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eCounsel group

A boutique firm with unparalleled expertise in business and technology. We have good command of industrial ecology and legal practice, and have undertaken highly regarded cases. Because the small business scope, we pay more emphasis on effectiveness and efficiency, and choose clients with deliberation. The managing partner not only has extensive experiences in various legal issues more over than 20 years, but invests and manages several technology companies. In addition, he always checks each case rigorously. Clients’ business objectives are our primary focus. To achieve the same in the most cost-effective fashion trumps all seemingly sophisticated legal discussions.

The Difficult Situations of Netflix, Spotify and Pandora

2016 - 02 - 15

The online music and video streaming services are facing the same uphill battle.

目前線上的影音串流業者,都面臨類似的困境。Netflix只有美國的實體DVD郵寄業務賺錢,串流部分則是做得愈多,虧得愈大。Spotify更不必講了,在全球喊得很大聲,然而它不但年年在賠,還賠很多。

只有Pandora,在串流音樂的領域是非常成功的。它砍掉搜尋這種on-demand功能,而主張自己是radio station之模式,支付遠較Spotify這種業者低的權利金。惟其在北美以外一直沒有明確的海外擴張計畫,因此台灣對它比較不熟悉。

它的UI/UX看得出是千錘百鍊的最佳化配置、進入市場早(2000年)、每年包括MAU(目前有八千萬人)及聆聽總時數等等各重要數據都正成長(以營收而言,2012年4億、13年6億、14年9.2億、15年近12億);而在營收配置上,廣告占80%、premium訂戶占20%,更是值得參考的模式。

在影音串流領域表現佳,但目前在NYSE上,Pandora市值不到美金20億,去年營收近12億,四年來都一樣,小虧。併掉了Rdio之後也不會有改善。

讀者可以參考華爾街日報的這篇文章:

Pandora Media Swings to Loss Amid Higher Expenses

Web-radio-service Pandora Media Inc. on Thursday swung to a loss in its latest quarter, despite seeing revenue jump 25%, amid higher expenses that included acquisitions costs.

The weaker-than-expected profit results sent shares of the company sliding 6.8%, to $8.49, in after-hours trading, erasing Pandora’s earlier gains Thursday.

The stock had surged as much as 15% during the regular session Thursday after the New York Times reported that Pandora was exploring a sale. The report said Pandora was working with Morgan Stanley to meet potential buyers in early stage talks that wouldn’t necessarily lead to a sale.

影音串流業者,前景堪慮

這些影音串流業者,倘若 streaming business 就是他們的唯一,那就怎麼看都沒有明天。他們內容取得成本占營收之比例,每家向來都在50%以上;而這樣已經賺不了錢的成本比,又因為版權人這些年來不停地祭出訴訟、聯合壟斷等等之壓力手段,還在持續升高中。

因此,Pandora喊賣,一點也不奇怪。

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