Table of Contents
Amazon
Amazon Marketplace: it is the company’s first revenue stream, Amazon.com accounts for more than 50% of the income. Amazon asks for a free from its sellers to promote and advertise their products.
Amazon Prime: it is Amazon’s subscription business model and has been vital to the brand’s growth. In exchange for a monthly fee, subscribers have access to Amazon’s video, music, free two-day shipping, unlimited photo storage, etc. Now it has over 150 million members.
Amazon Web Services: a low-cost IT platform, whose services are contracted by companies, organizations, and institutions around the world. It’s not the main source of revenue, but it is certainly the most profitable one.
Amazon Kindle: it is an e-reading service, where users can buy, browse, and download books, magazines, and newspapers. Amazon doesn’t make much money from Kindle, but by attracts traffic to the Prime membership plan.
Amazon Patents: the company has more than 1000 patents, some of them listed by other companies.
Amazon Advertising: it offers ads & videos, a very efficient marketing channel since the audience that accesses the platform is already there to buy something.
Uber
Its model is based on commissioning and this is the revenue stream. The total value of each ride includes the driver’s payment, fees, taxes, and company commission. The driver gets about 75%-80% of the value and the rest keeps with Uber.
Netflix
Netflix has a subscription-based business model, its main revenue stream is the monthly fees. Nowadays, Netflix offers three different plans of membership, which may be upgraded or downgraded at any time.
Basic: the lowest fee, you have unlimited movies & TV shows, and you can watch the content on any device, but HD is not available, and you can watch only one screen at a time.
Standard: you have HD available, and you can have two screens on at the same time.
Premium: the top plan offers content in Ultra HD and the possibility to watch four screens at the same time.
Airbnb
Commission from Hosts: the host can list their properties for free, and the commission varies from 3%-5% of the amount charged for the rent.
Fees from Guests: Airbnb charges up to 20% of the booking amount as transaction fees. The charge is also made with each reservation and varies according to the courses involved.
Tesla
Selling electric cars represents more than 80% of its revenue, which is estimated at more than 20 billion dollars. The other 20% of income includes automotive services and vehicle leasing, but also sales of solar energy systems and storage products about 1.5 billion.
WhatsApp business: its API allows companies to integrate their systems to contact customers through notifications and messaging.
WhatsApp Payment Service: it introduces a P2P payment option within the app. It is a feature that allows the transfer of values inside the app. In this case, the brand charges a commission for each transaction carried out, in the same way that banks do.
Future Revenue Strategies: Mark Z may use the 2 billion users’ data for Facebook ads one day.
Walmart
Product Revenues: retail sales encompass almost all of Walmart’s revenue and include products distributed under its own brand or other brands, both national and international.
Service Revenues: Financial “money orders and transfers, checking to cash, bill payments, and prepaid cards”. VUDU Movie Streaming “on-demand streaming service, by subscription, for watching movies and TV shows”. Clinical “preventive and routine health checks, which can be performed without urgent or emergency care”. Health Insurance.
Etsy
Listing Fees: Etsy charges the seller at least $0.20 for each product they list on the platform. The listing is valid for 4 months.
Commissions: Etsy charges sellers transaction fees, of 3.5% of the total amount for every sale made.
Advertisements: sellers can advertise their items or shops on the platform, charged on a CPC basis.
Subscription: Etsy Plus with some extra tools, the fee is $10 per month.
Pattern: sellers can build a personalized website to sell, but this Pattern shop is free only for the first 30 days. After that, Etsy charges $15 per month.
Payment Processing: some sellers are eligible to use Etsy Payments, which provides different methods to facilitate the purchase, such as credit/debit cards, gift cards, online wallets, and coupons. Etsy charges a fee for each kind of transaction.
Currency Conversion: when converting the sale to the seller’s chosen currency, Etsy charges a percentage of 2.5% of the entire product amount.
Advertising: more than 80% of revenue comes from Ads. there are five advertising platforms: Google Ads, Google Shopping, Google Adsense, Google AdMob, and YouTube.
Google Pixel
The smartphone brand of Google.
Youtube Premium
It is a subscription model that offers ad-free streaming content across YouTube products.
Google Cloud
It is a cloud computing service that runs on its own infrastructure, providing resources for operating apps on the Web. It’s a subscription business model, and it represented 5.5% of Google’s total revenues.
Its paid features include Premium Accounts, Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, and Sales Solutions.
Talent Solutions: LinkedIn offers a portfolio of solutions that allow employers to connect to a wide network of candidates by advertising their available jobs.
Marketing Solutions: driving advertising campaigns to LinkedIn’s audience, composed of its users. Businesses can develop sponsored content and advertisements, even though InMails, the direct messages one can send to users are connected.
Sales Solutions: these solutions are about creating a professional brand and engaging prospects through the network. The objective is to get sales insights. Through the Sales Navigator tool, one can find prospects, by using specific filters. It is a powerful way to find and reach more decision-makers.
Premium Accounts: premium career and professional accounts stand for 17% of LinkedIn’s revenue. They are paid subscriptions, allowing users to enhance their searches, get in touch with people from their personal network, and have premium information access.
