Crowdstrike's $10 apology gift card, Meta's Llama 3.1, Netflix leads streaming race
Meta is the dark llama in the AI race.
Crowdstrike's $10 apology gift card
Just when the world was starting to move on from Crowdstrike’s debacle, the cybersecurity brought itself back into the media.
From TechCrunch:
CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that crashed millions of computers with a botched update all over the world last week, is offering its partners a $10 Uber Eats gift card as an apology, according to several people who say they received the gift card, as well as a source who also received one.
While the $10 UberEats credit may have been well-intentioned, it was universally panned. Let’s breakdown why:
Insufficient Amount: $10 feels like a slap in the face for partners who are undoubtedly under immense pressure. Either go all out or do nothing.
Poor Placement: It was added at the very end of the email, making it appear as an afterthought and muddying the important messaging above.
Bad Timing: The email was poorly timed, acts of gratitude should wait until the dust has well and truly settled.
To make matters worse, the code was flagged by Uber as fraud due to abnormally high usage rates as it was shared around social media.
For a thorough analysis of CrowdStrike’s Crisis Comms, I recommend reading Carilu Dietrich article.
Meta's Llama 3.1
From The Verge:
Meta is releasing Llama 3.1, the largest-ever open-source AI model, which the company claims outperforms GPT-4o and Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet on several benchmarks. It’s also making the Llama-based Meta AI assistant available in more countries and languages while adding a feature that can generate images based on someone’s specific likeness. CEO Mark Zuckerberg now predicts that Meta AI will be the most widely used assistant by the end of this year, surpassing ChatGPT.
It would appear that Meta is the dark llama in the AI race:
By choosing to open-source its model, Meta can essentially give it away for free. This is a significant advantage over competitors who charge on a per-token basis.
Meta’s massive distribution network, thanks to Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, provides not only a substantial user base to activate but also a precious data supply to feed Llama.
Meta has strong partnerships with over 25 key companies including AWS, Nvidia, and Microsoft — see image below.
I plan to write a thorough analysis of Meta’s Llama strategy and Mark Zuckerberg’s glow-up (shout out to the Meta PR team), so make sure you subscribe.
As a final note, it is some what ironic that Meta is the company championing open source, while OpenAI has been criticised for being closed off.
Netflix leads the streaming race
From The Guardian:
The largest streaming service in the world added 8 million subscribers in the latest quarter, making its total subscriber count 277.7 million worldwide. Revenue grew 17% during the quarter, reaching $9.5bn.
While other streamers have been struggling, Netflix continues to solidify its lead. According to Nielsen’s reporting, Netflix commands a 8.4% share of US TV screen time, dwarfing its competitors—Prime Video (3.1%), Disney+ (2%), and Paramount+ (1.1%). The one exception is YouTube, with a 9.9% share.
Netflix’s subscriber growth has been fuelled by hit shows like Bridgerton (172M views), live programming such as The Roast of Tom Brady (22.6M views), and its ad-supported tier, which saw a 34% growth since the last quarter.
The ad supported tier is a clever strategy from Netflix for several reasons:
The lower price helps drive new subscribers.
The lower price also enables price-conscious subscribers to downgrade instead of churning.
Advertising adds an additional revenue stream for Netflix.
However, there is a challenge with the ad-supported tier: ensuring Netflix remains focused on its core subscription business and doesn’t get distracted by the shiny new thing.
Things that caught my attention
Improve Growth Mindset in your company with a weekly Experiment Review meeting
Why The Olympics Almost Banned This Shoe - a cracking video from Cleo Abram on tech doping in sports.