*By Alex Heath*
VSCO is a rocket ship.
The popular photo-editing app has already hit 2 million paid subscribers after crossing the 1 million subscribers threshold in the first quarter of 2018, the company announced on Thursday.
“It’s really a testament to how consumer-driven we are,” VSCO CEO Joel Flory told Cheddar at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Portugal. “VSCO has always been about the creator.”
The VSCO X subscription costs $20 per year and features tutorials on photography and other creative functions. Before pivoting to subscriptions, VSCO offered its high-quality, film-camera-like filters as in-app purchases. The subscription was just made available in the first quarter of last year, making it one of the fastest growing consumer subscription services of all time, according to Flory.
75 percent of VSCO’s user base is under the age of 25, and 80 percent of users live outside of the United States. The subscription model only started to make sense recently, after Apple ($APPL) and Google’s ($GOOGL) Android have rolled out software tools for their app stores that have made it easier for an app like VSCO to scale its business, Flory said.
VSCO has raised $70 million from investors like Accel since its 2014 inception, and now the business is operating at break-even, according to Flory. But the road to getting there hasn't been exactly smooth. In January 2017, VSCO abruptly [closed its New York City office](https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/11/vsco-shuts-down-its-new-york-office/) and laid off some employees.
VSCO now employs about 130 people, CEO Flory told Cheddar. And earlier this year, the company hired its first Chief Marketing Officer in Tesa Aragones, a former brand director at Nike. Allison Swope, an ex-product manager from Facebook's Growth team, also joined as Vice President of Product.
To capitalize on its recent growth, Oakland, California-based VSCO is also looking to make custom apps for specific phone-makers, as evidenced by its [recent partnership](https://www.zdnet.com/article/samsung-partners-with-vsco-to-help-enhance-the-creativity-of-your-galaxy-photos/) with Samsung. And in terms of how big its subscription can get, Flory said the company is eyeing every smartphone user who values having a quality camera.
“If you’re spending a couple hundred dollars on a phone, $20 to be more creative and take better photos? We see that as an opportunity."
For the full video interview with VSCO CEO Joel Flory, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/inside-vscos-growth-strategy).
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
At the core of the ongoing government shutdown is a fight over the decision to end subsidies that let some 12 million Americans get health coverage.
Tesla, the car company run by Elon Musk, reported Wednesday that it sold more vehicles in the past three months after boycotts hit hard earlier this year, but profits still fell sharply. Third-quarter earnings fell to $1.4 billion, from $2.2 billion a year earlier. Excluding charges, per share profit of 50 cents came in below analysts' estimate. Tesla shares fell 3.5% in after-hours trading. Musk said the company's robotaxi service, which is available in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, will roll out to as many as 10 other metro areas by the end of the year.