The great revenue stream of Facebook is the targeted advertisement, due to the benefit that the platform offers, of allowing the advertisers to reach the target audience.
Groupon
Groupon is a multi-sided platform that stands for a middleman promoting businesses, it earns commissions on sales, from the companies they promote. It typically gets 50% of all concluded sales.
Uber Eats
Commission on orders: this is the main revenue stream, since Uber Eats usually earns a 30% commission from the restaurant’s partners, on the total cost of every order users make using its platform.
Delivery Fees: it is divided into three parts “pickup fee, delivery fee, and distance fee”. Uber Eats will take 25% of the total sum. For orders cheaper than $12, it will charge a $2 fee, the so-called “small order fee”.
Promotions: some food chains will sign special contracts to offer exclusive promotions on the App, to get more sales. These brands will pay special commissions and fees, according to the negotiation of the deal.
Surge Pricing: Uber Eats applies the same dynamic pricing algorithm that Uber does, on surge hours. This “busy fee” is calculated over demand, on the number of orders placed in the same area.
Moviepass
It profits from several revenue streams: subscription fees, advertising, user data, and sales by distributors. The greater the volume of users, the greater the volume of data for commercialization.
Snapchat
The app & features are free, but it is designed to drive user engagement and, attract advertisers for Snap Ads and Sponsored Creative Tools.
Wayfair
It makes money through DROP-SHIPPING. The company doesn’t need to own any inventory. It has a wide supply network, which will ship its products directly to the end consumer. It creates income from commissions it gets, cutting off some percentage over each sale. It also makes money from advertising. The company charges to promote products and retailers on its website.
SpaceX
It earns money by carrying out cargo-refueling missions for the space station. Moreover, it also offers crew transport services to commercial customers who want to take astronauts to alternative destinations.
Southwest Airlines
Passenger Revenue: from the sale of domestic and international passenger airfares. Freight Revenue: from shipping and cargo services. Other Revenue: from the sale of and provisions of extra services, such as early check-in and in-flight sales.
GitHub
It sells subscription plans, both to individuals and businesses. The prices vary mainly according to the number of private repositories – collaborators and public repositories are unlimited. The biggest revenue stream is the Enterprise plan – over 50% of its income. It also makes money from its marketplace and shop. The marketplace allows users to share their apps on the platform, and GitHub cuts 25% as a commission. It also offers merchandise like clothes and collectibles.
HBO
It is a subscription business model, based on three main revenue streams: HBO Cable Channel, HBO App, and HBO Max (streaming). It also involves Advertisement and merchandising.
NIKE
It is the largest footwear and apparel seller in the world, and its revenue is generated mainly from these sales. Nike also sells sports equipment and accessories, such as balls, eyewear, bags, gloves, digital devices, and more. The products subdivide into six categories: Running, Basketball, Jordan Brand, Soccer, Training, and Sportswear.
Glassdoor
It offers a wide range of solutions for helping companies to find suitable candidates for their job vacancies. The revenue streams are the following:
Job Posting: for small businesses, it applies a freemium-based strategy for posting open vacancies.
Job Advertising: the job ads aim to boost attention to specific listings, by promoting them at the top of the job feed.
Employer Branding: This refers to how a company is presented on the platform. Employers may bring a great review to the top of the feed, add photos and videos, remove competitors’ ads, and create targeted campaigns. Those features are all part of a wider premium package.
Funding: Glassdoor has also relied on substantial amounts of funding, summing up to a total of $204.5M.
PayPal
Transaction Fees: merchants who use PayPal to sell online pay a fee of 2.9% on the amount they receive for sale, plus $0.30 per transaction. Bigger amounts have their fees reduced.
International Payments: when receiving payments from different countries, PayPal charges fees that include currency conversation costs besides the internal payment fee-fees.
Business Accounts: Pro-business accounts have some special resources and services, for $30/month.
Withdrawal Fees: PayPal charges when withdrawing the amount. In the USA, the fee is 2.9% of the total, plus $0.30. Also charges a fee for each time you withdraw money with your debit card.
Interests: the money kept in PayPal is deposited in liquid investments, which provides interest as revenue.
Payflow: it is the gateway the merchant accounts can integrate into their websites. The premium option charges $25/month.
Working Capital: you can borrow up to 15% of the last 12 months of sales (up to $85,000). There are no interests and the fee is fixed.
Business In a Box: it offers some solutions in association with Xero and WooCommerce, and the company earns an affiliate commission on that.
Credit Interest: if you use credit over 6 months, the annual rate is 19.99$ interest from the posting date.
Paypal Here: it is an offline mobile app and card reader, that allows you to receive payments from any kind of card.
Other Companies: PayPal owns other companies, that add value and revenue sources to the company.
Toyota
Automotive Business: it captures 90% of revenue.
Toyota Financial Services Business: it is about 6% of the total revenue, focusing on automotive sales financing, credit cards, and others, operating in 30 countries.
