🚀 TikTok goes head to head with Spotify
trending 📈🦙 LLaMA 2 is here. Meta debuted LLaMA 2, the second generation of its large language model, in partnership with Microsoft. If you’re not familiar with LLMs, think of LLaMA 2 as similar to GPT-4, the OpenAI model behind products like ChatGPT. However, LLaMA 2 is open source. This means developers can freely iterate on the model and publish modifications for others to use, creating an ecosystem of fine-tuned versions for particular use cases (check out r/LocalLLaMA for more on this). If you’re interested in trying out LLaMA 2, the infra team at a16z built a chatbot demo. 📺 Netflix earnings update. Netflix reported Q2 earnings this week - and it was a bit of a mixed bag. The password crackdown resulted in a substantial increase in subscribers, with nearly 6M net new accounts (vs. -1M in Q2 ‘22). However, revenue climbed only 2.7% YoY, as revenue per user has fallen with expansion to lower-paying countries and new, cheaper plans. CEO Ted Sarandos also confirmed that Netflix’s first expansion into live sports will be a celebrity golf tournament in November. 📱 Remini takes off. Remember Lensa, the AI avatar app that went viral in December 2022? A successor has emerged - Remini, an AI-powered photo enhancer that has climbed up the charts with features like auto-generated professional headshots, and the “baby filter” (predicts your future child’s face). Remini is the product of Italian startup studio Bending Spoons, which recently acquired Evernote. Third-party data shows that Remini’s weekly downloads are just about reaching Lensa’s weekly downloads at peak - we’re curious to see how this trends! 🤖 Other AI updates. There was no shortage of AI news this week. A few more stories we followed:
what we’re following 👀A performance update on Meta’s new app Threads, which we covered last week. a16z’s Jon Lai on how AI will enable new games that can engage players…forever! After recent controversies, Shein’s Gen Z favorability rating has dropped significantly. If you’re building a consumer AI or infrastructure product and live in SF - we’re holding a mixer in early August! Sign up here and we’ll send you more info. TikTok has massively disrupted the music industry. It’s shaped how artists construct songs (for maximum virality), who gets discovered, and which albums get streams. Now, it looks like TikTok may be headed into battle with the world’s biggest streaming service - Spotify. This month, TikTok launched a test version of TikTok Music, live in Brazil, Indonesia, Australia, Mexico, and Singapore. Thanks to an eSIM, VPN, and several burner phone numbers/email accounts (😂), we were able to get an early look. TikTok Music is a standalone app, but to get started, you can sign in via your TikTok account. After selecting a few of your favorite artists, you’re dropped into a feed of songs to scroll through vertically (similar to browsing TikTok itself). TikTok Music also transfers over songs that you’ve favorited on TikTok into a special playlist, and automatically links your TikTok friends to share and discuss music with. You can like, comment on, or share each song, and read other comments - creating a social element that Spotify lacks. TikTok Music also features curated and personalized playlists, which lean heavily towards songs and artists trending on TikTok. There’s also a playlist of “remixes” - user-generated tracks that mash up different songs, which often go viral as TikTok audios but are typically unavailable on Spotify. It’s still very early days for TikTok Music, but parent company ByteDance has executed this playbook before. In 2020, the company launched a Spotify challenger called Resso in India, which has scaled to an estimated 30M monthly active users (per SensorTower data). ByteDance also debuted streaming app Qishui Yinyue (“Soda Music”) in China, where Spotify doesn’t operate. We’re waiting to see how a potential U.S. rollout goes before making any big predictions. 👀 But longer-term, where might TikTok Music be headed? There’s a few things we’d love to see:
jobs 🎓Tribe Capital - Analyst (Remote) Stripe - Data Analyst (Remote) Anthropic - Prompt Engineer, Software Engineer, Biz Ops (SF) Medra - Chief of Staff (SF) Sendoso - Business Operations & Analytics (SF) Thunkable - Chief of Staff (SF) Glean - Software Engineer, Product Manager (Palo Alto) UTA - Venture Fund Associate (LA) Tinder - Strategy Associate (LA) Techstars - Investment Associate (NYC) internships 📝Rough Draft Ventures - Fellow (Various) Garmentory - Marketing Intern (Seattle) Velt - Brand and Content Marketing Intern (SF) Instabase - Software Engineering Intern (Menlo Park, NYC) Plug and Play Tech Center - Operations Intern (LA) TikTok - Project Management Intern (San Jose), Creative Specialist Intern (NYC) Apple - Finance Development Program Interns (Cupertino) Tesla - Supply Chain Planning Intern (Austin) EasyKnock - Corporate Development Intern (NYC) puppy of the week 🐶Meet Lincoln, a goldendoodle who lives in SoCal with his sister London. We’re pretty sure we’ve featured him before, but we couldn’t resist a repeat this week - he’s bringing real Kenergy. Follow him on Instagram @the_life_of_lincoln. All views are our own. None of the above should be taken as investment advice. See this page for important information. |
Older messages
🚀 Instagram's Threads hits a speed bump
Sunday, July 16, 2023
Plus, we encounter a star in the Puppy of the Week!
🚀 Will your next relationship be with an AI?
Sunday, June 25, 2023
Plus, an update on the Reddit revolt.
🚀 Will Apple bring AR to the masses?
Monday, June 12, 2023
Plus, Olivia talks breaking into VC!
🚀 Dispatches from Tech Week
Sunday, June 4, 2023
Plus, a Puppy of the Week reunion!
🚀 It's NVIDIA's world....
Sunday, May 28, 2023
Plus, TikTok launches Shopping!
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