The Verge - Creators |
- Nike’s accessible ACG Gaiadome FlyEase Boot will be for athletes only
- TikTok is thinking about letting its creators charge subscription fees
- Netflix co-CEO says there will ‘absolutely’ be a second season of Squid Game
- TikTok marketing lead behind its NFTs and ghost kitchens no longer at the company
- Why Netflix keeps cranking up its prices
- Google is building an AR headset
- Canon’s EOS R5C is a 2-in-1 stills and cinema camera
- Disney is putting a Disney Plus exec in charge of Hulu
- Instagram is testing paid subscriptions with a small group of creators
| Nike’s accessible ACG Gaiadome FlyEase Boot will be for athletes only Posted: 21 Jan 2022 10:54 AM PST  For the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, Nike announced Friday that it's designed inclusive and accessible gear for Team USA Olympians and Paralympians to wear on the medal stand. That includes the new ACG Gaiadome FlyEase Boot, which can be slipped on and secured one-handed. The only issue is it seems to have inherited the FlyEase's limited availability as well. While the rest of the 'fit will be available for purchase, the Gaiadome boot will be an athlete exclusive. "For the official Team USA Medal Stand look in Beijing, we worked closely with the disability community, including current and former winter and summer Paralympians, in our design and testing process, and used inclusive design principles and methods to create gear that ensures every athlete who competes feels support in style from start to finish," Nike said in a press release. Overall, this translates to an outfit that can be easily worn by those with limited dexterity. For example, the jackets include magnetic closures, oversized zipper pulls, and fish-trap pockets. Meanwhile, the ACG Dri-Fit ADV Trail Pants have a quick-release magnetic buckle. For the ACG Gaiadome Boot, the design features a zippered back entry and toggle laces. The Gaiadome FlyEase Boot has a similar design philosophy to the $120 Go FlyEase, which Nike introduced last year. Those sneakers featured a "bistable hinge" that allowed a person to put on and take off the shoe hands-free. While the FlyEase's accessible design was widely praised, Nike was heavily criticized over how it handled the launch. Limited stock and hype created a resale market around the shoes resulting in prices shooting upwards of $400. The problem went viral on social media, and some accused Nike of using disability as a marketing scheme without assuring access to those who would most benefit from the sneakers. It's curious, then, that Nike has decided to make the Gaiadome FlyEase Boot an athlete exclusive. This isn't the first time Nike has made accessible footwear for Olympic athletes that then became available for consumers. For the Tokyo Summer Games last year, Nike introduced the Glide FlyEase. Instead of the innovative hinge, they featured a flexible heel that would snap into place once a person stepped into the shoe. Both the Go FlyEase and Glide FlyEase are available for retail. The Verge asked Nike why the Gaiadome FlyEase Boot will be an athlete exclusive but didn't immediately receive a response. In an ideal world, accessible design would be the default, as it benefits everyone. Boots are oftentimes difficult for even able-bodied people with full use of their hands. It's understandable that Nike may be keen to avoid further controversy, but hopefully, we'll see the Gaiadome FlyEase Boot's design incorporated on future shoes that are available to the public — and not in limited quantities. |
| TikTok is thinking about letting its creators charge subscription fees Posted: 20 Jan 2022 04:29 PM PST  TikTok confirmed Thursday that it is testing support for paid subscriptions, paving the way for creators on the short form video platform to charge for their content. First reported by The Information, the company didn't share details about when it might roll out to creators, how many creators are currently testing it, or what the pay structure might look like. Company spokesman Zachary Kizer said in an email to The Verge that the subscriptions were a "concept that's been in testing," and that it was "always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience," (whatever that means). If adopted, it would be the latest move by TikTok to help its creators monetize their content; it introduced its Creator Next hub with monetization tools, and rolled out its tipping feature to eligible creators in December, after testing it with a smaller group. How TikTok will add direct-to-creator payments to its highly successful business model is bit of a head-scratcher. The app's major advantage over competitors is its uncanny algorithm that surfaces content to users' For You pages. It's a way for creators to reach users and ideally turn them into