A visitor at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art set Twitter aflame when he noted the resemblance between a sculpture of baby Jesus and Mark Zuckerberg.
In today’s email:
Amazon: Bringing Prime to health care.
Chart: Is streaming becoming cable?
Digits: Crypto ads, Kilimanjaro, and more.
Around the web: Finnish resilience, koala cuddles, a bot for Excel, and more cool internet finds.
🎧 On the go? Listen to today’s podcast to hear about why Amazon’s move into health care is potentially both logical and necessary, for the company… and America.
The big idea
The good and bad of Amazon’s health care efforts
Between expensive prescriptions, phone tag with providers, and long waits at doctors’ offices, the health care industry isn’t exactly known for convenience.
Enter Amazon — which views these inconveniences as a massive opportunity. But can the tech giant actually conquer health care?
The bull case
Amazon acquired One Medical, a membership-based primary care service, for $3.9B in July. But its foray into health care dates further back:
In 2018, Amazon acquired prescription delivery service PillPack.
In 2019, it launched employee telehealth service Amazon Care. It boasts ~40k members across several customers, including TrueBlue and Hilton.
With One Medical, Amazon will reach 736k new health care members and lend One Medical the infrastructure it needs to scale — something Amazon does pretty well.
The bear case
Several nurses who worked for Amazon Care have complained about the company’s “fast and frugal” approach to health care, which resulted in faulty equipment, buggy software, and questionable care, per The Washington Post.
Some former Amazon Care nurses reported feeling like cogs in the company’s wheel, and one mobile nurse even likened her role to a package being delivered.
But customers…
… generally approve, giving the service an average satisfaction rating of 4.7 out of 5.
Even if Amazon doesn’t become a big winner, business writer and professor Scott Galloway says there’s a greater benefit to Amazon’s health care ambitions: increased competition.
By setting new expectations for speed and convenience, Amazon can bring the “Prime effect” to health care, forcing other providers to catch up.
SNIPPETS
More Zuck: After getting roasted for the Wii-like visuals of Meta’s Horizon Worlds, Zuck promised better graphics in a Facebook post.
Good news, bad news: Leaked financials show crypto exchange FTX increased revenue by 1k% in 2021, though the company was just accused of making misleading claims about its products being FDIC-insured.
YouTuberemoved a video of a Tesla investor testing the car’s Full Self-Driving technology using his own children instead of mannequins.
Plantings: Rio de Janeiro is working with five local favelas on building the world’s largest urban garden by 2024. The finished product will be the size of 15 soccer fields.
Cineworld, Regal Cinemas’ parent company, is reportedly nearing bankruptcy due to declining theater attendance. The company is the world’s second-biggest theater chain behind AMC.
Listed: Steve Jobs’ Apple-1 prototype from the 1970s was auctioned for $677k+. Jobs used it to demo the Apple-1 to Paul Terrell, owner of one of the world’s first computer stores.
Breakup: DoorDash is nixing its four-year partnership with Walmart to focus on “its long-term customer relationships.” Meanwhile, Walmart is still working on that drone delivery thing.
Ban: Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok booted ex-kickboxer and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate. Critics have worried that his views could negatively influence younger viewers.
Managing up: Having younger employees mentor senior leaders can help keep executives up to date on social and technological changes. Find out how reverse mentoring benefits businesses on The Hustle blog.
chart
Are we going back to the cable days?
Streaming was supposed to free consumers from cable’s woes — high monthly prices, tons of ads, and unnecessary programming.
But recent developments at the biggest streaming services are starting to reveal a different reality, per Bloomberg.
Streaming services…
… are making price increases a regular occurrence:
Netflix raised the monthly price on its standard plan to $15.49/mo. in January, its third increase since 2019.
Disney recently announced upcoming increases for Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, and its bundle after already raising prices multiple times since launching in 2019
Both platforms also announced ad-supported plans at a lower cost.
But not so fast
In July, streaming surpassed cable consumption for the first time. Even so, the median price American consumers pay for streaming is $20-$30 per month, a far cry from the $79/mo. the average cable plan costs.
So, while costs are adding up, you’d have to subscribe to pretty much every platform to pay more than you would for cable.
Free Resource
The five steps to a hardy marketing plan
The blueprint can’t be busted. That would be unwise.
Make your marketing plan an asset worth revisiting — something that sets the tone and aligns your team for success. It should be a pretty complete rundown of strategy and logistic essentials...
… which we’ve compiled for your convenience. Watch the 5-minute video.
The five-step method:
State the mission
Outline buyer personas
Define the content strategy
Break down the budget
Identify team responsibilities
See how Rimi from HubSpot ideates for an imaginary travel agency.
1) With Bitcoin down ~50% since February, the same group of crypto companies that spent $84.5m on TV ads that month — like this one from FTX with Larry David — spent just $36k on TV ads in July.
2) Tap-to-pay now accounts for 45% of in-person transactionsin NYC, with some 90% of US retailers now accepting Apple Pay, up from 3% when the service was introduced in 2014.
3) Good news for anyone in need of internet at the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, at 19,341 feet. The Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation says the summit will have a speedy smartphone broadband network installed by year’s end.
4) A new Brookings study found the average cost for raising a US child born in 2015 through age 17 to be $310.6k. Taking inflation into account, that’s up 9%, or $26k, from estimates made in 2020.
5) Are we less stressed? User sessions across the top 10 meditation apps are down 48% from their 2020 high. Calm and Headspace saw sessions drop 26.4% and 60.3% YoY, respectively, this past July.
AROUND THE WEB
⛵ On this day: In 1851, the US schooner America won the first America’s Cup in a race around the Isle of Wight.
💪 How to: Sisu is the Finnish concept of resilience. Here’s how to embrace it.
📊 Useful: An AI bot that helps you write Excel formulas.
🪵 That’s interesting: An online wood identification database, just in case you’re very curious about what your floors are made of.
