Franchises in the US

  • A great article full of tons of information on franchises.
  • This chart shows the fee for opening a franchise.
  • Notice how stand out Chick-fil-A is. This is because they pay for all the opening costs.
  • In return Chick-fil-A charges 15% royalty (vs. typical 4%-8%) and takes 50% of net profit.
  • Arguably this is a different model.

Disney

  • This is a chart of the top app downloads in US. Check out Disney.
  • The launch of Disney+ in mid-November was unprecedented in the U.S. Its 31 million downloads in Q4 2019 was more than double the total for the next closest app, TikTok.” 
  • It was still top despite launching Nov 12 – some way into the quarter.
  • Source: Sensor Tower (lots of good app stats inside report).
  • h/t The Big Picture.

Spotify

  • Great article on Spotify.
  • The rise of AirPods, smart speakers, and other wearable devices may not signal the onset of a true platform shift, but it undoubtedly represents a transformational evolution in the way we will consume media — and this emerging paradigm of distributed, “eyes up” device interaction directly benefits audio more than other content categories.
  • Nice table comparing the music services as well.

Artificial Intelligence

  • Fantastic resource for anyone interested in AI.
  • Especially worth checking out AI Index which has an absolute treasure trove of data (and makes it available via Google drive) on all aspects of AI.
  • The improvement in capabilities (see analysis and charts in the report) are exponential.
  • AI really has exploded on the scene – the chart shows attendance at big AI conferences. Notice the cyclicality though …

Electric Cars

  • Interesting piece from FTAlphaville on the carbon impact of electric vehicles.
  • First a staggering chart from VW – because battery production is so energy intensive it takes their new e-Golf 120,000 km of driving to breakeven in terms of carbon emissions vs. a diesel Golf.
  • This does depend on where the electricity used to charge comes from (VW address this) and ignores other gas emissions.
  • Some analysts suggest that because battery technology is yet to improve the best impact on CO2 emissions is to drive a hybrid.
  • Food for thought.

Biotech

  • Biotech investors take note – Eli Lilly are out for deals.
  • Eli Lilly and Co aims to announce roughly one $1 billion to $5 billion deal every quarter in 2020, its chief financial officer told Reuters, as the U.S. drugmaker looks to build up its pipeline of future products.
  • It will focus largely on earlier stage opportunities across key therapeutic areas including oncology, pain, immunology, and neurology
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