Disrupting the business of…breakups?

Via: Forbes

Some of the fastest growing tech companies these days, the ones that have become darlings of Wall Street, are known as ‘disruptors’. What exactly does that mean, though?

It’s pretty straightforward, actually. When a company is commonly referred to as a disruptor, they are, quite literally, disrupting the industry in which they reside. For instance, Air BnB is a disruptor within the hospitality industry, flipping the traditional hotel business model on its head (although there is now speculation that that company will affect online travel booking sites like Travelocity more than it will hotels). Another disruptor example, and perhaps the best known? Uber. While that company has been criticized recently by some well-known investors as little more than an overvalued app, it is inarguable that Uber has had a huge effect on, has ‘disrupted’, if you will, the taxi cab industry. The sheer amount of resistance those companies receive from lobbyists and governments at both the local and more national levels is evidence enough of their disruptor status.

However, a new company, the aptly named ‘The Breakup Shop’, is looking to disrupt an entirely new, previously untapped industry; the break up.

A new ad from The Break Up Shop (Via Newser)

While the idea might seem silly, or even somewhat mean-spirited at first glance, there might be some substance there, some are now saying. Certainly, break ups are a wide reaching problem. And further more, there must be a portion of the population who finds the whole situation so uncomfortable, so unpleasant; that they might forsake good manners, societal norms, and invoke the chagrin of their friends and family to employ this company that will end their whole relationship situation for them.

In fact, the site’s potential appeal goes even further than that. In a recent round of marketing, they raised the question of what’s worse than being dumped via a brief call, or even worse, a text? Well, The Break Up shop offers multiple levels of courtesy when they do the breaking up for you. A slight price increase over their base break up model includes a nice card, and even pricier versions include coping mechanisms like a copy of the Notebook or Call of Duty.

And while we’re not the first site to reach this conclusion, it is a logical one; The Breakup Shop is hardly the first enterprise seeking to profit off of heartbreak. And you need look no further than Taylor Swift’s career for an example of that. Perhaps the business of heartbreak is an industry ready for some disruption, after all.

Instagram surpasses 400 million active users, surging past Twitter

Via: Business Insider

Long positioned as one of two social media platforms vying for the number one spot after, of course, the tech juggernaut that is Facebook; it may be time to give that #2 title completely to Instagram.

In a recent blog post on their website, the company formally announced that they had surpassed the 400 million active user mark, only a few months after they announced that they had hit the 300 million mark last December. This type of growth is not only the exact type that Twitter interim CEO Jack Dorsey, and CFO Anthony Noto were very open about not having on their site at the time of their last earnings call, but also places the usership itself of Instagram ahead of Twitter, which has been hovering around 300 million active users for the past year or so.

(Via heidicohen.com)

Beyond creating an interesting contrast to the growth of Twitter, this news is interesting for a number of other reasons. It is surely good news for Facebook, who actually purchased Instagram for $1 billion back in 2012, and has been looking to monetize the app in a number of ways in recent months. These include sponsored ads, and soon a targeted ad program will be rolled out. Advertising revenue generated by Instagram this year will be around $600 million, and is projected to as much as double in 2016 as well. Also, the app has gone truly global, as Instagram reports that most of the most recent 100 million adopters of the app live in Europe, Asia, or South America.

Instagram is the only other Facebook-owned property that generates advertising revenue at this time, and is rated very positively by clients thus far.

FINALLY a real-life hoverboard is set to debut

As one astute comedian recently observed on Twitter, “They should go back and remake Back to the Future except instead of having hoverboards in 2015, everyone’s just offended by everything.”

That iconic movie sees Marty McFly travel ahead to 2015 (or was that Back to the Future 2?), where he uses, amongst other awesome things we don’t have yet, a hoverboard. But it appears that fact has finally caught up to fiction, and a real-life hoverboard will be arriving soon. Developing by Lexus, not too much is known about the device as of this writing. But, a new teaser video dropped online ahead of the products August 5th launch, which we have here for you below.

1stDibs is a website with an awesome name; even cooler purpose

Via: Source

Filling in a digital space unfulfilled by eBay, Amazon, or any other online marketplace, website 1stDibs was created all the way back in 2001 to serve a different purpose; replicate the finest art gallery or auction house experience all online. Connecting art dealers with clients seeking their wares all across the globe seemed like an obscure mission a decade ago, but now, 1stDibs is uniquely, and excellently positioned to almost exclusively serve a huge market. How exactly did they do it?

Via: Sparkcapital.com

Indeed, as was previously mentioned, the company started all the way back in 2001; and from the get-go, the site sought to replicate the legendary Parisian Marche aux Puces; open air markets filled with art of all kinds. And now, close to 15 years later, the company has evolved into the leading online market place for fine art, furniture, jewelry, and other treasures; all listed by some of the best-known, and most reputable dealers in the world.

The company, now guided by CEO David Rosenblatt, removed dozens of pain points that kept both art dealers and collectors from having access to collections around the world, whether they are on the buying, or selling side. It is an area with a lot of demand, and not a lot of direct competition for 1stDibs, making them an incredibly interesting company to keep an eye on.