Author: azeeadmin

WhatsApp, which began testing its mobile payments feature in India two years ago, could offer at least one more financial service to people in its biggest market: credit.

In a filing with the local regulator in India, the company has listed credit as one of the areas it plans to explore in the country.

At an event in Bangalore late last year, Abhijit Bose, WhatsApp’s head in India, said he believed that mobile payments, which has attracted dozens of local and international firms, is still at a very early stage in India and eventually firms would look to move beyond just offering a way for people to send money to one another.

WhatsApp has yet to receive approval from New Delhi for a nationwide rollout of Pay in India. Local media reports claimed earlier this year that WhatsApp had started to expand Pay’s reach in the country in various phases.

Ajit Mohan, a Facebook VP and India head, told TechCrunch in an interview last week that only 1 million WhatsApp users in India, same as before, have access to its mobile payment service.

Dozens of payment services in India have expanded to credit, or online lending, in recent quarters as they look for a business model in the country. A number of firms including Paytm, India’s most-valued startup, and MobiKwik today offer small ticket credit to millions of users in India.

More to follow…

Today after the bell, Alphabet, parent company of Google, reported its Q1 2020 performance. The company’s $41.16 billion in revenue for the three-month period came in ahead of expectations, besting analyst estimates of $40.33 billion. However, its earnings per share came in under expectations, with the street anticipating $10.38 in per-share profit, while Alphabet delivered a slimmer $9.87 in per-share income.

Shares of Alphabet rose around 2.8% in after-hours trading after shedding 3.3% in regular trading.

Inside Alphabet’s earnings report was a warning of sorts, with its CFO Ruth Porat noting a decline in later-quarter business, saying “performance was strong during the first two months of the quarter,” but that in “March [Alphabet] experienced a significant slowdown in ad revenues.”

Google generates the bulk of Alphabet’s revenue and profit, which are, in turn, largely generated by advertising incomes. Indeed, the company’s advertising revenue from search, YouTube, and its network generated 82% of its revenue in the first three months of the year.

Alphabet’s various skunkworks projects dubbed “Other Bets” generated less revenue than in the year-ago quarter, bringing in just $135 million in Q1 2020, down from a year-ago result of $170 million. Off of that revenue decline, Other Bets saw its operating loss rise from a mere $868 million to $1.12 billion.

The company’s mixed results, and note about declining business quality in March may not assuage investors worried about broader economic deterioration due to COVID-19 and its ensuing economic impacts; advertising-based businesses are struggling in the wake of the pandemic and a decline in consumer and business spend, which has torched advertising outlays.

Widespread theatrical closures have forced the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to loosen the rules around which films qualify for Oscars.

This might not seem like much of a breakthrough in a year when Netflix got the most Oscar nominations of any studio, and when the streamer’s original films ultimately walked away with two Oscars.

However, in order to compete in Best Picture and other categories, films must be screened commercially for at least seven days in a Los Angeles theater, even if they’re streaming at the same time. And there was reported debate last year around raising the theatrical requirements in ways that would have made it harder for streaming films to compete.

Today, however, the Academy announced that if a movie was originally scheduled for a theatrical run and instead launches on streaming or video on demand, it’s still eligible. At the same time, the announcement emphasizes that this is a temporary change that will no longer apply “when theaters reopen in accordance with federal, state and local specified guidelines and criteria.”

The pandemic has also prompted the Academy to reconsider the LA-centric nature of its requirements. When theaters reopen, the list of qualifying theaters will expand to include venues in New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Miami and Atlanta.

This announcement comes as the the Hollywood studios have delayed several blockbusters in response to the coronavirus closures, while bringing some films (like Disney’s “Onward” and NBCUniversal’s “The Invisible Man”) online more quickly, and sending others (like “Artemis Fowl” and “The Lovebirds”) straight to streaming.

In a statement, Academy President David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson said:

The Academy firmly believes there is no greater way to experience the magic of movies than to see them in a theater. Our commitment to that is unchanged and unwavering. Nonetheless, the historically tragic COVID-19 pandemic necessitates this temporary exception to our awards eligibility rules. The Academy supports our members and colleagues during this time of uncertainty. We recognize the importance of their work being seen and also celebrated, especially now, when audiences appreciate movies more than ever.

