Viral growth, play-to-earn-games boom, massive layoffs
...and more
Product Vision: How to create product vision and strategy
Product vision is a picture of a product in the future. It is the motivation behind building the product, and it should guide all decisions relating to the product. To craft a great product strategy, you need to understand the problems and needs that this product will solve for your users, in which context these problems and needs happen and what motivates these users to find a solution to their problems. As you get your product vision clearer, it is important to circulate it within your company to get input, feedback, and questions. By doing this, you’ll have a chance to complete the product vision as well as get alignment and buy-in from all key stakeholders.
Acquisition deal: Zeelo and Swvl announce the termination of an acquisition agreement
Swvl, an Egyptian-born startup that provides shared transportation services for intercity and intracity trips, had previously gone public via a SPAC, and had agreed to acquire Zeelo. Last week, Zeelo announced that the acquisition is now terminated, citing overall market conditions and the obvious slump in tech stocks. The move sounds like it’s a smart one for Zeelo, which claims to be seeing continued growth in its business in the U.K., South Africa and the U.S., providing private rides for commuters and students in the corporate and education space.
Product Growth: Driving viral growth via retention and engagement
Most people think of viral features in their app — like sharing, collaboration, or invites — in the context of a single session. How do you get your users, upon installing an app, to invite at least a few of their colleagues and friends? You might focus on small growth hacks, like leveraging their address books for inviting, pumping up the dollar amounts in referral codes, or radically optimizing a sharing flow. But this is a simple-minded way to look at viral growth. The better way to understand virality is that it is inextricably linked to retention. Viral growth is the ability of a product to tap into its network of users to bring in even more users.
Next Wave: Next generation play-to-earn games are here
Investors have poured billions into play-to-earn games — including over $2.5 billion globally in the first quarter of 2022 alone — because of the early success of titles like Axie Infinity. The next wave of invaders is now coming. In Brazil, one of the world’s biggest markets for mobile gaming, the powerhouse Brazilian gaming companies Loud and Snackclub recently launched a new title called Gunstars that it hopes can succeed in retaining players where the first generation of play-to-earn games failed. By keeping costs lower and making the mechanics more accessible than other play-to-earn games, Gunstars’ developers hope it can avoid the pitfalls that sank predecessors such as Axie.
New Feature: Uber will start showing drivers how much they’ll be paid for accepting a trip
Uber says that it’s “completely reimagined the way drivers accept rides” with a feature called “upfront fares,” which shows drivers exactly how much they’ll be paid for a trip and where they’ll end up after dropping a rider off. In its announcement on Friday, the company says the change is part of its push to make driving for the rideshare service more flexible. Uber’s also planning on rolling out a feature that lets drivers see other ride requests in their area, letting them pick specific trips they’d like to do.
Industry News: Chinese online grocer MissFresh halts core business and begins massive layoff
Chinese online grocery company MissFresh has stopped offering on-demand grocery deliveries, a signature business offering, and has begun to lay off the majority of its staff, according to multiple reports from Chinese media. MissFresh’s significant downsize shows the difficulty of continuing to raise funds to support its loss-making business and may pose more questions for other grocers operating on a similar cash-burning model. Chinese internet companies, especially those in the content, e-commerce, and retail sector, have embarked on multiple rounds of layoffs since late last year, thanks to the ongoing economic downturn, weak consumption, and the country’s long-term goal of pursuing more hard tech.