Popular in 2022! A year of weekly news, the 3 most popular ones (by views)

3 innovation and digital news in 1 minute. Every Monday. Episode 323

#1: Waterdrop — microdrinks to replace plastic bottles

From episode “D2C brands and sustainability — 3 cases from Germany, Austria and Switzerland” (28.03.2022): Founded 2016 in Vienna, Waterdrop is now one of the shooting stars of the Austrain startup scene. They sell flavoured, sugar-free cubes called “microdrinks”, that dissolve in water. Around 90% of revenues come through their website, flagship stores and business customer relationships. This January they collected €60 million funding from investors. Waterdrop’s smart bottle cap cleans water and tracks consumption. Opinion: Waterdrop makes sure that for each package sold, 1 plastic bottle is collected from the environment. They aim to bring change in the beverage market trying to replace bottled beverages with refillable solutions to save plastic, transport emissions and overall cost.

Dissolvable cubes have been around forever. Microdrinks bring it to the next level. A sustainable alternative to bottled sodas.

Read the full episode here: https://spaceandlemon.medium.com/d2c-brands-and-sustainability-3-cases-from-germany-austria-and-switzerland-e0d8138c6aa1

#2: Circus founded by Nikolas Bullwinkel (Flink Co-founder)

From episode “3 start ups from already successful founders — very promising!” (04.07.2022): Circus is a fast delivery app for freshly cooked meals. Delivers (mostly vegan) dishes from ghost kitchens (bowls, pasta, pizza, salads, sushi, drinks) within 30 minutes. Currently in test in Hamburg Ottensen and St. Pauli. Opinion: Ghost kitchens provide a new angle for the existing food delivery market. But it will be very difficult to compete against Lieferando, Wolt and others. Could make sense to stand out with a different range of products, focus on vegan dishes.

Love the vegan approach!

Read the full episode here: https://spaceandlemon.medium.com/3-start-ups-from-already-successful-founders-718f90f9303a

#3: TikTok — the new playground for upcoming musicians

From episode “Not much happens in music streaming but a new disruption is ahead” (07.03.2022): Not really a music streaming app but still very rooted in music is TikTok. Songs are promoted via the app from well-known artists or amateurs. First drafts of small artists are shown to the community and then especially uploaded to SoundCloud. Opinion: Through TikTok, artist-consumer interaction is rethought. Artists can proactively respond to the wishes of consumers. Although songs are uploaded to Spotify and SoundCloud it’s only a matter of time before TikTok will try to reduce churn.

How TikTok will react to this exactly remains exciting — SoundCloud prepare to defend your small niche artists!

Read the full episode here: https://spaceandlemon.medium.com/not-much-happens-in-music-streaming-but-a-new-disruption-is-ahead-5a2adc1faa59