CB Insights - TikTok killing Netflix

Hi there,

Here is this week in charts.

Just browsing. Retail funding reached nearly $24B in Q1’22, an 11% decrease compared to Q4’21, as deals declined 7%. The decreases followed overall trends in venture, where funding and deals cooled off in the first quarter. Still, retail tech funding remained higher than any quarter before Q1’21, as retailers continue to digitize operations and create omnichannel experiences.

High-tech flips. In 2021, iBuyers purchased over 70,000 homes in the US, double pre-pandemic levels. These real estate tech companies, which use algorithms to price and purchase properties “instantly” to resell them later, concentrated half of their investment activity in 5 Sun Belt cities — Phoenix, Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte, and Houston. The capital-heavy business model has come under scrutiny: Zillow wound down its house-flipping business in November following its failure to accurately price homes, losing $881M in the process. But this may just be the beginning. Real estate’s complex and often paper-heavy processes are ripe for disruption, drawing a wave of innovation.

Beyond the Bay. As VC investment spreads, innovation hubs are popping up around the world. In 2011, just 4 countries outside of the US were home to a startup worth $1B+. Today, the unicorn herd — which stands at over 1,000 — is spread across 45 countries. Places from Bengaluru to Tel Aviv, where “talent, openness, and risk capital” converge, are creating their own kind of startup magic.

Netflix enemy #1? TikTok users spend on average nearly 26 hours a month on the app — or more than 1 full day each month. That outpaces the 23.7 hours users averaged each month on YouTube’s mobile app in 2021, and it is more than triple the time spent on Meta’s Instagram. With an algorithm that some would call addictive, ByteDance (TikTok’s owner) has tapped into something powerful in the way that users currently want to engage with content. 

Spam-a-lot. The average American got 42 spam texts in March, according to Robokiller data. Spamming via texts has surged in popularity because of their high open rates. But it's not just texts — spam calls and emails are also on the rise. Stay safe out there.

From A to Z. Check out this wildly stupid x axis. H/t Kevin Collett for bringing to our attention.
 

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