the man who runs the internet

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Hi there,

By a wide margin, our mega-report on where blockchain is going is the most popular intelligence brief we’ve issued in a while.

Hey cowboy, that’s a lot of websites

Houston-born and bred Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress / founder & CEO of its unicorn parent company Automattic ($1.24B), will be joining us at A-ha! this December 12 – 13 in San Francisco.

As of February 2017, WordPress powers more than 27.5% of the top 10 million websites, and growing.

We’re excited to hear about how he mobilized one of the largest communities online and where he thinks the future of web publishing is headed.

Prices for A-ha! go up November 1. Save $500 using discount code giddyup. Save your spot here.

Oscar strategy teardown

Oscar has raised more than $700M, with the aim of disrupting health insurance by building a direct relationship with customers. We examined Oscar’s strategy, numbers, partnerships, and future.

Our analysis shows Oscar is slowly managing to contain its costs by integrating with hospitals, bringing key functions like claims processing in-house, and improving the health of its customers.

Go against the stream

Netflix is up against well-funded competitors that are attempting to capture the Southeast Asian market with local content, corporate partnerships, and low prices. We looked at the top contenders in the Southeast Asia VSoD (video streaming on demand) market, including HOOQ and Iflix.

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Here’s what you’re missing

A lot of the work our Intelligence Analysts do is now behind the paywall.  If you’re a client with access to Expert Intelligence, here are the 4 most popular intel briefs of the last week.

The startups that are the future of human-free retail
China leads in the push for retail without cashiers. There are some amazing concepts coming out of China which FMCG and retail execs should know about.

Big tech in AI: What Amazon, Google, Apple and others are working on
The M&A transactions of the biggest tech companies provides clues about their strategy. Who is going all-in on facial recognition? We’ll tell you.

Blockchain market map: 135 startups have raised via ICOs
You like blockchain? You like ICOs? This is the most exhaustive market landscape out there.

3D printing market landscape: 60 startups driving the additive manufacturing boom
From bioprinting to plastics printers and more, here’s the industry’s most exhaustive review of the insurgent companies going after the additive manufacturing opportunity.

Truth

This also applies to pizza.

h/t @ivanTheK

The Industry Standard

CB Insights data is the most trusted by those in the industry and the media. A few recent hits.

Wired. Erin Griffith (@eringriffith) writes about Facebook’s acquisitions and its expanding ambitions, and cites CB Insights investment data.

Bloomberg. An article on Hong Kong and Singapore’s agreement to collaborate on fintech projects, with a reference to data found in the CB Insights Q3’17 Global Fintech Report.

BetaKit. A look at Canadian VC trends with a mention of data found in the CB Insights Q3’17 Canada MoneyTree Report with PwC.

I love you.

Anand
@asanwal

P.S. We’ll be diving into the startups, technologies, and trends across the agtech space on November 7th. Sign up for the briefing.