The Information

Source: Second Measure; Chart by Mike Sullivan

Stitch Fix Keeps Steady Share of Monthly Customers

By Cory Weinberg · Aug 22, 2017 10:27am PDT

Subscription retailer Stitch Fix has kept customers coming back for personalized boxes of clothes at a steady clip over the last three years, according to new data. That stability could be a good omen as the company prepares to go public, although investors also might be hoping Stitch Fix over time can increase the percentage of customers that... Subscription retailer Stitch Fix has kept customers coming back for personalized boxes of clothes...

Source: Second Measure

Where Lyft Gained on Uber—and Where It Didn’t

By Amir Efrati and Mike Sullivan · Aug 16, 2017 7:01am PDT

Lyft’s share of the ride-hailing market has hit record levels in nearly 30 major U.S. cities in the past month, by dollars spent, according to new data. In the top 10 markets, Lyft’s highest share is 39.5% in San Francisco, and 33.5% in Los Angeles, according to Second Measure, which tracks credit card transactions.Overall, Lyft has... Lyft’s share of the ride-hailing market has hit record levels in nearly 30 major U.S....

Chart by Mike Sullivan. Source: Moody's.

Netflix Carries Outsize Debt to Fund Original Content

By Martin Peers · Aug 7, 2017 3:37pm PDT · 5 comments

Netflix is carrying twice as much debt, relative to its reported profits, as other major media companies, according to credit ratings agency Moody’s. The figures highlight the financial risk the streaming service is taking as it spends tons of money to create original films and TV shows.Netflix has been borrowing money because it is... Netflix is carrying twice as much debt, relative to its reported profits, as other major media...

Source: Yahoo Finance

Soon Free to Sell, Few Snap Employees Have Stock Profits

By Alfred Lee and Mike Sullivan · Aug 1, 2017 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Source: Yahoo Finance

Soon Free to Sell, Few Snap Employees Have Stock Profits

By Alfred Lee and Mike Sullivan · Aug 1, 2017 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Many early Snap shareholders were freed to sell stock starting Monday, but judging by the fact that the stock barely moved, few did. As the shares have fallen 20% since the IPO, many may be waiting for an upturn.That particularly applies to employees, who are still blocked from selling due to rules around next week’s earnings result. Only... Many early Snap shareholders were freed to sell stock starting Monday, but judging by the fact...

Source: PitchBook

More VCs Investing in Insurance Startups as Lending Fades

By Serena Saitto and Mike Sullivan · Jul 26, 2017 7:01am PDT · 3 comments

As the rush of venture capital money into online lending dissipates, VCs have turned their attention to another fintech sector: online insurance startups. Venture capital investments in insurance startups rose 50% to $1.4 billion in 2016 from a year earlier, even as money flowing into lending startups fell by more than half to $2.1 billion from... As the rush of venture capital money into online lending dissipates, VCs have turned their...

Sources: The companies; The Information calculations.

Volatile Cryptocurrencies Hit ICO Market

By Jon Victor and Mike Sullivan · Jul 20, 2017 12:03pm PDT · 5 comments

A telltale sign of the risks involved in investing in the latest breed of initial coin offerings: The underlying currencies are so volatile that even the ventures creating the new batch of digital coins often sell as fast as they can.The values of Bitcoin and Ether, the digital currencies that investors use to buy into ICOs, have declined since... A telltale sign of the risks involved in investing in the latest breed of initial coin offerings:...

*1st generation Amazon Dot sold out July-August 2016; Source: Slice Intelligence

What Apple’s HomePod Is Up Against

By Mike Sullivan and Eugene Kim · Jun 20, 2017 10:01am PDT · 16 comments

Google has so far failed to make a dent in Amazon’s stranglehold on the voice-activated home speaker market, new data show. It highlights the challenge facing Apple, which is pricing its forthcoming HomePod devices well above similar devices.The data show that Amazon has done best with the cheapest version of its speaker, the $49 Dot.... Google has so far failed to make a dent in Amazon’s stranglehold on the voice-activated...

