Netflix Launching a TikTok Clone

Plus: DoorDash M&A, OpenAI ditching for-profit

Joey Padgett
May 08, 2025

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Welcome back to Forests Over Trees, your tech strategy newsletter. It’s time to zoom-out, connect dots, and (try to) predict the future.

Here’s today’s plan:

Photo by Souvik Banerjee

What’s up: DoorDash is acquiring Deliveroo, a UK competitor, for $3.9B. Despite similar approaches to food delivery and later expansion to grocery, DoorDash’s valuation has climbed steadily since their 2020 IPO ($39B to $76B), while Deliveroo’s crashed since their 2021 IPO ($10B to $3.9). DoorDash will get access to Deliveroo’s 7M monthly active users across 45 countries.
So what: This is huge for DoorDash. They already have ~65% market share in the US, compared to Uber Eats at ~25% and Grubhub at 6%. Leveraging their domestic strength/earnings to grow internationally just makes sense. Plus Deliveroo had apparently just started to peak into profitability, so the timing of picking up the local business there is good for DoorDash.

What’s up: OpenAI is switching gears, abandoning their plan to transition from a nonprofit to a for-profit entity. Instead, they’ll be a public benefit corporation (PBC), which will require them to state the benefit they aim to provide and file annual reports to track progress. That PBC structure will still allow for uncapped investor returns, as compared to the capped structure they were previously operating under. The decision was apparently influenced by engagements with state attorneys general in Delaware and California.
So what: The words are different, but the outcome is pretty much the same. Sam Altman and OpenAI will still be able to lure investors with uncapped upside. And we’ll still get recurring letters from Sam espousing his passion for AGI and his company’s progress towards achieving it… but now those letters will be PBC regulatory filings!

What’s up: Netflix is testing a TikTok-style vertical video feed in its mobile app to help users discover shows and movies. The feature, rolling out in the coming weeks, lets users watch, save, or share clips directly from the feed, with controls mimicking social platforms. This follows earlier experiments like “Fast Laughs” and “Kids Clips,” but applies more broadly across genres. Netflix also announced a redesigned interface for its TV app.
So what: Great idea. Part of what makes the TikTok algorithm incredible are the quick signals it gets about what people like. If Netflix can get similar signals, it can help them with content strategy, how to market a given show, etc. Plus the chance for people to save clips and queue things they want to watch helps drive deeper engagement on the existing content library.

What’s up: Amazon’s Kindle app for iOS now features a “Get Book” button linking directly to purchase pages on Amazon’s website, marking its biggest update in over a decade. The change follows an April 30 court order in the Epic v. Apple case, which bars Apple…

AI over time — Another goldmine from Visual Capitalist. “Healthy Living” had a huge jump… that’s pretty fascinating and surprising. The coding and image generation trends less surprising.
More Epic —- Their CEO Tim Sweeney went on the Lex Fridman Podcast last week, and I absolutely loved it. He talked about Epic’s origin story, advice to game developers/founders, and his ongoing battle with Apple.

The forest is growing.
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