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Market summary: đ
Overall, Indian markets ended the week down, as investors welcome a healthy pullback after the epic rally put into motion post-budget. US market ended the week flat.
US:
S&P 500 -Â down 0.19%
Nasdaq 100 - down 0.42%
India:
Nifty 50 -Â down 0.91%
Sensex - down 0.85%
Surprise surprise, gotta pay your drivers đ
Uber had been involved in a tussle with the UK government on whether drivers should be classified as âemployeesâ or independent contractors.Â
Yesterday, offering final judgement in the matter, the UK Supreme court sided with the government, with a panel of 7 judges unanimously ruling that all employment initiated via the Uber app will be classified as full time.
Uber is now evaluating the possibility of paying full benefits, including paid time off to some 65,000 drivers in the cityâone of the firsts in the gig economy.
Why does it matter:
the decision will considerably spike per mile cost for Uber rides
Uber may even consider shuttering UK operations once againâwhich should make investors lose sleep
Whatâs worse? Other jurisdictions are likely to get more firepower to pursue a similar stand against ride hailers
Unit economics of the entire gig industry could change, if other industries push for similar rights
The pandemic-destroyed business model of Uber desperately needs solutions, not fresh problems that eats into its marginsâso far, they look objectively out of luck.
Your tiny lil custom workshop đ
Amazon is trying to run its own Kickstarter-like platform, where itâll ask users to vote for whatever products theyâd prefer to have, and if the product gets enough support within 30 days, then Amazon will go build it in batches and ship it over to you.
The program will be called Build It, and is one of the first attempts in ecommerce (at this scale) to try to make anything like this work. Current listings include a smart scale, an Alexa based clock, and a sticky notes printer.
Key takeaway: as ecommerce goes mainstream, and marketplaces start maturing, the opportunity of building an âexperienceâ on top of vanilla platforms is becoming extremely attractive.
On-demand product design, gamified commerce, tiered services, âbrandsâ professionally scaled on top of Amazon (Thrasio) are some interesting emerging angles taking ecommerce to the next level.
The foundation for the shift from basic functional ecommerce, to experiential ecommerce is slowly being laid out, and will be a HOT area for this decade.
While weâre on this subject, âď¸
Global retail giant Walmart told investors that its ecommerce revenues grew nearly 69% for the last 3 months of 2020, as the companyâs aggressive digital transformation has begun paying dividends. Also, thanks to COVID, digital-natives arenât the only ones winning in this game right now.
Flipkart obviously had a large role in driving some of that growth, and the markets got some hints on the companyâs state of operations, and pending IPO plans:
Flipkart currently prioritizing cutting excess and and pruning costs
Will be writing off $300 million in a restructuring charge for shutting down Jabong operations
With some financial discipline in place, new agendas will be prioritized, chasing growth in grocery, high-fashion, tech & infrastructure
Flipkart is quite bullish on its moves in advertising technology
The $10B IPO coming towards end of 2021 or early next year
Walmart will be further seeking to dilute its stake down by 25% in the business at its IPOâhowever, again, the business will be listed in the US, which is a bummer.
NASA makes history đ
NASAâs Perseverance rover, along with a helicopter drone Ingenuity, landed on Mars yesterday, successfully concluding a 7 month space journey.
The mission will scan the surface of mars for hints of biological life, or the potential of cultivating it in the environment there, trying to access and decipher geological processes and cycles, and other relevant information.Â
Hereâs a quick video of the final landing (actual + simulation) capturing the NASA team land the rover on the red planet.
Aight, thatâs it for today, and a quick look at the hottest stuff this weekâŚ
đ RIL bags Milk BasketâRILâs Jio Mart closed on Milk Basket, offering somewhere between $40-43 million for the hyperlocal delivery service, to beef up its assault in digital commerce against incumbents AMZN and Flipkart. Milk Basket runs a subscription based service for everyday dairy and grocery items, mostly popular in North India, with revenues jumping nearly 4x to âš322 crores last year due to the pandemic. The companyâs investors were keen on an exit, which had caused some internal rift with the board, and was what drove Relianceâs negotiating power in stealing an absolute bargain.