SiriusXM’s first quarter 2020 earnings today painted a picture of what’s ahead for the music and entertainment service in light of the coronavirus outbreak. While the company surprised with both an earnings and revenue beat in the quarter ended March 2020, its satellite radio business also lost net subscribers due to declines in auto shipments, and the company spoke of further declines in ad sales and in customer responses to its marketing campaigns.

The company did manage to beat expectations in the quarter, reporting revenues of $1.95 billion, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.63%. And it saw earnings per share of $0.07 (a profit of $293 million) beating the estimate of $0.05 per share, and up from the earnings of $0.03 per share a year ago.

But the earnings beat comes at a time when even SiriusXM isn’t sure of what the future holds for its business — it withdrew its full-year 2020 guidance, citing the still unknown potential impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.

Already there were hints of how that future may look, however. The declines in shipments from automakers offering paid trials subscriptions with a vehicle purchase led the company’s satellite radio business to lost 143,000 net subscribers in the first quarter. This is despite the addition 69,000 self-paying subscribers, and saw SiriusXM ending the quarter with 34.8 million total subscribers.

The Pandora streaming music service, which SiriusXM owns, added 51,000 net new self-pay subscribers to its paid tiers, Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium. Pandora ended the quarter with over 6.2 million self-pay subscribers and 6.3 million total paying subscribers, including those who came in through other promotions.

Pandora ad revenue grew 4% year-over-year to reach $241 million in the quarter, which the company attributed to video programmatic and engagement-based video, its expansion of off-platform efforts, and the fees from its AdsWizz platform — a 2018 acquisition.

But Pandora’s gross profit was down 5% year-over-year to $105 million, as total costs of services grew, including those related to higher revenue share and royalties, customer service, billing expenses, and more.

Then there were the expected declines related to the coronavirus’ early impact.

Though much of those troubles didn’t hit until March, SiriusXM warned that “auto sales, advertising, and customer responses to marketing campaigns all fell swiftly in the second half of March.”

That’s only a couple of weeks, mind you, which makes it seem like the company hasn’t really felt the full force of the pandemic on its subscriber growth, ad sales, or total revenues.

“Automakers have idled plants, and dealers have closed their retail operations. New and used vehicle sales have declined sharply in recent weeks,” the company said in its earnings announcement.

Beyond that, the overall economy has taken a hit with rising unemployment and other declines that could touch on SiriusXM’s business in other ways — including the cancellations of sporting events, postponing of concerts, travel declines, and more.

“Unemployment is rising at historic rates as non-essential businesses have been closed and workers have been furloughed. Media spending by businesses has dropped sharply. To add to the uncertainty, it is unclear when an economic recovery could start and what a recovery will look like after this historic shutdown of the economy,” SiriusXM also warned.

The company says it expects to see declines in ad revenues at both SiriusXM and Pandora due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as declines in its satellite radio and accessory sales.

Despite all these issues, there are areas where SiriusXM could succeed, as the coronavirus quarantine stretches on — specifically, its exclusive entertainment offerings.

Today, there are already signs that people are looking for other options to keep themselves entertained in quarantine beyond just streaming Netflix endlessly. Nintendo is struggling to keep the Nintendo Switch in stock, thanks to hit games like Animal Crossing, for example, and even podcast listening is starting to recover from the initial coronavirus hit.

SiriusXM could easily cater to the growing demand for virtual events, where music and entertainment reaches consumers stuck at home.

The company has already done this to some extent — with its Ultra Music Festival, home performance from Garth Brooks, Home DJ series kicked off by Taylor Swift, broadcasts of nationwide events like the Jersey 4 Jersey benefit, and more. The company also began streaming a COVID-19 news channel 24/7, in conjunction with NYU Langone Health. Plus, it still has Howard Stern…for now.

Plus, as quarantined consumers dig further into non-screen based activities — like gardening, arts and crafts, and cooking, among others — SiriusXM could establish itself as a service offering more than just your usual tunes and podcasts, if it strikes the right tone with regard to its marketing efforts.

“Since the start of the global pandemic, our top priorities have been ensuring our employees’ safety and well-being, and continuing to support our subscribers and listeners by providing them the best entertainment, news, and information in the audio space. On both fronts, I’m pleased by our response,” said SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer, in a statement. “We are streaming SiriusXM for free, and we have been in overdrive introducing new shows, channels and special virtual moments,” he said.