subscribers. But if creators are holding their best content for subscribers, that content is probably not available to fuel the algorithm, which in turn could reduce engagement, since in theory, it's not being surfaced to non-subscribers. This is not a problem unique to TikTok, of course; all digital platforms trying to help content creators and influencers monetize their content are trying to balance engagement vs. letting creators monetize directly. And the creators themselves have to be able to predict what content subscribers will be willing to pay for, and what content will help them best promote their own work. TikTok's test of paid subscribers follows Instagram's announcement that it, too, is launching a test of paid subscriptions with a small number of creators and influencers. Subscribers will pay a monthly fee to access exclusive content from creators they follow, including Stories and Live videos. The different tiers will range in price from $0.99 to $99.99 per month depending what the creator decides to charge, and a purple badge will denote a subscriber's status to the creator/influencer in the comments section. Meta-owned Instagram says it doesn't plan to take a cut of creators' subscription revenue until next year at the earliest. |
| Netflix co-CEO says there will ‘absolutely’ be a second season of Squid Game Posted: 20 Jan 2022 04:22 PM PST  Hold on to your jumpsuits — Netflix's wildly popular Squid Game series has been confirmed by the company for a second season. During its fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday, Netflix's co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos confirmed that the Korean miniseries is returning. Asked by Nidhi Gupta of Fidelity Management and Research whether the viewers would get a second season of Netflix's most popular series ever, Sarados said there's more grisly action to come. "Absolutely," he responded. "The Squid Game universe has just begun." Previously, Hwang Dong-hyuk confirmed that the series would return, adding that he was in the "planning process." Sarandos didn't elaborate on when the series will return, or what an expanded Squid Game universe would look like. But if the series gets the full Stranger Things treatment, that could potentially expand to gaming and more. (Netflix has repeatedly hammered home that gaming is core to its business strategy moving forward.) Squid Game already has its own merch line and Funko Pop collectibles in the Netflix Shop. A new Bape collaboration is slated to drop Friday. Bring on the games. |
| TikTok marketing lead behind its NFTs and ghost kitchens no longer at the company Posted: 20 Jan 2022 11:23 AM PST  Nick Tran is no longer TikTok's global head of marketing, reportedly because the company was unimpressed with his "side-show" marketing campaigns, according to the New York Post. Some of the most notable "stunt-marketing" schemes he came up with included opening TikTok Kitchens, letting people apply to jobs at places like Chipotle or Target via TikToks, and an NFT collaboration with celebrities like Lil' Nas X and Bella Poarch. The Post reports that the restaurant campaign, where ghost kitchens would cook and deliver recipes that went viral on TikTok, was the one of the last straws for Tran. "We're not in the restaurant business and we shouldn't pretend to be," one executive reportedly said. Looking at some of the campaigns, it is a bit difficult to find a connection to TikTok's actual business of hosting short form videos, or how they work to boost its image (apart from possibly just getting people to talk about TikTok at all, though it's not like there's been a drought of TikTok news in the two-ish years that Tran worked there). Not all of TikTok's recent ads have been so tangentially related though. I genuinely enjoyed one of its "you have to see it" ads, which shows people (including Martha Stewart) talking about that series of TikToks where someone found an entire apartment behind their bathroom mirror. Tran worked at Hulu before being poached by TikTok. According a 2020 profile in Fortune's 40 under 40, he worked on a few strange ad campaigns there as well — he was involved with Hulu's Super Bowl ad which used an egg to tell people to "talk to someone" if they were struggling with mental health, capitalizing off the egg picture that became the most-liked post on Instagram at the time. The ad doesn't heavily feature Hulu branding, but the company made a big deal about sponsoring the egg in the run-up to the Super Bowl. Tran also led an ad campaign called "Better ruins everything," where a variety of celebrities tell you not to buy Hulu (it's not quite like Patagonia telling you not to buy their jacket, the celebrities are warning you that Hulu is so much better than TV that you'll never be able to go without it after you use it). While Tran's marketing stunts may have only vaguely related to TikTok, that's not particularly abnormal for marketing these days — did seeing a baby version of Mr. Peanut make you hungry? Did seeing a heavy metal band growl-scream out an excerpt from one of The Verge's reviews make you want to buy a Lenovo laptop? (Okay, that one was actually pretty awesome.) TikTok didn't immediately reply to a request for comment from The Verge, but confirmed Tran's departure in a statement to Ad Age (though, as a note, he does list Global Head of Marketing at TikTok as his current job on LinkedIn). TikTok's statement wished him well in his future endeavors — whatever they end up being, we'll probably hear about them. |
