Wednesday Nov.18, 2020

💊 Amazon launches an ePharmacy

_Forgot the code for the Nasdaq check-in_

Hey Snackers,

The most adorable automation play of 2020: Bobacino. This robo boba-making prototype would be the star of any WeWork (kombucha on tap < tapioca on tap).

Markets dipped yesterday while bitcoin hit $17K for the first time in nearly three years.

e-Pill

Amazon launches an online pharmacy, making CVS and Walgreens stock quake

It's hereeee... Amazon Pharmacy. Two years ago, Amazon acquired PillPack for $1B. Pharmacies were shook, but not as shook as they were yesterday when: the Zon launched an online pharmacy, built off PillPack's biz. Starting this week, people in 45 US states can send their prescriptions to Amazon and order meds.

Prime members get free two-day shipping and savings benefits (up to 80% off generic and 40% off brand-name meds). And a savings card to use at 50K pharmacies.
Non-Primers get free 5-day delivery (and a whole lot of pop-ups to join Prime). Amazon's accepting most forms of insurance, but you can pay without.

"Code red!"... Overhead at CVS corporate. Amazon's entering a massive market — nearly half of Americans take prescription drugs. In 2018, pharmacies sold $336B worth of prescription meds. But Amazon has over 110M US Prime members, which could make its ePharmacy seem more convenient (and cheaper). That's why:

CVS and Walgreens shares dropped 9% yesterday, and Rite Aid plunged 16%.
GoodRx stock fell 23% since it's "the Expedia of prescription drugs."
Walmart stock dipped 2% — despite strong earnings yesterday — because it has a healthcare biz.

Brick-and-mortar could save pharmacies... CVS and Walgreens each have 10K+ locations across the US, and they're expanding on-site healthcare to offer what Amazon can't. Walgreens dropped $1B to open hundreds of doctors offices, CVS is opening 1.5K "HealthHUBs," and Walmart offers on-site care — all to make buying prescription meds more convenient. Then again: telehealth has surged, and Amazon's discounts could be worth a two-day wait.

IPO

Airbnb files to go public and reveals a profit in its big turnaround quarter

Calm down... Airbnb got some inspo from Genesis as it prepped its IPO filing, kicking off its origin story with "In the beginning..." The home-sharing giant plans to go public in December under ticker symbol ABNB (STAY and CASA were too edgy).

Spring quarter: Airbnb lost nearly $600M, almost double what it lost during the same time last year.
Summer quarter: Airbnb made a $219M profit last quarter, despite sales falling 18%.

Nespresso machine en suite... 5 stars. Investors are giving Airbnb some credit. Earlier this year, Airbnb's valuation plunged to $18B as it took out high-interest loans to cover guest refunds and $250M for hosts' losses. Then it majorly turned its desperate fate around, filed to IPO, and is expected to notch a $30B valuation.

The "work from anywhere" trend helped, as people seeked less bedroom-like pastures. Airbnb focused on small towns after noticing an uptick in local stays.
Brutal cost-slashing was also key to the comeback — Airbnb sadly laid off 25% of its employees. It also shed noncore businesses and halved exec pay.

Airbnb needs to think like Uber (not like Lyft)... Airbnb is just a sharing platform for homes, like Lyft is just a ride-hailing platform. Meanwhile, Uber has become a platform to transport anything — from food, to cargo, to meds. If Airbnb becomes an "anything-sharing" platform (think: parking spaces, storage, boats, RVs) it could protect itself from pandemic pain — it warned that the recent COVID surge could bruise bookings this quarter.

What else we’re Snackin’

Beef: Facebook's Zuckerberg and Twitter's Dorsey got grilled by the Senate (again) on content moderation.
Dark: Universal and Cinemark agreed to shorten the theatrical window from three months to as little as 17 days for Universal films.
Oh: Tesla is reportedly ending the sale of its cheaper $35K Model 3.
Marty: Walmart's US online sales rose 79% last quarter, but growth slowed from the previous pandemic quarter.
Remodel: Home Depot's sales growth beat expectations as the pandemic House Hype is still strong (repainting every week).
Trendy: Twitter is launching a "Fleets" Stories feature and expanding testing of "voice tweets" with audio-based DMs.

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Wednesday

Earnings expected from Target, TJX Companies, Lowe's, and Nvidia

Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Tesla, Twitter, and Walmart

ID: 1417424

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TechCrunch’s Sean O’Kane dug into Tesla’s latest annual proxy statement to find out the value of these relationships.

Musk’s Tesla bought ads on Musk’s X, aka Twitter, to the tune of $200,000 just through February this year. Tesla also paid X another $200,000 this year and a million in 2023 for “commercial, consulting and support agreements.” Musk’s SpaceX has also advertised on X, presumably helping prop up some of the budget the company has lost from non-Musk advertisers Musk seems hell-bent on driving away. Musk’s Tesla paid Musk’s SpaceX $800,000 to use a private jet and paid Musk’s The Boring Company more than a million dollars for “commercial agreements.”

It also turns out that Musk owns a security company, whose job it is to protect Musk. Naturally Musk’s Tesla paid Musk’s security company nearly $3 million since entering into a service agreement in December 2023. Apparently that represents just a “portion of the total cost of security services concerning Elon Musk,” so presumably Musk’s other companies will be left to foot the rest of the bill.

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A surge of new users joined Airchat over the weekend, joining entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk and Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan.

If users don’t want to inhale voice notes at hyper speed, there is a somewhat hidden way to adjust Airchat’s cadence, but it’s an intriguing feature. User-generated audio has struggled to break out of a niche, so targeting the personality that wants to listen to a podcast at twice the speed is one way to make the user experience more efficient.