SiriusXM also invested $75 million in SoundCloud in the quarter, in the weeks before the pandemic hit, which allows the company to reach 140 million North American listeners across SiriusXM, Pandora, and SoundCloud combined.

SiriusXM’s stock is up 2.58%, following its Q1 results.

SiriusXM’s first quarter 2020 earnings today painted a picture of what’s ahead for the music and entertainment service in light of the coronavirus outbreak. While the company surprised with both an earnings and revenue beat in the quarter ended March 2020, its satellite radio business also lost net subscribers due to declines in auto shipments, and the company spoke of further declines in ad sales and in customer responses to its marketing campaigns.

The company did manage to beat expectations in the quarter, reporting revenues of $1.95 billion, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.63%. And it saw earnings per share of $0.07 (a profit of $293 million) beating the estimate of $0.05 per share, and up from the earnings of $0.03 per share a year ago.

But the earnings beat comes at a time when even SiriusXM isn’t sure of what the future holds for its business — it withdrew its full-year 2020 guidance, citing the still unknown potential impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.

Already there were hints of how that future may look, however. The declines in shipments from automakers offering paid trials subscriptions with a vehicle purchase led the company’s satellite radio business to lost 143,000 net subscribers in the first quarter. This is despite the addition 69,000 self-paying subscribers, and saw SiriusXM ending the quarter with 34.8 million total subscribers.

The Pandora streaming music service, which SiriusXM owns, added 51,000 net new self-pay subscribers to its paid tiers, Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium. Pandora ended the quarter with over 6.2 million self-pay subscribers and 6.3 million total paying subscribers, including those who came in through other promotions.

Pandora ad revenue grew 4% year-over-year to reach $241 million in the quarter, which the company attributed to video programmatic and engagement-based video, its expansion of off-platform efforts, and the fees from its AdsWizz platform — a 2018 acquisition.

But Pandora’s gross profit was down 5% year-over-year to $105 million, as total costs of services grew, including those related to higher revenue share and royalties, customer service, billing expenses, and more.

Then there were the expected declines related to the coronavirus’ early impact.

Though much of those troubles didn’t hit until March, SiriusXM warned that “auto sales, advertising, and customer responses to marketing campaigns all fell swiftly in the second half of March.”

That’s only a couple of weeks, mind you, which makes it seem like the company hasn’t really felt the full force of the pandemic on its subscriber growth, ad sales, or total revenues.

“Automakers have idled plants, and dealers have closed their retail operations. New and used vehicle sales have declined sharply in recent weeks,” the company said in its earnings announcement.

Beyond that, the overall economy has taken a hit with rising unemployment and other declines that could touch on SiriusXM’s business in other ways — including the cancellations of sporting events, postponing of concerts, travel declines, and more.

“Unemployment is rising at historic rates as non-essential businesses have been closed and workers have been furloughed. Media spending by businesses has dropped sharply. To add to the uncertainty, it is unclear when an economic recovery could start and what a recovery will look like after this historic shutdown of the economy,” SiriusXM also warned.

The company says it expects to see declines in ad revenues at both SiriusXM and Pandora due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as declines in its satellite radio and accessory sales.

Despite all these issues, there are areas where SiriusXM could succeed, as the coronavirus quarantine stretches on — specifically, its exclusive entertainment offerings.

Today, there are already signs that people are looking for other options to keep themselves entertained in quarantine beyond just streaming Netflix endlessly. Nintendo is struggling to keep the Nintendo Switch in stock, thanks to hit games like Animal Crossing, for example, and even podcast listening is starting to recover from the initial coronavirus hit.

SiriusXM could easily cater to the growing demand for virtual events, where music and entertainment reaches consumers stuck at home.

The company has already done this to some extent — with its Ultra Music Festival, home performance from Garth Brooks, Home DJ series kicked off by Taylor Swift, broadcasts of nationwide events like the Jersey 4 Jersey benefit, and more. The company also began streaming a COVID-19 news channel 24/7, in conjunction with NYU Langone Health. Plus, it still has Howard Stern…for now.

