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:

• Netflix’s Victory Lap 🎬

• Asteroids ☄️

• Trending Tools ⚒️ 

Netflix’s Victory Lap 🎬

Just like the Paris Peace Treaty brought an end to World War II, another years-long battle seems to have a victor emerging.

And we think that they are more than ready to take The Crown.

It turns out that adding everyone’s two least favorite things in the world - ads and strict passwords, has been working out well for Netflix.

The OG of streaming, Netflix, just bulked up its subscriber list by a whopping 9.3M in the first quarter of 2024. They’re now the proud entertainers of over 270M subscribers globally. 

With more than two people per household on average, we have an audience of over half a billion people. No entertainment company has ever programmed at this scale and with this ambition before. 

Ads Ads Ads

The company that popularized ad-free streaming, would like you to join its ad tier now. 

Netflix wants you to subscribe to their $6.99/mo ad-supported plan compared to its standard $15.49/mo because they make more money per user advertising goods to you than just by collecting your monthly subscription fees. 

They’ve made it clear that they plan to double down on it as this initiative is expected to be the primary driver of growth in 2025, with a lower entry point for new members and a higher ARPU potential. 

Their ad membership grew 65% in Q1 ‘24 and 40% of new signups in ad-available markets are for the ad-supported tier.

This led to the company reporting a revenue of $9.3B, up 15% QoQ.

Bomb Drop

Amongst all the good news, Netflix dropped a bomb that it won’t be reporting subscriber numbers from 2025 onwards. Why? 

Well, according to Netflix, it’s a sign of maturity. It wants the Street to recognize that it’s all grown up and to focus on Big Boy metrics like revenue, profit and EBITDA.

Netflix said that with their new initiatives like tiered pricing, password-sharing crackdown and advertising, their business is not as straightforward as [Subscriber Count * Membership Cost] and thus the number of subscribers is less indicative of the company’s performance. 

Netflix seems to be entering a new phase which definitely looks very promising. What’s your take on this?

Sponsored by

Get smarter on AI.

What’s the secret to staying ahead of the curve in the world of AI? Information. Luckily, you can join early adopters reading The Rundown– the free newsletter that makes you smarter on AI with just a 5-minute read per day.

Sign up with one click

☄️ Asteroids ☄️

Last night's Rabbit R1 launch turned heads, blending nostalgia with cutting-edge tech. With a retro flair and a focus on design, Rabbit aims to make hardware exciting outside the smartphone realm. 🎉🕹️

Apple lost its crown as China's biggest smartphone seller in the first quarter of 2024 as its smartphone shipments fell 6.6% from a year ago amid intense competition. 📱📉 

⚒️ Trending Tools ⚒️

💰️  Client Billing - All-In-One Billing and Payments Solution

📱 Summie - Your mobile meeting assistant

⌛️ Stagetimer - Keep your event on track with an accurate timer

⚡️ Theneo - Generate Stripe-like API docs in seconds

📰 Recommended Reading 📰

Sovereign Beat: The Ultimate Source for Navigating Global Financial Markets and Geopolitics in Simple Bites.

AI Jane: Artificial intelligence investment journalist building an easy to read ai investing email newsletter. Get smarter about investing in ai in 5 minutes.

The Aurorean: This newsletter scours 100+ sources so you don’t have to. The Aurorean is your guide to discover the essential news, research, beauty and humor in science every week.

That’s it from us today folks! If you liked what today’s edition, here’s a message from our loving and hard-working team below:

“ We all crave the essentials in life - food 🥑🍕, shelter 🏠, and clothing 👕🩳- and we're no exception! Our must-haves? An ever-growing squad of adoring subscribers like you and for more of those lovely subs, we're counting on you to spread the word! So, blast that newsletter across the universe! ”