It's also worth mentioning that the company saw weakness particularly in international markets, where paid streaming is still quite a luxury, and considering COVID’s economic devastation, has begun to weigh heavily on consumers’ squeezed wallets.
There may be more to it—markets are also kinda worried about rising competition. Disney+ is slowly starting to come up in Netflix’s rearview mirror with 105 million subs, and Bezos just won’t give up with Amazon Prime Video.
Not to mention the Hotstars of literally every emerging market from Latin America to Eastern Europe, which is making it hard to compete on the regional front.
The question remains unanswered—is this a minor hiccup, or are we at the end of a long bull cycle for one of the hottest stocks of the past decade?
Ball with IPOs... 💪
hard to get excited about things amidst all the COVID gloom, but the first quarter of 2021 was a record setter for India’s capital markets. We saw a record 22 IPOs, raising a combined $2.5 billion from the street!
Quick look at numbers:
Total of 17 large companies and 5 SMEs (smaller enterprises) went public this quarter, compared to just 1 last year
Indian Railway Finance Corp IPO worth $634 million was the biggest bid. FYI, stock’s down ~15% since, in case you’re shopping for new ideas
The menu stretched across industries, with consumer retail, industrial products, automotives, as well as tech segments seeing bids
Worth mentioning that across the world, 430 companies went public in Q1 of 2021, raising a total of $105.6 billion, a jump of 271%, despite the global markets staying kinda choppy through the last 3 months.
Expect the party to be dented a bit in India this quarter though, as we fight this war against rising cases.
Designed by Apple, California 🍎
Yesterday was Apple’s much-hyped “Spring Loaded” event—and a barrage of features and functionalities were announced, which the knock offs will be rushing to copy out over the next few months. So here’s what’s coming in hot...
The $29 AirTag—a simple tiny bug of a device that runs on the “Find My” network, which can be used to track lost items. There’s a built-in speaker in the device, that’ll buzz at you, and an app on the phone will try to give a precise location. You’ll get to engrave your name/emoji on them if that counts. Ask us, and we think nothing smells more of first-world excess than this… and some of us are true Apple fans here!
Family Card—Apple’s credit card product will be structured around a family’s needs, with spending limits for each user, couples co-owning a card, and other basic money management stuff
Slim and sexy iMac—it's a device boom out there, with work-from-homers lapping up every last computer on the shelves, so Apple wasn’t gonna sit idle. The new desktop comes in 7 different colors, razor slim edge, and is powered by the all cool M1 chip.
An Apple TV 4K—if you need your living room to give more of that “rich people” vibe, here you go. 4K video, calibrating color using your iPhone, an A12 bionic chip… it is what it is
Powerful iPad Pro—Apple’s home designed M1 chip which has been delivering blazing fast performance, is on the iPad too now. 10,000 LEDs powering the screen, and a bunch of other cool features. The designers are rejoicing.
Lastly, one for the creator economy—rolling out subscriptions for Apple podcasts in over 170 countries. Creators have autonomy of setting their own prices!
Overall, yawn… except the iMac. We kinda agree with Aaron there.
and if it was that easy, why did you not do it… Dell?
Closing out—making global remote easy 👋
Deel, a global remote operations and payments company, raised a massive $156 million at a $1.25 billion valuation from Andreessen Horowitz.
Deel’s deal is simple—the company figures out all local laws, taxes, and other legalese that employers gotta navigate when making global hires, with pricing suited to match garage entrepreneurs as well as Fortune 100 giants. The value proposition has been so popular amidst 2020’s remote-rush, that Deel saw revenues grow 20x in the last 12 months!
In addition to processing payroll, the business has some sexy plans in the pipeline, including lending products, banking, and other fintech products for global employees.
Bottomline: the virtual and remote HR market is estimated to top $45 billion+ in spending in the next 5 years. Everyone from old school HR companies to the upstart SaaS platforms with their distinct brands, are rushing in to corner a piece of the game and make the most of it.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
🛑 Keeping those creeps away - Instagram’s latest AI will block harassment in direct messages by detecting a set of words, phrases and emojis that might signal abusive content. The features will be rolled out globally in the coming few weeks.
😷 Unstoppable - the second wave continues its merciless destruction, with India now topping 200K fresh cases a day for 7 days straight - an alarming record, yet a top barely seems in sight. One day at a time folks!
Hit that 💚 if you liked today’s issue.
You can forward this email or share FC on social media by clicking the button below. Thanks and Ciao! 😀