Plus, as quarantined consumers dig further into non-screen based activities — like gardening, arts and crafts, and cooking, among others — SiriusXM could establish itself as a service offering more than just your usual tunes and podcasts, if it strikes the right tone with regard to its marketing efforts.

“Since the start of the global pandemic, our top priorities have been ensuring our employees’ safety and well-being, and continuing to support our subscribers and listeners by providing them the best entertainment, news, and information in the audio space. On both fronts, I’m pleased by our response,” said SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer, in a statement. “We are streaming SiriusXM for free, and we have been in overdrive introducing new shows, channels and special virtual moments,” he said.

SiriusXM also invested $75 million in SoundCloud in the quarter, in the weeks before the pandemic hit, which allows the company to reach 140 million North American listeners across SiriusXM, Pandora, and SoundCloud combined.

SiriusXM’s stock is up 2.58%, following its Q1 results.

In a blog post, TripAdvisor CEO and co-founder Stephen Kaufer announced that the company would be reducing its workforce in light of the pandemic, which has wrought particular havoc on the travel industry.

The layoffs will reduce the company by 900 employees—nearly a quarter of its workforce. Of the cuts, 600 are from TripAdvisor teams in the U.S. and Canada.

In the letter to the team Kaufer shared, he notes that the layoffs are an effort to “seek significant cost savings” and steer the company through the crisis to the other side.

“… Sometimes, the most valiant of efforts aren’t enough to counter outside circumstances and, as a public company, it is our responsibility to adjust, adapt and evolve to the environment that surrounds us,” Kaufer wrote.

According to the blog post, TripAdvisor will also have most remaining salaried workers take a “temporary pay reduction” and work “a reduced schedule for the summer months.”

As the crisis worsened, the company made other cost-saving measures, including reducing discretionary spending, cutting “non-essential” vendor relationships and a hiring freeze, but in the end it was unable to reduce costs by enough to avoid more drastic steps. Kaufer notes that TripAdvisor’s present cuts are “deliberately and painfully deep” in order to make the company lean enough to survive and to avoid a second round of layoffs.

“As CEO, you plan for the best and worst case outcomes that could affect our business,” Kaufer wrote. “Unfortunately, there is no playbook for this moment that we’re in together right now.”

In a blog post, TripAdvisor CEO and co-founder Stephen Kaufer announced that the company would be reducing its workforce in light of the pandemic, which has wrought particular havoc on the travel industry.

The layoffs will reduce the company by 900 employees—nearly a quarter of its workforce. Of the cuts, 600 are from TripAdvisor teams in the U.S. and Canada.

In the letter to the team Kaufer shared, he notes that the layoffs are an effort to “seek significant cost savings” and steer the company through the crisis to the other side.

“… Sometimes, the most valiant of efforts aren’t enough to counter outside circumstances and, as a public company, it is our responsibility to adjust, adapt and evolve to the environment that surrounds us,” Kaufer wrote.

According to the blog post, TripAdvisor will also have most remaining salaried workers take a “temporary pay reduction” and work “a reduced schedule for the summer months.”

As the crisis worsened, the company made other cost-saving measures, including reducing discretionary spending, cutting “non-essential” vendor relationships and a hiring freeze, but in the end it was unable to reduce costs by enough to avoid more drastic steps. Kaufer notes that TripAdvisor’s present cuts are “deliberately and painfully deep” in order to make the company lean enough to survive and to avoid a second round of layoffs.

“As CEO, you plan for the best and worst case outcomes that could affect our business,” Kaufer wrote. “Unfortunately, there is no playbook for this moment that we’re in together right now.”

Ford said Tuesday it will delay plans to launch an autonomous vehicle service to 2022, as the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the company to rethink its go-to-market strategy.

The news was shared as part of Ford’s quarterly earnings which was released after market closed Tuesday.

Ford is a bit different from other companies that have launched autonomous vehicle pilots in the United States. The automaker has been pursuing two parallels tracks that were supposed to eventually combine ahead of a planned commercial launch in 2021. The automaker is testing and honing in on what its AV business model might look like, while separately developing autonomous vehicle technology.