Other Business: it holds a stake in other manufacturers such as Subaru/Isuzu/Mazda. It also has interests in biotechnology, robotics, aerospace, etc.
Microsoft
Productivity and Business Processes: it consists of products/services developed for productivity and information, and represents about 1/3 of total revenue. From Office suite, LinkedIn, Dynamics, and cloud-based solutions for business apps, such as ERP/CRM.
Intelligent Cloud: 1/3 of revenue consists of SQL Server, Windows Server, and Azure. Besides, there are enterprise services like Microsoft Consulting, etc.
Personal Computing: 1/3 comprises the products and services created to improve users’ experience. The main example is the licenses of Windows. Other solutions include Xbox games and consoles, advertising in Bing, and sales of devices and PCs.
Shopify
Shopify Payments: a fully integrated payment processing service, which allows entrepreneurs to accept and process credit cards online and offline.
Shopify Shipping: it offers several shipping partners to choose from. The merchant selects the partner and can print shipping labels, make returns, and track orders, all via the Shopify platform.
Shopify Capital: it provides business growth for user companies, through working capital.
Shopify POS: it’s a smartphone app that allows sales in a physical location.
Zoom
Zoom applies the freemium business model, it uses a monthly subscription system as a revenue stream.
Zoom Basic: it is a free plan, aimed at individual users. Group call within 40 minutes limit
Zoom Pro: it is aimed at small teams at $149.90/year, video calls take place among up to 100 people, with a 30-hour time limit per call. It offers personalized ID, reports, Skype integration, and cloud recordings of up to 1GB.
Zoom Business: aimed at medium-sized businesses. each license is $199.90 and starts at 10 licenses for $1,999/year. This plan has all the features of Pro, for up to 300 simultaneous participants. It has features such as phone support, personalized emails, logins, URLs, and admin panels.
Zoom Enterprise: developed for large companies, each license is $240 and starts at 50 licenses for $12,000 per year. Enables 500 participants, unlimited cloud storage, dedicated support staff, and discounts on other extra software benefits.
Zoom Business United: each license at $350 and a minimum of 10 licenses total $3,500 per year, this plan sums up Zoom Meetings and Zoom Phone.
Starbucks
By Operating Segments
Americas (US/Canada/Latin America): includes both company-operated and licensed stores, it is the biggest and most mature business segment.
CAP & EMEA: CAP stands for China & Asia Pacific, while EMEA for Europe/Middle East and Africa.
Channel Development: it includes roasted beans and ground coffee, Starbucks and Teavana single-serve products, ready-to-drink beverages, and other products sold outside the company-operated and licensed stores.
By Product Types
Beverages: it captures 60% of the total sales, especially coffee.
Food: it is the second-highest revenue source, standing for 18% of the total revenue.
Packaged and Single-Serve Coffee & Teas: this part represents 8% of the total revenue.
Others: 14% of the total revenue comes from royalty & licensing, selling beverage-related ingredients, server ware, and ready-to-drink beverages.
Stripe
It makes money by taking a percentage and a fixed fee on every payment. The revenue model is based on the following 7 sources:
Payment Processing Fee
Payment: amount 2.9% + fixed $0.30 + 1% for international cards + 1% currency conversion if needed. For instant payouts, 1% of payout volume.
Billing: for subscriptions with recurring revenues, the Starter with 0.5% of recurring charges, the Advanced with 0.8% of recurring charges.
Connect: for platforms that need infrastructure to pay the 3rd party sellers, the Custom/Express plan charges $2/monthly per active account, plus 0.25% + $0.25 per payout sent.
Terminal: in-person card processing, it cuts 2.7% plus $0.05 per charge. For international cards, 1% plus if currency conversion is required.
Invoicing: a global invoicing platform that creates and sends a Stripe-hosted invoice in minutes. The Starter plan offers 25 free invoices per month and charges 0.4% per paid invoice after that. The Plus plan, with advanced features, charges 0.5% per paid invoice.
Atlas
It is a service for customers to set up and incorporate a startup business within minutes. Stripe incorporates the business in Delaware, integrates the business with their payment infrastructures, and gives credits and discounts from web services.
Radar
It is a machine-learning app that helps businesses detect and identify fraudulent transactions, used by clients. Its algorithms mark suspicious payments and stop processing the transaction, Stripe charges $0.05 per screened transaction.
Sigma
It’s a warehousing tool used for businesses to analyze their operations & finances to help teams get insight into the ventures. It charges a monthly fixed fee according to the infrastructure needed, plus a variable fee per credit card charge, which starts at $0.02 per charge.
Issuing
It is a corporate service to create cards for businesses and their employees. Stripe charges $0.10 per virtual card and $3 per physical. The first $500K transactions are free, after that, the cost is 0.2% plus $0.2 for each transaction. For international payments, 1% + $0.30 + 1% for currency conversion.
Treasury
It is an invite-only service that allows businesses to embed financial services in their marketplaces, for their customers to hold funds, pay bills, earn interest, and manage cash flow. The fee is customized.
Premium Support
Technical support across the globe has a cost of over $1,800 per month.
