“We give companies back control of their customer relationships.”
(Photo: Bloomberg)
san francisco Anyone who moves on the Internet is tracked digitally. When a website is called up, dozens, sometimes even hundreds of programs are often spying on what a user is doing in the background. These so-called cookies were once intended to adapt services as precisely as possible to the needs of customers. Today they have developed a life of their own.
The first companies are already taking a step in the other direction. Nike has banned almost all third-party cookie services from its website. The sporting goods manufacturer now largely controls itself how contacts with customers are maintained. In the background, a Silicon Valley company is helping out: Twilio.
Founder and CEO Jeff Lawson is a tech industry veteran. Since the 1990s he has built several companies and worked at Amazon on the technology behind the AWS cloud division. He started Twilio in 2008 in San Francisco.
“Over the past two decades, many corporations have bought more and more individual services to maintain relationships with their customers,” Lawson said in an interview with Handelsblatt. Today, the services are often fragmented and there is a lack of centrally available data. It is precisely this connection that Twilio wants to ensure.
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With the services, companies can evaluate data in real time so that customers are offered the right solution. “We give companies back control of their customer relationships,” says the 45-year-old.
Google and the EU could force companies to rethink
Nike boss John Donahoe explained at a presentation how, due to the corona pandemic, a number of employees were suddenly no longer able to go into the shops to advise customers. With Twilio, the sporting goods giant then set up a system with which it can provide consumers with information about suitable products directly via its own app or website.
Since the shops have been open again, Nike has been on two tracks. “Our employees are now advising in stores again, but they will also continue to advise our digital customers,” said Donahoe.
Nike is proactive about this. Many other companies could be forced to rethink. The EU has restricted the use of cookies and trackers with the General Data Protection Regulation.
The world’s largest search engine provider Google has also announced that it will block third-party cookies in its Chrome browser from this year. The end should actually come in 2022 – but Google now wants to give advertisers more time.
For many companies, therefore, there should be no way around converting their system. Lawson already has a long list of customers with Twilio. These include the household appliance division of Bosch, but also well-known digital groups such as Uber and Airbnb.
Twilio shares have lost around 80 percent of their market value
For Lawson himself, there is a lot at stake. Twilio may have had sales of around $3.8 billion last year, but has been making losses since it was founded. The mood on the stock exchange has changed for the tech industry. In the past year, Twilio has lost around 80 percent of its stock market value. Lawson wants to turn a profit in 2023.
Investors are already getting restless. Lawson tries to appease: “Like many companies, we have to deal with short-term headwinds, but the long-term opportunities remain great.” He had already announced that he would lay off around one in ten employees and reduce office space.
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Analysts see a mixed picture at Twilio. Meta Marshall of investment bank Morgan Stanley says the company has good products but needs to achieve better margins. Overall, however, she is confident: “We still believe that the company will break even in 2023.”
In addition, Twilio has prominent support: the well-known tech investor Cathie Wood first included Twilio in her portfolio in November and bought shares worth 33 million dollars.
More: Which stocks Cathie Wood is currently adding to