Hi Everyone. This is Take Off. We're like a hidden Easter egg in your favorite video game - surprising, delightful, and adding an extra layer of fun to your tech news consumption.

Here's what we're serving up today:

• Every Tech Company is an Ad Company 📺

• Wednesday Wires 💰

• Asteroids ☄️

Every Tech Company is an Ad Company 📺

At first glance, companies like Google, Meta, Uber and Netflix might seem to be players in vastly different areas.

But delve deeper, and a hidden thread binds them all: the relentless pursuit of monetizing attention through advertising - termed as the “Dark Beating Heart of the Internet” by Tim Hwang.

Today, the most precious commodity isn’t gold or oil - it’s attention. And who better to mine this rich being than tech giants armed with terabytes of user data and sophisticated algorithms.

Lyft recently announced that riders would see ads on their ETA screen while waiting for their taxi and during transit. They stated that their audience checks their phone “nearly nine times on average” during a ride. That’s nine glances going unmonetized - a grave error, now corrected.

It wants to replicate the success of its rival, Uber which generated a $650 million run-rate with their in-app advertising business.

Instacart’s recent IPO highlighted an eye-opening fact: Advertising contributes to more than 30% of its revenue, making it a fundamental pillar of their business model.

Netflix, the OG streaming platform, is also hopping on this ad-train. Remember the “good ‘ol days” of cable TV with its never-ending ads? Netflix has promised to bring those days back with its ad-supported tier.

Amazon, the e-commerce behemoth has slowly scaled its advertising business to a gargantuan $38 billion in 2022, third only to Google and Meta - the advertising duopolies of the world.

• Instacart has 10 million MAUs.

• Uber has 130 million MAUs.

• Netflix has 240 million MAUs.

It’s no wonder they’re all thinking: “Why not print some dollars off of these millions of eyeballs”.

“You either die a hero as a company or live long enough to see yourself become the villain an advertising company”

☄️ Asteroids ☄️

After a 5-month strike, the Writers Guild of America secured a new deal with studios, ensuring AI won't replace writers or nab their credits. Now, it's the actors' turn! 🎬✍️

SAG-AFTRA members overwhelmingly vote to strike against video game companies over AI usage and pay concerns. Hope remains for a peaceful resolution in upcoming negotiations. 🎮🎭

Tinder's launching a super-exclusive $499/month plan called Tinder Select! Only 1% of super-active users get the invite. Message unmatched folks and shine among the "most sought-after" profiles. 💖🔥

⚒️ Trending Tools ⚒️

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🪙 Cointrail - Crypto portfolio tracking for hodlers

🧑‍💻 Superdev - Edit, inspect and enhance any website visually.

💰 Wednesday Wires 💰

Kolena, an AI testing startup, just raised $15 million to boost AI model performance and trust! They're all about making AI transparent and reliable. 🤖💡

Series, a platform to simplify business finance and operations just raked in a $25 million funding. It's like a modular ERP for businesses! 🚀💼

Amazon is investing up to $4 billion in AI startup Anthropic, kickstarting with $1.25 billion. They're diving deep into the AI race alongside big names like Google and Microsoft. 🤖💰

📰 Recommended Reading 📰

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