Canva
Canva Pro
It is a premium subscription plan, starting at $6.50/month.
Canva Enterprise
Aimed at large businesses, starting at $20.50/month per person.
Canva Print
Canva charges the service according to the type of product, order volume, and location for delivery.
Marketplace
Canva charges a one-time fee for single usage, it takes 35% for the content on the platform. For content sold in the Pro plan, creators received 50%.
Design School
Online classes are free and the presidential ones start from $5.
DJI
Its product range includes drones, cameras, camera stabilizers, gimbals, accessories, systems, and software. Its revenue comes from all the markets in the globe, distributed as 30% from Asia, 30% from the USA, 30% from Europe and 10% from Latin America & Africa.
Instacart
Commissions
It charges a certain percentage of the price, from the product sold through Instacart’s platform.
Delivery and Service Fees
Delivery fees vary from $3.99 to $9.99. The service fees are around 5% to 10% of the purchase. Sometimes there are additional fees when an order surpasses a certain weight.
Subscription
The Instacart Express is a subscription service that ensures unlimited deliveries, cheaper service fees, and no surge pricing for an annual ($99) or monthly fee ($9.99).
Advertising
Sellers and brands can advertise on the platform, for additional visibility. The price will depend on the categories and search terms.
Alibaba
E-commerce captures almost 90% of the group’s revenue. Other means include advertising, cloud computing, membership fees, and delivery service sales. The income centers on its marketplace offerings, which connect users from around the world to Chinese businesses that sell various goods.
TikTok
Advertising: the largest source of income in social media, TK has personalized advertising for each user.
Coins: when a Tiktoker reaches 1,000 followers, it’s possible to receive gifts with TK Coins, from users in their live videos. To receive those coins, the Tiktokers have to exchange them for real money through the app – and then TK charges a commission.
E-Commerce Offers: TK is working on ways to integrate e-commerce into its platform, and TK profits a commission from each transaction.
Doordash
Fees: Delivery fee $1.99 to $4.99. Small Order Fee $2.50. Service fee around 9%~11% of the subtotal.
Commissions: Basic: 15% commission, with the highest delivery fees for the customer and limited delivery area; Plus 25% commission, with reduced delivery costs, expanded delivery area, and inclusion into the loyalty program; Premier 30% commission, with the lowest fees, the largest delivery area, loyalty program, and the warranty of 20 deliveries a month.
Subscription: a subscription service that offers unlimited deliveries with no delivery fees (orders over $15) for $9.99/month, there are more than 1.5 million subscribers nowadays.
SAAS: DoorDash Storefront is software for restaurants that want to own their personalized ordering and delivery system. Merchants pay a monthly subscription to use the platform.
Dashmart: its delivery service has over 2500 convenience stores.
Acquisitions: Caviar “food-ordering and delivery service”; IvI5: a software company that uses computer vision to provide mapping to robots and autonomous vehicles; Rickshaw: delivery network. Scott Labs: teleoperations company focuses on self-driving vehicle technology.
GoodRx
Coupons: 90% revenue stream, the coupons are codes, accepted at over 70,000 pharmacies in the US.
Subscription: users get discounts on over 1,000 prescription drugs and healthcare services. Individuals may subscribe at $5.99/month, and families of up to 5 people can subscribe for $9.99/month.
Telehealth: it offers its own medical checks and a marketplace for 3rd party medical services.
Advertising: it partners with pharmaceutical companies to advertise their solutions on the platform while offering discounts to users. The company usually charges a fee in exchange for exposure during an agreed period.
Amway
Registration Fee: Amway sellers are called Business Owners, anyone who wishes to become an owner must pay a registration fee to start. The fee varies according to the country that which it is held.
Sales: it manufactures more than 450 products and the majority of its revenue comes from the sales of these products, through multi-level marketing. The owners make money in three ways: Selling products directly to customers, Getting bonuses if the sales volume is high, and Incentives when the business grows.
Nutrition and wellness products are responsible for 52% of total sales, and beauty and personal care products are responsible for 26% of total sales. Nutrilite, Artistry, Spring, and XS are some of the top-performing brands of Amway.
Affirm
It’s a pioneer in point-of-sale loans (POS), through a chain of partners that agree to allow their clients to choose the payment method. The company revenues come from two opposite ends: Interest on each loan from each customer and the cost of the processing transaction between merchant and customer.
Affirm charges an average of 18% of the interest in every transaction, it is based on the customer score and their monthly income. People with a good financial background are likely to pay less interest.
WeWork
All Access: it is the cheapest membership, the favorite by most freelancers and solo workers.
Dedicated Desks: it is a nice alternative for those who want a more stable option, but still don’t need a private space.
Standard Offices: this is best for small teams or solo workers who require privacy, up to 20 people.
Office Suite: it is suitable for as many as 100 people, it is indicated for larger businesses that do not need/want to buy their own spaces.
Full-Floor Office: it offers the highest level of exclusivity and privacy with the client’s own branded entry, conference rooms, and executive office, for over 100 workers.