| Why Netflix keeps cranking up its prices Posted: 20 Jan 2022 10:00 AM PST  Every year, the cost of streaming gets more and more expensive — and just last week, prices started going up again. Netflix announced that all of its tiers would get an immediate price hike for new subscribers, boosting its most expensive plan to $20 per month. It's the third price increase since 2019. At $15.50 per month, Netflix's standard tier now slightly out-prices HBO Max ($15 per month) and the Disney Bundle (which includes ESPN Plus and Hulu for $14 per month), making it one of the most expensive on-demand streaming options among leading services. If you want 4K, it gets even pricier. That's not an insignificant amount of money, considering people tend to have around four paid streaming subscriptions, according to recent data from Deloitte. While the price hikes sting for consumers, it's safe to expect they'll continue — especially for Netflix. Growth opportunities have stalled, and the company's spending on content continues to grow. To keep up, Netflix has to either increase the number of subscribers paying for its service or ask its existing customers for more money. And right now, Netflix knows it can. "They're doing pretty well, but they're going to continue to tighten up their finances as time goes by," Parks Associates director of research Paul Erickson tells The Verge. "This is the fundamental way in which they do that — small incremental price changes over time. Because they feel they are so well entrenched, and their customers are loyal, they feel that it's not going to materially affect their subscribership." One of the big reasons Netflix needs money is to pay for new shows and movies. Streaming services are spending a frankly outrageous chunk of change on original programming, with global spend expected to exceed $230 billion in 2022, according to estimates from firm Ampere Analysis. Ampere positions Netflix as the third-largest investor in video content, surpassed only by Disney and Comcast — both of which the firm notes invest in pricey sports rights. By dumping truckloads of money in original programming, streamers hope to not only hang onto their existing customers but lure in new subscribers as well. For Netflix, expanding its programming across genres and categories helps it be everything to everyone. Investing in an ever-growing portfolio of scripted, unscripted, animated, and live-action programming helps ensure that Netflix retains a monthly subscription. "The more that they can serve all the different aspects of different households — whether that's language specificity, if it's market and lifestyle specificity — the better," Erickson says. This allows Netflix to justify positioning itself as a core, must-have entertainment service. And if its 200 million-plus paid subscribers are any indication, the strategy is working. But there's another reason Netflix has turned to price increases to raise more money. Even with its hundreds of millions of active subscribers, Netflix's subscriber growth has begun plateauing. The company continues to add subscribers, but the number of quarterly additions has dipped in recent years (in some cases, even falling below forecasted figures). Netflix's content spend, meanwhile, only continues to grow, with the company spending billions on programming every year. And with major competitors like Disney Plus and HBO Max entering the market, they're only likely to keep growing so Netflix can remain competitive. This is likely to come up in the company's earnings call later today, as investors are worried about slowing subscriber and revenue growth. In addition to paying for the content it needs to continue scaling its business, Netflix also has to keep its antsy investors happy as well. Without taking the highly maligned step of simply kicking all of us off our exes or parents' plans — Netflix boss Reed Hastings has described shared accounts as "something you have to learn to live with" — Netflix has to figure out a way to counterbalance its debts. "The money has to come from somewhere. A company can only pay off its