The 11th Hour Dispatch — Wednesday, October 17, 2018
BINGE WATCH
Netflix shot past analyst expectations and announced that it gained nearly seven million subscribers in Q3 alone. This greatly surpassed its 5 million forecast. Most of this increase is thanks to Netflix’s aggressive international expansion efforts. The streamer only added 1.09 million U.S. subscribers in comparison to the 5.87 million it picked up internationally. The streaming behemoth now boasts an absolutely insane subscriber total of over 137 million. CEO Reed Hastings also added that Netflix projects it will pick up 7.6 million paid subscribers in Q4. The streaming giant has now added more subscribers in a single year than HBO has in the last four decades. If you own Netflix stock, it’s a good day to be you. Its stock price surged as much as 12% this morning. And in closing, Business Insider made a list of the top 10 young Netflix stars that the service has shot to superstardom — based on Instagram followers, of course — if you really need to see the prowess of the great and powerful Oz — I mean — Netflix.
YOUNG MONEY
Blockchain journalism startup Civil Media’s $8 million cryptocurrency sale came up a bit short. The month-long sale, which closed Monday, was supposed to create the economical base that the platform’s journalistic code of ethics operated on. “We’re disappointed, but we’re as committed as ever to seeing Civil out in the world,” Civil CEO Matthew Iles said in a blog post. Civil’s model is based off of users owning tokens to leverage the community to challenge journalistic practices that are deemed uncouth. Tokens can also be used to tip journalists that are producing excellent work. When the token sale closed on Monday, Civil reported that around 700 people had purchased around $1.3 million worth of tokens, with another 1,500 people committed to scoop up another $800K in the next week, but as of today, that hasn’t happened yet. Iles said that Civil will be issuing refunds for purchased tokens in the failed sale. The company plans to try again with a “new, much simpler token sale” in the near future. While their sale didn’t go as plan, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the product isn’t viable. You don’t get leaders like Forbes and Associated Presson board if you don’t have something promising with such a relatively nascent technology.
BIG BUSINESS
Epic Games is suing YouTubers Colton Conter and Brandon Lucas for cheating this little thing called Fortnite by promoting hacking software and uploading videos detailing how to cheat the game to their viewers. According to the legal paperwork, Conter and Lucas allegedly “inject[ed] unauthorized cheat software” into Fortnite’s code, resulting in “unauthorized derivative works” of Fortnite. Lucas is accused of running a personal website selling the hacking tools. Epic Games is seeking monetary damages and profits from the two, as well as a forfeit of profits from Lucas’ site.
NOTHIN’ BUT ‘NET
Nathan For You is sadly over. I give you permission to wear you chili suit to work as a sign of mourning.
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