Robinhood
Rebates from market makers and trading venues: when users buy/sell stocks/ETFs, Robinhood sends the order to market makers/exchanges. Market makers offer rebates to brokerages while ensuring better prices for users.
Robinhood Gold: the user pays $5/month to access Morningstar reports, NASDAQ data, bigger instant deposits, and margin investing. If the customer uses more than 1K margin, they will pay 2.5% yearly interest on the settled margin amount above 1K USD.
Stock Loan: Robinhood earns money from lending margin securities to counterparties.
Income from Cash: Robinhood earns income on uninvested cash that isn’t swept to the Cash Management network of program banks, by depositing the cash in interest-bearing bank accounts.
Cash Management: it offers a debit card in connection with a brokerage account provided through its company, a member of SIPC & FINRA.
OpenSea
It offers the infrastructure of its platform free of charge, the business model dictates that they take a percentage of the transaction fee as a service see.
Service Fees/Minting Fee: OpenSea takes a 2.5% service fee for every transaction.
Registration Fees: to initialize a user’s account, OpenSea charges a one-time fee of $70-$300, and $10-$30 to gain access to a user’s NFTs.
Contract Approval Fees: users that use OpenSea’s custom NFTs contract pay a one-time approval fee for authorizing transactions.
Palantir
It is designed to work together with governmental agencies, through a public funding process. Now it has become dependent on private sources, the public investment is a big part of the firm’s income.
McDonald
Developmental License: the franchisee invests their capital in setting up their restaurant, which includes operational and real estate costs. McDonald’s supplies the products and receives a percentage as a royalty from the sale. The company also charges a predetermined amount for every franchise that wants its license.
Conventional Franchising: this is the most effective structure in McDonld’s business model. The company either obtains a long-term lease/owns the land where the restaurant is built, while the franchisee pays a minimum rent for 20 years and ongoing royalty to the company. The franchisee also pays for the signs and interior decor of the restaurant, while getting innovative and operational help from their parent company. It ensures a stable & predictable revenue stream while maintaining profitability amidst low operational costs.
Affiliates: This structure receives the lowest investment from the company and accounts for equity investments. Mostly used in China & Japan, where companies pay a percentage of sales as royalty for M’s products, including hamburgers, fries, drinks, coffees, and desserts.
Company-Operated Restaurants: M has a lot of restaurants that they own and operate, hiring employees and ordering supplies by themselves.
McDonald’s most profitable business model structure, the conventional franchising, allows them to keep up to 82% of revenue generated by their franchises. The company-operated restaurants only keep about 16% of their revenue. This success in the market has resulted in the term “McDonaldization”.
YouTube
Advertising: it is the primary source of income, in 2021, it generated $21B from advertising.
YouTube Premium: the membership allows users to watch videos without ads, download, and have exclusive access to content from creators. This service is $11.99/month.
Super Chat: YouTube offers users the chance to pay to have their message highlighted in the chat stream during a live broadcast. It allows fans to directly support their favorite creators, the prices start at $0.99 and can go up to $000 per message.
Channel Memberships: it offers fans a way to support their favorite creators, from $0.99 to $49.99 per month. YouTube users can access exclusive content, create customized emojis, receive live chat badges, etc.
YouTube Merchandise: some creators sell branded merchandise to their fans to generate revenue.
Peloton
Sales of Exercise Equipment: this is the most prominent revenue stream, high and mid-range indoor equipment like stationary bikes, treadmills, dumbbells, and so on.
Sales of Fitness Apparel & Accessories: fitness wear, gym bags, yoga mats, towels, water bottles, cycling shoes, biomonitoring devices, and so on.
Monthly Subscription: instructor-based fitness classes offer thousands of classes by fitness instructors, all of which can be assessed after paying a monthly subscription fee of $39/month.
Zillow
Homes: its bulk income through sales of homes Zillow Offers, the company bought properties and sold them quickly. Z’s almost instant cash offer was a massive temptation to sellers.
Mortgages: in 2018, Z became an authorized lender by purchasing Mortgage Lenders of America. Zillow reengineered the money lending instruments in its characteristic manner and came up with Zillow Home Loans. The facility allows borrowers to secure a new loan or refinance their loans.
Internet Media & Tech (IMT): IMT is the core of Zillow’s business model and is also part of the forces the company uses to bring in money. Zillow started in 2006 with ready-to-use software and marketing services made available to real estate professionals and homeowners.
Apple
Apple makes money by designing, manufacturing, and selling smartphones, tablets, personal computers, wearables, and accessories. The products include iPhones, Macbooks, iPads, iWatch, AirPods, and TV.
They also generate revenue by offering subscription services like iCloud, TV subscriptions, Arcade, and iTunes. It recently announced its plans to start hardware subscription services for its products.
Furthermore, making money when the users of its products pay fees for the extension of warranties. In addition to the products, they also sell compatible 3rd party accessories and apps.
As a passive revenue, it makes money through in-app purchases on through App Store, they take a 30% cut from every transaction.
The largest profitable revenue is the sales of the products, however, their subscription services generate the highest gross margins in comparison to product sales.