Source: SEC Filings

Uber Hiring Outpaces Some Tech Leaders

By Cory Weinberg and Mike Sullivan · May 30, 2017 10:01am PDT · 2 comments

Source: SEC Filings

Uber Hiring Outpaces Some Tech Leaders

By Cory Weinberg and Mike Sullivan · May 30, 2017 10:01am PDT · 2 comments

Over the past year, Uber has added as many or more employees as established heavyweights Apple, Tesla and Facebook did throughout 2016, according to an analysis of hiring trends at large tech firms. The ride-sharing company’s doubling of its workforce to about 12,000 employees means it added more than four times as many people as Snap and... Over the past year, Uber has added as many or more employees as established heavyweights Apple,...

Source: SEC Filings, mutual fund reports

Mutual Funds Double Down on Snap—Will They Hold On?

By Alfred Lee and Mike Sullivan · May 16, 2017 7:00am PDT

Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price more than doubled their stakes in Snap in the month after the company went public, buying around $500 million of stock between them, an analysis of SEC filings and online portfolio reports show. As a result, the two funds appear to have maintained their pre-IPO status as the biggest mutual fund investors in... Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price more than doubled their stakes in Snap in the month after...

Source: Analysys

In China, Tencent’s WeChat Threatens Alibaba’s Alipay

By Juro Osawa and Mike Sullivan · Apr 18, 2017 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Move over Alipay. Here comes WeChat. In China’s massive mobile payment market, WeChat operator Tencent is nearly catching up with Alibaba’s affiliate Alipay, the market leader. By successfully turning the WeChat messaging app into an everyday payment tool, Tencent more than quadrupled its mobile payment market share to 37% in the... Move over Alipay. Here comes WeChat. In China’s massive mobile payment market, WeChat...

Source: Paysa

Competitors Like to Poach Microsoft’s AI Talent

By Reed Albergotti and Mike Sullivan · Apr 12, 2017 12:20pm PDT

Every company in the tech industry is searching for talented employees with artificial intelligence experience. They might want to look at Microsoft. According to new data, Microsoft is the biggest source of “AI” talent for competitors Google, Amazon and Facebook. Over the past six years, those three companies have poached Microsoft... Every company in the tech industry is searching for talented employees with artificial...

Source: Betaworks

Amazon Wants Alexa to Play More Games

By Kevin McLaughlin and Mike Sullivan · Mar 23, 2017 7:01am PDT · 5 comments

Source: Betaworks

Amazon Wants Alexa to Play More Games

By Kevin McLaughlin and Mike Sullivan · Mar 23, 2017 7:01am PDT · 5 comments

Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos has decided that games are the killer app for Alexa.Mr. Bezos has told the team behind Amazon’s digital assistant to focus on getting more games for Alexa’s app store, according to a person who works with Amazon. Mr. Bezos believes games can make developers the most money, which is important for getting them... Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos has decided that games are the killer app for Alexa.Mr. Bezos has told...

* Additional board seats authorized in nonpublic bylaws; Source: Articles of incorporation.

Uber’s Unfilled Board Seats

By Alfred Lee and Jessica E. Lessin · Mar 14, 2017 7:01am PDT · 1 comment

As Uber CEO Travis Kalanick looks for leadership help, one place he could turn is his board. Uber has one of the largest private tech company boards, with seven voting members. But the company also has four vacancies, according to its charter, the only top private U.S. tech company that hasn’t filled the seats outlined in its charter. (See... As Uber CEO Travis Kalanick looks for leadership help, one place he could turn is his board. Uber...

Source: CloudHarmony

How AWS Stacks Up Against Rivals on Downtime

By Kevin McLaughlin and Mike Sullivan · Mar 7, 2017 7:02am PST · 6 comments

This might be hard to believe, given Amazon Web Services’ three-hour outage last Tuesday: AWS is far better at keeping its public cloud service running than either Microsoft or Google.Since the start of 2015, AWS has had a total of 448 minutes of downtime, 40% of which occurred in last week’s episode. That total compares with 1,652... This might be hard to believe, given Amazon Web Services’ three-hour outage last Tuesday:...

