Twitter Hack, Slack vs. Teams, Spotify, Peacock, & Arrive Outdoors

3 min readJul 24, 2020

Update on the Twitter Hack

Twitter Support Tweeted on Wednesday, July 22nd recapping the events of the attack the happened on the 15th of July. Twitter confirmed some accounts did in fact have their DMs accessed and a few had “Your Twitter Data” downloaded.

So far, Microsoft has been able to escape most of the antitrust drama that Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple have all been caught up in. However, this might change.
Slack filled a complaint on Wednesday, July 22 against Microsoft with the European Commission of using the size of its market to crush Slack.
By tying Teams, Microsoft’s collaboration platform, to the rest of the Office Suite which includes Outlook, Word, and Excel. Slack claims that the bundling tactic is a direct attack on Slack, persuading people to keep all of their software and collaboration in one domain.
For now, Slack’s complaint is just that, a complaint. The EC must decide if a formal investigation is necessary and if it will be acted upon.
Slack is fighting for Microsoft to remove Teams from the rest of the Office Suite and offer it as an add-on for a fair price.

Although most assumed Spotify was moving into the video market after the $3 million Joe Rogan Experience deal, Spotify finally announced their official strategy for doing so.
Youtube by far is the most popular search engine for video, their success has been due to mainly no other competition. Youtube is so developed and the go-to, no one has tried to take them on.
Rogan and his podcast deal with Spotify is exclusive, meaning that full-length episodes will no longer be accessible on Youtube at the start of 2021.
Youtube’s algorithm makes discovering new podcasts and topics so easy, so it’ll be interesting to see how audiences continue to grow on Spotify — or not.

Although app downloads aren’t a clear picture of user adoption and success, it does give a glimpse into how a platform will continue to build. Peacock, NBC’s new streaming platform, received 1.5 million downloads in the first six days.
It isn’t quite as large as Disney+’s downloads in the first six days with 13 million, it is a little more than Quibi who had 1.2 million within the same time period. Disney has a large fan base and user recognition, which NBC lacks due to the use of its logo, the peacock.
This is a crowded market with Netflix and Hulu dominating, but will be a fun fight to see how companies adapt and innovate.

Arrive Outdoors, an outdoor rental equipment company was started by a couple who always had trouble finding and renting gear in the cities they traveled to.
This week, they raised $4.75 in a seed round to hire staff and build up their inventory.
Customers can pick pre-packed sets, or choose gear individually from the website. The equipment comes a few days later packed up in a box with a pre-paid shipping label for the return. The company provides tents, hiking gear, stoves, and other popular outdoor adventure gear.
One of the founders said they were at a low point in March, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reservations have skyrocketed. Camping and other outdoor activities can be done socially distanced, and safe, making it a very popular hobby for the foreseeable future.