Disney
Its income has 5 business segments: Media Networks, Parks & Resorts, Studio Entertainment, Customer Products, and Interactive.
Interactive: it covers Disney’s online games and entertainment., from production and distribution of multi-platform games, licensing of game content, and the creation of branded online services.
Consumer Products: this segment generates revenue through the sale of consumer products – toys books, shirts, games, and more, and licensing of characters from Disney films to 3rd parties.
Studio Entertainment: this is where the Walt Disney Studios belong, which comprises: Disney, Walt Disney Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, and Searchlight Pictures. It generates revenue through the distribution of films to theaters, homes, and TV markets globally, distribution of recorded music, stage play tickets, and licensing from live events.
Parks and Resorts: it includes Disney Theme Parks, Resort Hotels, Water Parks, Dining, Conference Centers, and other recreational facilities. This segment runs the Disney Cruise lines and vacation club. The revenue is generated through admission fees to theme parks, payments for cruise vacations, sales of food and merchandise, and fees for hotel rooms.
Media Networks: this segment accounts for Disney’s various cable networks such as ESPN & ABC Family, and Disney Channels. Revenues within the media network segment are generated through advertising fees, affiliate fees charged to various media services, and the sale & distribution of TV programming.
Coinbase
Coinbase makes most of its money from transaction fees for services on its platform., which make up 90% of its revenue.
Cryptocurrency to fiat conversion: users who want to convert cryptocurrency to fiat are charged a margin or spread of up to 2% per transaction.
Transaction fees: Coinbase collects transaction fees from users for deposits, purchases, or crypto sales on the platform.
Buy and sell transactions: it charges a spread or margin on all, transactions such as buying & selling.
Debit card transaction fees: Coinbase debit card with a 2.49% transaction fee for purchase.
Selling digital assets: it also generates revenue from selling its own crypto assets.
Redfin
It makes money from listing fees charged on homes through its platform. Additionally, the company purchases properties through its instant buyer program (Redfin Now) and sells them for a profit. They also make money by referring clients to their affiliates or partners. Here is a breakdown:
Real Estate Brokerage: the company charges a 1%-1.5% listing fee for buying and selling on its platform. Redfin makes the majority of its revenue through these commissions.
Redfin Instant Buyer Program (Redfin Now): the company makes money from selling homes, which is the 2nd largest stream. R purchases properties from homeowners and sells them for a profit.
Partner Fees: R sends client referrals to its partners in exchange for a referral fee.
Square
Service Fees: the platform charges a service/transaction fee on many of the services offered by its subsidiaries. Its standard processing fee is 2.6% + $0.10 for contactless payments.
Subscription Fees: several Square subsidiaries & packages offer monthly subscription fees as well.
Hardware Sales Revenue: the company sells a line of hardware products like Stand, Card readers for NFC and EMV chip cards, Barcode Scanners, Receipt Printers, and Cash Drawers. It uses a blade & razor approach to sell a lot of things.
Issuing MCAS to other businesses: Merchant Cash Advances (MCAs) are a form of non-traditional loans which offer a guarantee on the “sale of future income”. In exchange for giving small businesses loans upfront, Square recoups a portion of this debt directly from digital payments made to the business.
Software and Data Product Revenue: S gains revenue through the sale of its various software and data tracking products, such as inventory software, data analytic programs, payroll, or POS software.
STEAM
Commission: Steam’s most revenue from the commission is charged on every game sold on its platform.
Hardware Sales: Valve released its own gaming hardware to strengthen the position of Steam, it rivals other big players in the industry.
Developer Fees: Steam offers a bundle of tools and services, a “greenlight fee” is charged before users can access those tools and services.
Licensing Fees: it is charged for establishing a Steam PC Cafe, which offers visitors the same experience at home. One-time installation fee $29.99 & monthly subscription fee $9.99/license.
Home Depot
Product Sales: HD generates massive revenue from the sales of a wide range of building materials, decorative products, home improvement goods, garden and lawn products, etc. to DIY customers, Do-It-For-me customers, and professionals.
Professional Service Providers: HD offers professional services to its customers through its vast network of professional contractors/tradesmen/remodelers/small business owners who assist its customers. HD receives a commission from these service providers for the job they do.
Credit Facility: HD offers a buy now, pay later scheme through 3rd party providers for consumers and businesses. HD earns revenue from charges for these credit services.
Opendoor
It is a good example of “spending money to make money”, it buys and sells properties for a profit, charges a seller fee, and offers related services to make home selling and purchasing easier – home loan program, title, insurance, and escrow.
Service Fees: it charges a 5% commission fee for every home they buy.
Add-On Services (Mortgage/Title): its most recent revenue plan is to bring the title/mortgage, and escrow services in-house. Their title services have produced excellent outcomes. They also generate money by charging interest on the loans.
Home Sales: the company makes money from reselling bought houses for a profit, with the assistance of their algorithm, they’re able to make accurate deductions for sales & purchase prices.
IKEA
Franchise Fees: IKEA franchisees pay IKEA an annual fee of 3% of their net sales.