debt and get to true profitability with hard cash," Erickson says. At the same time, small incremental price increases every year and a half or so probably won't impact subscriber turnover for a service that customers use often or one that's central to their cord-cutting portfolio. "Does the consumer feel that Netflix is a good value at the price? If the answer is yes, overwhelmingly they can raise prices and pretty much nobody quits," Michael Pachter, a managing director at Wedbush Securities, tells The Verge. "If you use Netflix every day, then you kind of don't pay attention." Historic trends for price hikes offered a clue that another price hike was coming for US subscribers sometime soon. Additionally, Netflix COO and chief product officer Greg Peters said during an earnings call last year that by delivering what Netflix feels is "an amazing entertainment value" through content and user experience, the company can occasionally go back to its subscribers and "ask them to pay a little bit more to keep that positive cycle going." In other words, a price increase was just as good as promised by Netflix — but cracking the teens is still a pretty significant milestone for the streamer. Setting aside the decade or so lead that Netflix has on its rivals for everything from viewing data to its catalog, pretty much every move Netflix makes is driven by making its streaming service as addictive as possible, which, again, costs money. Whether that's expanding its sports offerings, taking big swings with both critically adored and up-and-coming directors, or expanding characters and worlds with gaming, Netflix is burning through cash to try to keep you hooked on its service. "They're going to continue to innovate because now that they know they've got to weight in the industry, weight for original content creation — it's not just a fluke," Erickson says. "It's proving to be viable for them to continue to diversify what they're doing content-wise, even if it means going outside of the traditional volumes and types of content that they're used to delivering." Netflix enjoys an arguably unrivaled brand loyalty in the streaming space — it's synonymous with streaming. At the end of the day, Netflix is cranking up its price by a buck or two every couple of years simply because it can. It's safe to assume it'll continue doing so, too. |
| Google is building an AR headset Posted: 20 Jan 2022 08:59 AM PST  Project Iris could see Google go up against Meta and Apple in the coming headset wars Meta may be the loudest company building AR and VR hardware. Microsoft has HoloLens. Apple is working on something, too. But don't count out Google. The search giant has recently begun ramping up work on an AR headset, internally codenamed Project Iris, that it hopes to ship in 2024, according to two people familiar with the project who requested anonymity to speak without the company's permission. Like forthcoming headsets from Meta and Apple, Google's device uses outward-facing cameras to blend computer graphics with a video feed of the real world, creating a more immersive, mixed reality experience than existing AR glasses from the likes of Snap and Magic Leap. Early prototypes being developed at a facility in the San Francisco Bay Area resemble a pair of ski goggles and don't require a tethered connection to an external power source. Google's headset is still early in development without a clearly defined go-to-market strategy, which indicates that the 2024 target year may be more aspirational than set in stone. The hardware is powered by a custom Google processor, like its newest Google Pixel smartphone, and runs on Android, though recent job listings indicate that a unique OS is in the works. Given power constraints, Google's strategy is to use its data centers to remotely render some graphics and beam them into the headset via an internet connection. I'm told that the Pixel team is involved in some of the hardware pieces, but it's unclear if the headset will ultimately be Pixel-branded. The name Google Glass is almost certainly off the table, thanks to the early blowback (remember "Glasshole?") and the fact that it technically still exists as an enterprise product. Project Iris marks a return to a hardware category that Google has a long and checkered history in. It started with the splashy, ill-fated debut of Google Glass in 2012. And then a multi-year effort to sell VR headsets quietly fizzled out in 2019. Google has since been noticeably silent about its hardware aspirations in the space, instead choosing to focus on software features like Lens, its visual search engine, and AR directions in Google Maps. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg has bet his company on AR and VR, hiring thousands and rebranding from Facebook to Meta. "Metaverse" has become an inescapable buzzword. And Apple is readying its own mixed reality headset for as soon as later this year. Project Iris is a tightly kept secret inside Google, tucked away in a building that requires special keycard access and non-disclosure agreements. The core team working on the headset is roughly 300 people, and Google plans to hire hundreds more. The executive overseeing the effort is Clay Bavor, who reports directly to CEO Sundar Pichai and also manages Project Starline, an ultra-high-resolution video chat booth that was demoed last year. /cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23180669/Google_Project_Starline.png) If Starline is any indication, Project Iris could be a technical marvel. People who have tried Starline say it's one of the most impressive tech demos ever. Its ability to recreate who you're chatting with in 3D is supposedly hyper-realistic. In an eye-tracking test with employees, Google found that people focused roughly 15 percent more on who they were talking to using Starline versus a traditional video call and that memory recall was nearly 30 percent better when asked about the details of conversations. I've heard that Google is hoping to ship Starline by 2024 along with Iris. It recently hired Magic Leap's CTO, Paul Greco, to the team in a previously unreported move. A pilot program for using Starline to facilitate remote meetings is in the works with various Fortune 500 companies. Google also wants to deploy Starline internally as part of its post-pandemic hybrid work strategy. A big focus for Starline is bringing the cost of each unit down from tens of thousands of dollars. (Like Iris, there's a chance that Google doesn't meet its target ship year for Starline.) Bavor has managed Google's VR and AR efforts for years, dating back to Google Cardboard and Daydream, a VR software and hardware platform that came out around the same time as the Oculus. He is a close friend of Pichai who has been at Google since 2005. Last November, he was given the title VP of Labs, a remit that includes Project Starline, Iris, a new blockchain division, and Google's in-house product incubator called Area 120. At the time of his promotion, Google reportedly told employees that the Labs team is "focused on extrapolating technology trends and incubating a set of high-potential, long-term projects." Some of the other leaders working on Project Iris include:
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19444528/Focals2.0_TeaseHero_02_RGB_3000x1543.jpg) Image: North Google's interest in AR dates back to Glass and its early investment in Magic Leap. I've heard that the calculus for the Magic Leap investment was to have optionality to buy the company down the road if it figured out a viable path to mass-market AR hardware. In a 2019 interview, Bavor said, "I characterize the phase we're in as deep R&D, focused on building the critical Lego bricks behind closed doors." A year later, Google bought a smart glasses startup called North that was focused on fitting AR tech into a pair of normal-looking eyewear. Most of the North team still works at Google. A recent slew of job postings related to waveguides — a display technology more suited for AR glasses rather than an immersive headset like Project Iris — suggests they could be working on another device in Canada. Google declined to comment for this story. Last October, Pichai said on an earnings call that Google is "thinking through" AR and that it will be a "major area of investment for us." The company certainly has the cash to fund ambitious ideas. It has top technical talent, a robust software ecosystem with Android, and compelling products for AR glasses like Google Lens. But it's still unclear if Google plans to invest as aggressively as Meta, which is already spending $10 billion per year on AR and VR. Apple has thousands working on its headset and a more far-out pair of AR glasses. Until it indicates otherwise, Google seems to be playing catchup. |
| Canon’s EOS R5C is a 2-in-1 stills and cinema camera Posted: 19 Jan 2022 10:19 PM PST  Canon has announced a new camera that brings cinema-grade video capabilities to a conventional full-frame mirrorless body. The EOS R5C looks a lot like the EOS R5, which in turn looked a lot like a Canon DSLR, but it's much bulkier in the back. This is to accommodate an active cooling system so it can shoot for long stretches without overheating. How long? Well, Canon says the cooling system allows the R5C to shoot up to 8K/60fps indefinitely. This was an issue with the R5; it was advertised as being able to shoot 8K for about 20 minutes, and Canon later released a firmware update to improve overheating problems. The R5C also supports 8K HDR recording in HLG and PQ formats as well as 4K/120fps recording in 4:2:2 10-bit color without cropping the