Argo AI,  the Pittsburgh-based company into which Ford invested $1 billion in 2017, is developing the virtual driver system and high-definition maps designed for Ford’s self-driving vehicles. Ford has been testing its go-to-market strategy through pilot programs with partners like Walmart,  Domino’s and Postmates, and even some local businesses.

Ford said Tuesday that it needs to study the long-term impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic will have on customer behaviors.

Here is the statement from Ford in response to questions about its autonomous vehicle plans.

Given the challenges of the current business environment, as well as the need to evaluate the long-term impact of COVID-19 on customer behaviors, Ford made the decision to shift the launch of its self-driving services to 2022. Understanding customer behavior is a critically important part of building a new mobility service built around trust and making people’s lives easier. Taking the time to research changes in customer behaviors provides Ford with an opportunity to evaluate and potentially change our go-to-market strategy to meet new consumer demands. As part of this evaluation, we also want to make sure the customer experience we are building offers people peace of mind knowing they, or their packages, are in a safe and protected environment inside our vehicles.

In a slide shared as part of the company’s quarterly earnings call, Ford reported that its investment in Argo is on track

 

Developing ….

Earlier this month, href="https://www.zettavp.com/">Zetta Venture Partners, a B2B, AI-focused venture outfit, announced a new $180 million fund.

As new VC funds are anecdotally a bit thinner on the ground these days — and because we’re in the midst of economic upheaval, which is changing investing patterns and shaking up startup verticals — I got on the phone with Zetta’s Jocelyn Goldfein (a TechCrunch regular) to chat about what her firm is doing and what’s up with AI investing.

The fund

Zetta’s new fund is about 50% larger than its preceding capital pool, which was roughly double its first fund. If you don’t want to do the math, Zetta’s first fund was worth $60 million, and its second $125 million.

Zetta will invest in B2B-focused, AI-powered seed-stage startups like it has before, but with more capital. I was curious about cadence: Would the firm write more checks more quickly now that it has more capital? Per Goldfein, the firm is keeping its pace and strategy pretty much the same with preceding funds, though it has promoted a principal from within who will begin to lead deals from the new fund.

Why more money if things are mostly looking the same? Zetta wants the capability to write larger checks and take a bit more ownership, so it needs more capital. In turn, defending those percentages requires more capital; you get the idea.

Pace, pricing

Early in our chat with Goldfein it became obvious that it’s an active time for AI-focused startups to raise, thanks to COVID-19-driven uncertainty. According to Goldfein, founders who have yet to raise their first capital are “looking at the funding window and thinking, oh, boy, if we thought we might raise three months from now, maybe we should just try now.” Even more, some companies that have already raised are going back to the market for top-ups. Goldfein said those startups are looking for “a little extra runway.”

In its quarterly earnings today, iRobot announced an indefinite delay of its lawn mowing robot, Terra. The Roomba maker has abandoned plans to launch to the long awaited home robot in 2020.

No surprise, the company says fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is to blame for the uncertainty. More specifically, it blames “current market realities.” Here’s the statement a spokesperson for the company sent to TechCrunch,

Like many other consumer and technology companies, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted iRobot, necessitating a reprioritization of go-to-market plans and product development initiatives. As a result of current market realities, it has become necessary for the company to suspend its planned 2020 commercial launch of the Terra robot mower and to increase focus on its core business and other strategic priorities. iRobot still believes there is great potential for robot mowers, and while it is suspending its Terra launch for now, it will reassess options for launching it when the time is right. This decision will help ensure iRobot emerges from this downturn as a stronger company better positioned to extend its leadership position in consumer robotics and deliver sustained, profitable growth.

It’s hard to say how much of this has to do with global supply chain issues and how much is simply a perceived lack of demand. COVID-19 has led to an increased interest in automation, as robotics and AI can go a ways toward limiting human contact and thus the key disease vector. But with more people spending a lot more time at home, a product likely to cost around $1,000 may not be where people are looking to invest their stimulus money.

The “reprioritization” could be an interesting bit of insight into a company that spinoff its own telepresence robot, Ava, a few years back. Perhaps the crisis is causing the company to explore different avenues that could be useful as people adjust to the realities of remote learning long term.

iRobot won’t comment on specifics beyond this, but this manner of indefinite delay isn’t a great sign for the company’s next big thing, even if a pandemic is ultimately to blame here.