Sale of Goods: IKEA franchisees must purchase their store’s inventory from the company’s product supplier. The wholesale of IKEA products to franchisees generated $25B in revenue in 2021.
Sale of Catalogs & Other Materials: it is created for IKEA franchisees and is marked under what the company refers to as “other income”. It makes up the least percentage of the company’s income.
CROCS
Crocs makes money by selling its products: retailers buy products wholesale and resell them to end users, and distributors buy products from manufacturers and resell them to retailers.
Retail Sales: when Crocs sells direct to retailers, they a 5%-15% commission fee to those retailers.
Wholesale Distribution: Crocs works with wholesalers to distribute their product, when they do this, they receive a percentage of the sale price.
Sephora
Retail Sales: Sephora earns the majority of its profit from retailing. Its strategy is that it buys products wholesale directly from brands for about 50%-65% less than the retail price, then sells the product at the same price said brand sells it, keeping costs the same while earning.
Sale of Brand Products: Sephora carries its own home brand “Sephora Collection”, which is famous for offering a variety of beauty products at affordable prices for loyal customers.
Warby Parker
Regular Glasses: it sells both male & female eyeglasses at an average price of $95. There are about 89 and 101 different styles of glasses for men and women, respectively.
Prescription Sunglasses: They go for about $150, the polarized version of the prescription lenses, which has 39 & 50 styles for men & women, the average price of $275.
Colonel Monocle: it also includes prescription lenses, which are unisex goes for $50.
Accessories and Value-Added Services: it sells frames and replacement lenses, and delivers orders to homes. It doesn’t charge for shipping, but if clients want to accelerate, they need to pay $30.
Olympics
Broadcast Rights: it sells the broadcast rights to broadcasters around the world to ensure the widest coverage of the Games.
Program Marketing Rights: the Olympic Partner (TOP) program is a global sponsorship to generate revenue for the Olympic Games organizers and the Olympic Movement. 30% of revenue is from here.
Other Income Streams: the sale of tickets and licensed products, as well as donations, fees from vendors, and money from private sources, make up the remaining portion of the revenue.
Dollar General
Stores in Rural Areas: its target customers come from households earning < $40K/year and often live in areas known as “food deserts”, it aims for homes located miles away from grocery stores. The plan was to go the places where Walmart didn’t go. Their stores are less expensive to operate.
Straightforward Shopping Experience: Dollar General does NOT own the stores, which keeps real estate costs low. And it’s easier for the company to relocate stores if things aren’t doing well. It is 1/10 the size of Walmart and has a simple design with metal shelves/strip lighting/low-cost signs. The shopping experience is generally straightforward.
Limited Products: it concentrates on the most popular ones, each of the stores has between 10K & 12K different products compared with 60K in Walmart. It has more negotiating power with suppliers.
Low Labor Costs: DG keeps staffing simple, the emphasis is on getting a good price, which frequently means that customers are willing to give up services. Besides, they boast the lowest store manager turnover rate, which is costly to the company.
Private-Label Goods: DG produces some of the goods they sell, with over 40 brands. Those items have bigger margins than national brands.
Limited Fresh Produce: they currently have fresh vegetables in 300 of their locations.
Packages Items in Small Quantities: DG sells goods in small quantities instead of in bulk to keep the cost of each transaction low. While the costs remain below $10, it may look like you’re getting a better deal, but you are probably spending more per ounce per item.
Low Costs In the Supply Chain: it is always trying to minimize expenses in the supply chain. They aim to grow their own private fleet to regulate delivery times and guarantee that routes are more optimal so that vehicles do not waste time on transportation networks.
Honey
Affiliate Commission: Honey earns commissions from its merchant partners, such as eBay.
Chick-Fil-A
15% of the total sales from the franchisees and 50% from all their franchisees, the returns are one of the highest in the food chain industry, and there is a reason why it is so.
Costco
Merchandise Sales Volume: more than 90% of the company’s income stems from the sale of in-store SKUs. By keeping and selling only 3700 units in the warehouse at any given point. Costco has been able to generate more than $150 billion in annual income.
Membership Fees: You need to pay member fees before you can buy things from their stores, the member fee varies since the company operates a tier system. It has 114 million members, and the fees account for more than 2% of the company’s annual income.
E-Commerce Offers & Sales: the stores have the benefit of helping Costco members save money without having to enter the company’s brick-and-mortar warehouses.
Auto Sales Program: by partnering with more than 3K dealerships, its members can purchase new/used cars through this program. Since Costco can get the automobiles at discounted prices & perks as well.
Home & Installation Programs: the company gets a ready stream of revenue by offering its members numerous home and installation like countertops, HVAC, carpet and flooring, etc.
Klarna
Merchant Commissions: every merchant that a consumer uses on this platform is expected to pay both a flat transaction fee, as well as a percentage of the total sale cost.
In-Store Klarna Card Transactions: it generates income through a virtual card that it makes available to shoppers. The card can be used to make in-store purchases in certain brick-and-mortar retail stores affiliated with Klarna. The main source here is late payments from defaulting consumers.
Interest Rates: consumers who use financing from Klarna are the major source of revenue for the company. When financing from Klarna is used to make more expensive purchases, it allows the fintech company to charge considerably higher interest rates.
Late Payment Charges: The 30-day option and the 4-installment payment option are both interest-free initially, consumers who aren’t able to meet up with their payments when due are liable to pay late payment fees. The late fees are charged on 2 levels.
OnlyFans
Commission Fee: it doesn’t bill the subscribers, but the content creators. The platform charges content creators a 20$ commission on every transaction on the platform, in exchange for providing them with a paywall service for their content.
Official E-Commerce Store: it also offers a range of official merchandise through its e-commerce platform. This includes clothing, accessories, etc.
Spotify
Advertisements: advertisers on Spotify are brands/agencies/institutions that pay Spotify to showcase their products and services to the app’s audience. This way, Spotify generates revenue by showing paid ads to its free users in exchange for the services offered.
Premium Subscription: this is the biggest source of revenue for Spotify. While services can be accessed freely, users need to pay a monthly subscription fee to unlock all the features of the in-app music streaming services.
ALDI
Private Brand Margins: using private brand margins to drive profit isn’t new. Aldi is the largest retailer that’s most dependent on this tactic. It is responsible for 90% of Aldi’s total revenue.
Customer-Catered Employee Costs: it makes a minimal portion of its revenue by making its consumers finance certain aspects of its operating costs.
Carvana
Used Car Retail Sales: the revenue generated from retail car sales consists of Carvana’s primary source of revenue. In 2021, Carvana made $9.9B from retail car sales, accounting for 77% of total revenue.
Wholesale Car Sales: it sells wholesale to traditional auto dealers, which is 2nd largest source of revenue. It carries out a thorough inspection of all vehicles before being put up for sale.
Financing: Carvana offers three different payment options to its customers. The first option is to pay with cash, 2nd option is Carvan’s auto loans, and 3rd option is 3rd party loan.
Vehicle Service Protection: Carvana offers various vehicle service protection contracts (VSC), which cover almost all the damages that are not covered by the limited warranty.
Insurance: it is a requirement to drive in every state in the USA. Carvana helps to simplify the process of getting insurance for its customers.
XERO
Subscription Fees: users pay a subscription fee in exchange for access to their cloud-computing software and services. It involves a 3-tier pricing plan, depending on the size of your business and the extent of the services you require. From $22 basic, $34 Growing, and $65 Established package.
It also offers a range of other services:
Planday: a scheduling software.
WorkflowMax: a project management service.
Hubdoc: a data capture service that allows users to import their important documents.
TaxCycle: a tax preparation software for professionals.
Waddle: a financial service that provides flexible financial services to help SMEs manage cash flow.
TickStar: e-invoicing system which allows you to exchange business documents globally.
Zara
Retail Sales: it sells over 450M products per year, and a significant portion of these seals come from its retail stores. The company has thousands of retail outlets in nearly 100 countries.
Online Sales: it makes a significant contribution to the total sales volume of Zara.
Turo
Commission from Rental Fees: Turo is a significant part of the sharing and tourism community and allows vehicle owners to rent out their cars to interested renters for a fixed period using their platform. For the service, Turo takes 15%-45% of the cost, it is usually 25%.
Zelle
ZERO Revenue from Transactions: it does not charge the users or the banks that operate with it. However, it is suspected that the participating banks pay the platform a base fee for maintenance.
Commission from Purchase made using Zelle Business Accounts: in 2018, Zelle introduced a new function called the Zelle business account. It allows businesses to receive payments directly from their customers and charges the business a 1% processing fee for the service.
Advertising Services: it has over 200 million active monthly users around the world. The large user base attracts brands & businesses who want to showcase their goods and services to people around the world.
Data Licensing Services: it involves a legal agreement between the creator/owner of the data and the end-user/3rd party to gain access to or use some kind of data. Twitter sells data licenses that allow its partners to access/search/analyze real-time and historical data on its platform. It is the 2nd major revenue and accounted for about 14% of the total.
Subscription Service: Twitter Blue is a monthly subscription service that offers exclusive access to premium features, which is available in 4 countries – US/Canada/Australia/New Zealand.
Discord
Premium Model Subscription Fees: Classic costs $4.99/month, Nitro costs $9.99/month. With faster load time, larger upload limit, HD video, a greater degree of avatars and emoji, etc.
Discord Store: it allows the game developers to market their games on the platform, in exchange for a 10% commission known as the distribution fee.
Discord Merchandise Store: it operates an e-commerce platform where it sells a wide range of merchandise including clothing, gaming goods, collectibles, keyboards, and other accessories.
In-App Purchases: the core functions are free, but users can choose to purchase additional features such as emojis and stickers.
Ticket Sales for Virtual Events: the platform is testing to sell virtual tickets to live events that are hosted by server moderators in various concentrators on the platform.
Funds & Investments: income from various rounds of funding which raised a total of $995M in 2022.