sensor. /cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23181655/Canon_EOS_R5_C_Stills_Video_Switch.jpeg) As a stills camera, it's essentially identical to the R5 except for the lack of in-body image stabilization. The full-frame sensor is 45 megapixels and you can shoot at 12fps with the mechanical shutter or 20fps with the electronic shutter. The camera's three-way power switch lets you boot it up into photo or video modes, with the menus and button functionalities changing accordingly. The EOS R5C will be released in March for $4,499. That's $600 more expensive than the EOS R5, but then you're almost getting another separate camera at the same time. For some creators and producers, the all-in-one convenience could be worth it. |
| Disney is putting a Disney Plus exec in charge of Hulu Posted: 19 Jan 2022 04:30 PM PST  Disney has named Joe Earley, a former EVP of its tentpole streaming service Disney Plus, to the position of president of Hulu. Earley previously served as EVP marketing and operations at Disney Plus and is headed to its sister service after joining the company in January of 2019. In the new role at Hulu, Earley will be tasked with building on the service's brand and will liaise with its various content studios. The announcement comes as part of a reorganization as Disney continues to rally resources around its streaming business. Earley will report to Michael Paull, who the company has appointed to the role of president of Disney's overall streaming business. In this newly created position, Paull will oversee the company's ESPN Plus, Hulu, Disney Plus, and Star Plus streaming services. Paull will report to Kareem Daniel, chairman of the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution. In addition to Earley and Paull's expanded roles, the company announced that Rebecca Campbell was named as chairman of its international content business, having previously served as chairman of international operations and direct-to-consumer. The new role reports directly to Disney boss Bob Chapek. Campbell has held various roles with the company for nearly 25 years. As part of the executive shuffle, Disney will need to find a replacement to fill Paull's old role leading Disney Plus. Having joined Disney through its acquisition of Bamtech Media, at which he was chief executive, Paull was integral to the growth of Disney's streaming business. He formerly held an executive role with the Channels arm at Amazon. "Michael Paull has deep experience in the world of streaming and is an accomplished leader with a passion for this business and a proven track record of building and expanding our streaming operations," Daniel said in a statement. "Bringing Disney's streaming platforms together under Michael's expert leadership will allow us to create an even more compelling value proposition for consumers." |
| Instagram is testing paid subscriptions with a small group of creators Posted: 19 Jan 2022 11:45 AM PST  US Instagram users will soon be able to subscribe to a small number of creators and influencers to access exclusive content and features. In a blog post, the company says it's launching a test of subscriptions today, with more creators being added in the coming weeks. Fans will pay a monthly fee to access subscriber-only content from creators they follow, like exclusive Lives and Stories. Subscribers will also get a purple badge by their username that signals their status to the creator. Price tiers will range from $0.99 to $99.99 per month, and creators can select the price point for their subscriptions. Co-head of product Ashley Yuki told TechCrunch that Instagram will not take a cut of creators' subscription revenues "until at least 2023." Ten creators are part of the early test, including basketball player Sedona Prince, Olympian Jordan Chiles, and astrologer Aliza Kelly. "I'm excited to keep building tools for creators to make a living doing creative work and to put these tools in more creators' hands soon," Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, which owns Instagram, wrote in a Facebook post. Facebook also has its own version of a subscription program for creators. In a video today, Instagram head Adam Mosseri says subscriptions are "one of the best ways" for influencers and creators to have a predictable income. Some creators have already been monetizing Instagram features like Close Friends by charging fans a fee off-platform for access to Stories. Instagram and Facebook aren't the only companies to roll out subscription models to compete with platforms like TikTok; in 2021, Twitter introduced Super Follows, and some creators offer additional subscriber content off-platform on Patreon or Substack. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Verge - Creators. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment