Alternative Investments Daily Brief 9 - 11 - 17
Good afternoon,
The attached brief is designed to keep readers informed of the key headlines impacting the startup and blockchain spaces. Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions! Also, I will be sure to get this out in the morning tomorrow as per EST hours, Cheers!
Highlights:
▶ Snapchat is partnering with a new set of publishers: College newspapers. Snap is bringing “dozens” of college newspapers inside Discover, the section of the app reserved for professionally produced videos and news articles from an exclusive list of Snapchat’s publishing partners. The student papers will produce one of these Stories per week, which will include ads. Revenue generated from the ads will be split between the university paper and Snap, though the company declined to share what that split will be.
▶ As Uber execs work to steer the ride-hail leader in a new direction, the FBI has added an extra stop on the company’s road to redemption: The FBI will investigate Uber’s use of software to track and potentially influence drivers for its competitor app, Lyft. The software program, supposedly nicknamed “Hell” by Uber workers, was reportedly used to monitor the phones and movements of drivers who worked for both Uber and Lyft, as well as the cost and number of rides they provided. According to reports, the FBI is investigating whether Uber’s use of Hell to track and potentially sway drivers’ habits constitutes illegal interference with a competitor. Last week, a class action lawsuit brought by Lyft drivers over’s the company’s use of the software was dismissed, though the judge left the door open for plaintiffs amend and refile their complaint. As the Verge reported, Uber’s lawyers for the matter argued that the information it had gathered was “readily accessible to the general public.”
▶ If you use Safari to stream Spotify tunes, you're going to need a plan B. Listeners have discovered that Spotify's web player no longer works with Safari. When asked about the abrupt change, the company's customer support could only say that "recent updates" made Safari incompatible. It can't say if or when the feature will come back. We've asked Spotify if it can elaborate, but there's already some speculation as to the possible cause: Some suspect that the decision might have something to do with the Widevine copy protection plugin. Spotify wants to use that for web-based music streaming, but macOS may flag it over concerns that its security isn't sufficiently airtight. And without reliable access to Widevine, Spotify can't guarantee that Safari will play properly even if it's technically possible.
Market News
▶ Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that China will move to shut down bitcoin exchanges, citing unnamed "informed sources." According to the reports, the ban will be limited to exchange-based trading and will not affect OTC transactions. China's largest bitcoin exchanges, OKCoin, BTCChina and Huobi, told Bloomberg on Monday that they still have yet to be contacted regarding any trading ban. Notably, Bobby Lee, CEO of China's oldest bitcoin exchange, BTCC, posted a poll on Twitter suggesting that he is not entirely convinced by the news. The reports notably follow a recent ban on initial coin offerings (ICOs) in China, as well as an increase in attention on anti-money laundering policies domestically.
▶ Industry numbers are pointing to a historic Q2 for blockchain technology, with some important takeaways: The cryptocurrency market cap had a $75bn rally – from $25bn to $100bn. Another way to put it is that the total market value of blockchain tokens skyrocketed 4x to an all-time high above $100bn. ICOs helped propel this growth and established a powerful trend in Q2. The upshot is that ICOs emerged in Q2 as the world’s most important crowdfunding tool, outstripping all time successes of Kickstarter and any other platform. In 2017, bitcoin’s total domination of the ecosystem shrunk considerably: At the start of the year, bitcoin represented almost 90% of all the value in cryptocurrencies. By the end of Q2, that number tracked down to almost 41%.
▶ New York-based blockchain startup R3 Holdco LLC has sued rival company Ripple Labs over a contract to purchase Ripple’s digital currency XRP, according to a lawsuit filed in the Delaware Chancery Court on Friday. R3 and Ripple are two of the most well known blockchain companies and are both backed by large banks. In September 2016 the two companies had entered an agreement giving R3, the right to purchase up to 5 billion XRPs at a price of $0.0085 per unit at any point by September 2019, according to the lawsuit. R3 alleges that the contract does not give Ripple the right to terminate it unilaterally and is asking the court to declare that it is entitled to all its rights, including purchasing the XRP anytime over the next two years. XRP, which is a virtual currency that is traded against the U.S. dollar on cryptocurrency exchanges online, has soared in value to $0.21 since the companies entered in the options agreement, according to CoinMarketCap.com. This would make the option contract worth more than $1 billion.
▶ China’s big electric vehicle push is about to get even bigger: The country is planning to end the sale of fossil fuel-powered vehicles entirely, with regulators working currently on a timetable of when the ban will ultimately take effect. China is the world’s largest auto market, with 28.03M vehicles sold last year, a boost in demand of 13.7% vs. 2015 sales numbers. The nation has already done a lot to incentivize manufacturers to develop and sell new EVs, including allowing foreign automakers to create a third joint venture with local automakers (a standard requirement for doing business in the country for auto OEMs) so long as it’s dedicated to the creation of EVs exclusively. This isn’t the first time a governing body has said it would eventually phase out the sale of traditional fuel vehicles: France said it will stop selling fossil fuel cars by 2040 in July, and the UK has committed to the same timeline for sales of those vehicles.
Funding & IPO News
▶ India’s biggest online matchmaker opened its initial public offering Monday, selling shares in Matrimony.com for about $15 apiece. Backed by Silicon Valley investor Bessemer Venture Partners, Matrimony.com expects to raise as much as $78M with the IPO closing on Wednesday. The startup has already raised funds from Goldman Sachs India and BNP Paribas. In a socially conservative nation where marriages are often arranged by relatives, the startup matches brides and grooms within the country as well as Indian expatriates. While the company derives 90% of revenue from paid profiles, it has added connections to wedding services such as a directory of photographers, decorators and caterers in what is estimated to be a $50bn industry.
Snapchat wants to get deeper into news, so it’s adding college newspapers to Discover
https://www.recode.net/2017/9/8/16272498/snapchat-discover-college-newspapers-news
FBI Will Investigate Uber's Use Of 'Hell' Software To Surveil Lyft Drivers
https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetwburns/2017/09/08/fbi-will-investigate-ubers-use-of-hell-software-to-surveil-lyft- drivers/#5b8e534b429a
Spotify no longer streams music in Apple's Safari web browser
https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/09/spotify-drops-safari-streaming-support/
WSJ, Bloomberg Latest to Claim Bitcoin Exchange Crackdown in China
https://www.coindesk.com/wsj-latest-to-claim-bitcoin-exchange-crackdown-in-china/
Historic Quarter: CoinDesk Launches Q2 State of Blockchain Report
https://www.coindesk.com/historic-quarter-coindesk-launches-q2-state-of-blockchain-report/
Blockchain startup R3 sues competitor Ripple
http://www.reuters.com/article/r3-ripple-lawsuit/blockchain-startup-r3-sues-competitor-ripple-idUSL2N1LP181
China plans to ban sales of fossil fuel cars entirely
https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/10/china-plans-to-ban-sales-of-fossil-fuel-cars-entirely/
India's Biggest Online Matchmaker Opens Its IPO
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-11/matrimony-com-ipo-offers-indian-wedding-action-at-15-a-share