Source: The companies

Snap’s Spending Spree

By Tom Dotan and Mike Sullivan · Feb 22, 2017 11:06am PST · 1 comment

Snap may not be the most prolific buyer of startups, but it’s lapping the field when it comes to deal size. In the last two years, the company spent more money than either Twitter or Facebook did in the same period before their IPOs, on just a handful of deals.Snap has acquired four companies of note between 2015 and 2016, according to its... Snap may not be the most prolific buyer of startups, but it’s lapping the field when it...

*No growth data available for HelloFresh in Q1 2015; Source: Slice Intelligence

Growth Cools Off for Blue Apron, HelloFresh

By Cory Weinberg and Mike Sullivan · Feb 14, 2017 10:48am PST · 12 comments

*No growth data available for HelloFresh in Q1 2015; Source: Slice Intelligence

Growth Cools Off for Blue Apron, HelloFresh

By Cory Weinberg and Mike Sullivan · Feb 14, 2017 10:48am PST · 12 comments

The novelty of ordering a “meal kit,” to make dinner at home, appears to be wearing thin.Blue Apron and HelloFresh, the two biggest startups that ship recipes and ingredients to customers, saw a sharp slowdown in growth in the second half of last year, new data shows. After posting more than 200% increases in new buyers every quarter... The novelty of ordering a “meal kit,” to make dinner at home, appears to be wearing...

*LinkedIn's last trading day was Dec. 7, 2016; **As of end of day Jan. 30, 2017; Source: Yahoo Finance

Tech IPOs’ First Year Can Be Tough

By Mike Sullivan and Alfred Lee · Jan 31, 2017 10:58am PST · 1 comment

When Snap goes public in the next few weeks, it will hope to buck a troubling recent trend for ad-supported tech companies. Several, including social media and messaging rivals Facebook, Twitter and Weibo, had disappointing IPOs. After a first-day pop, their stocks traded down by the end of their first year of public trading.But the thing to... When Snap goes public in the next few weeks, it will hope to buck a troubling recent trend for...

Source: Tubular Labs

Facebook’s Most Popular Videos: Gone in 90 Seconds

By Cory Weinberg and Mike Sullivan · Jan 27, 2017 7:01am PST · 10 comments

Facebook said on Thursday it had tweaked News Feed’s video rankings to emphasize longer videos. There’s a reason why. Two-thirds of the 200 most viewed videos on Facebook over the last three months were less than 90 seconds in length, new data show. That is much shorter than the most popular videos on YouTube in the same time... Facebook said on Thursday it had tweaked News Feed’s video rankings to emphasize longer...

Source: PitchBook

Uber Versus the World: Cash Edition

By Amir Efrati and Mike Sullivan · Jan 18, 2017 12:01pm PST · 6 comments

Uber has set records for fundraising in the private tech markets, but the rest of the world has more than kept up. In the past four years, Uber raised a little more than $17.4 billion, including loans. All other ride-hailing and carpooling companies have collected around $19 billion, according to data compiled by PitchBook and The Information.... Uber has set records for fundraising in the private tech markets, but the rest of the world has...

Source: CEB

Google’s Relentless AI Appetite

By Kevin McLaughlin and Mike Sullivan · Jan 10, 2017 11:30am PST · 1 comment

Source: CEB

Google’s Relentless AI Appetite

By Kevin McLaughlin and Mike Sullivan · Jan 10, 2017 11:30am PST · 1 comment

Alphabet is seen as the tech industry’s top destination for artificial intelligence engineers and scientists. But Alphabet also has been more aggressive in acquiring AI startups than other tech firms. Its Google unit bought nine between January 2014 and the end of November 2016, nearly twice as many as the second-most active firm, Apple.... Alphabet is seen as the tech industry’s top destination for artificial intelligence...