đ Facebook goes ballistic in AustraliaâFB banned all news in Australia, and booted Australian news publishers from its platform in protest of the local governmentâs new law that requires social platforms to pay news companies for displaying their content. The government was demanding that FB even pay the news companies for links that random users end up sharing. This is the first time tech giants have directly locked horns with regulators going full YOLO on a subject.
đ Google doubles down on educationâin a rebranded offering called the Google Workspace for Education, GOOGL is rolling out an array of tools that combines Google Meet, Google Classroom with 50+ new features to launch a thorough learning management system, making moves to capture the broader education-software opportunity. Nearly 150 million or so students use Googleâs learning products today. Global EdTech IT spending is estimated to cross over $200 billion by 2025, growing 15%+ rates, making it a gargantuan opportunity which will be one of the new frontiers of competition for big cloud vendors (Google, Azure, AWS).
đ¸ Dispo wins with mass FOMOâGen Z influencer and YouTuber David Dobrik backed photo app Dispo is currently the talk of the town. The app which is like an Instagram for 2021, uses an old disposable camera-vibe to capture your best moments which you canât see until 9am the next morning, with inherent social features. The beta is being tested with select few users, and Davidâs tens of millions of followers are scrambling in line to get an invite. As if this wasn't enough, David is actively juggling calls from VC giants Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, and Benchmark, all interested in leading Dispoâs Series A, with a rumored valuation of over $100 million.
đ Edtech got no chillâUnacademy made its 7th acquisition since last year, paying up âš100 crores for networking and contracting-services platform TapChief, which basically connects skilled professionals in design, content, software, product and other functions with businesses looking to hire them on a contract or freelance basis. It will form a core part of a new product called Unacademy Pro, which will focus on getting learners equipped with job ready skills, connecting them with credible employers. Meanwhile, Byjuâs will spend $150 million on acquiring its test-prep platform Toppr, which runs an online competitive test-prep service, targeting students right from KG to the 12th grade. Gameâs gone craaaayyyy.
đ° Pulling off a hard transformationâTata Group will be acquiring 60% of Big Basket for $1-$1.2 billion, taking the first step in the direction of Tataâs grander ambitions of transforming its empire into a digital-first entity. Big Basket can be a shrewd test bed before they go all guns blazing with the proposed gazillion dollar super-app that Tataâs are planning on launching in partnership with big money investors including Walmart. Finally, the entry of a cash rich player like Tata in the digital commerce game should further intensify wars, check the domination of Amazon, Flipkart, and RIL, and draw more interest from traditional investors to the sectorâwhich keeps the ecosystem healthy and competitive.
đ BTC had a great weekâa lot of things happened in the crypto world this week. Firstly, Jack Dorsey and rapper Jay Z announced plans of setting aside 500 Bitcoins to form a trust that will push for innovation coming from India and Nigeria. The fund will be called âżtrust and are seeking board members to manage the money theyâve pooled. Then Bitcoin topped $50,000 for the first time this week after Tesla announced its ownership of close to $1.5 billion worth of the currency. Mastercard, Barclays, Morgan Stanley were some other major corporations announcing moves to build tech here. Finally, the currencyâs market cap topped $1 trillion for the first time yesterday.Â
đ Teslaâs India bound, landing at BLRâlocal politicians dropped hints that Tesla has decided to build their India manufacturing unit somewhere close to Bengaluru. Thereâs no official confirmation from Tesla yet though. Building a supply chain from scratch, with a million moving parts, bulk of which could still be imported, is going to be a daunting endeavor, but Teslaâs history of buildout speed has been outstanding. Also, the move will significantly accelerate the consumer acceptance that EVs are demanding and book a HUGE victory for the local ecosystem.
Thatâs it for today! Welcome to the 500+ new readers who discovered us this week, and hope to see yaâll regularly starting next week đ
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