Mastodon Launches Plushies to Boost Revenue
Crunch X still struggles to grow. Subscription revenue is remember on. Shake and get ready because it’s time for your daily crunch for Wednesday, starting with three big headlines.
If you like open-source decentralized social networks that put the power in the hands of the people instead of billionaires, you can now support that cause by buying toys. On Tuesday, Mastodon, a decentralized alternative to X, began selling its own merchandise in the form of cute plushies. You guessed it—mastodons. The proto-elephants with long tusks that give the social network its name. The company announced last year that it would help fund its development efforts through merchandise sales after a poll found that over 6,700 Mastodon users said they’d buy something if merch was made available. Shortly thereafter, Mastodon quickly sold out of a small test round of products, including mugs, tees, and pins. The lineup, which had only included 250 units of each item, was soon sold out. So that leads us to today’s launch of the Mastodon plushies, available in one size for $45 USD. The light-colored washable stuffy is 35 cm high and cushy enough to serve as a travel pillow, the company says. Unfortunately for Mastodon’s US fans, it’s initially available only in the EU, as shipments to the US have been delayed by recent storms. Within a few hours of launch, Mastodon had sold 176 plushies, earning the company nearly $88,000 in revenue, less its manufacturing and shipping costs. Now, while that’s nowhere near paying even a single developer’s salary, it could help the company make a tiny dent in its server bills.
Threads Introduces New Activity Status Feature
At least Meta X rival Threads is rolling out a new activity status feature that will let you see when someone on the social network is online. Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced the feature on Tuesday in a Threads post, noting that it’s meant to act as a way to help you find others to engage with in real time. Thankfully, you can turn the setting off, and only users who have the feature turned on will be able to see when you’re online. Since its launch last year, Threads has lagged behind X when it comes to surfacing real-time events and trends. It’s easier to find real-time reactions and responses to live events, like award shows and earthquakes, on X than it is on Threads. With this new feature, Threads is attempting to boost real-time activity on its app. Activity status could also be seen as Threads’ answer to the platform’s lack of DMs. A quick look at the responses to Mosseri’s announcement post indicates that many users don’t actually want this feature, with some asking for DMs instead, noting that an activity status feature doesn’t make sense if you can’t directly message the person. Some also point out that the feature could put some users at risk. For example, if you’re being harassed by a troll, they may harass you even more knowing that you’re currently active on the platform. The feature is out now, but Mosseri has yet to inform users on how to turn it off. Users will likely have to navigate through the app settings page to do so.
Elon Musk’s Subscription Strategy Struggles
Elon Musk’s plan to reduce X’s dependence on advertising revenue by increasing paid subscriptions is still not taking off. According to a new third-party analysis of the X premium subscription service by app intelligence firm AppFigures, X has pulled in approximately $200 million in in-app purchase revenue across iOS and Android since the original 2021 launch of the subscription formerly known as Twitter Blue. There are some caveats to this figure. For starters, the sum is based only on those purchases made via the mobile app, not the mobile web or desktop web. That means the true sum is likely higher, especially given X offers a discount for web purchases. Currently, X continues to offer three subscription tiers: basic, premium, and premium plus, with varying access to advanced features like Grok AI, a blue verified check mark, and fewer ads, among others. The top in-app purchase based on App Store data is X premium, which costs $11 per month on mobile. In September 2024, X grossed $14.7 million through in-app purchases on mobile devices, according to AppFigures. Since X is a private company with no obligation to share its user numbers publicly, one can only guess how many people are buying which subscription tier.
Startup News: Amplitude and Outrival
We now turn it over to producer Dennis with today’s startup business news in about 1 minute.
Imran, thank you. We begin with Amplitude, a publicly traded company that makes digital analytics software, which has acquired Command AI, an app user engagement startup formerly known as Command Bar. Most of Command AI’s 30-person San Francisco-based team will be joining Amplitude. A source tells TechCrunch that the deal was worth north of $45 million. Early next year, Command AI will launch checklists and guides for Amplitude, which will let customers create app and website action plans, as well as interactive product tours.
The founders of the upskilling platform Career Karma announced today the launch of the company Outrival, which offers a service that hosts and lets businesses take on customer interactions. Career Karma will continue as a separate company, just now owned by Outrival. Career Karma will now use Outrival’s technology to enhance its own operations, creating AI-driven support to help with its job training platform.
And that’ll do it for me, Imran. Back to you, and that’s your daily crunch. Today’s stories were reported by Aisha Malik, Sarah Perez, and more beautiful, lovely TechCrunch journalists. We’ll see you here tomorrow—same tech time, same crunch channel. And until then, find us at footybaubles.com.