Hey Snackers,
What says Patagonia bro more than a quarter-zip sweater? Patagonia’s new organic wines. Notes of apple and quince is the new lightweight fleece.
Stocks slipped from record highs today, even after Coke and McDonald’s posted strong earnings due to higher prices. Shares of GM, Visa, and Twitter all sank on concerns over slowing growth.
Just preordered Adele on vinyl… From new album launches to pod subscriptions, Spotify wants to be the hub for creators. It unveiled two creator tools last week, partnering with Shopify to let musicians add merch to their profiles and announcing plans to expand video podcasting. The deets:
There’s an app for that... Spotify gives artists ways to profit from their music. But there’s no central hub for creators to monetize their entire brand: Many artists use Shopify to sell merch, Substack to launch newsletters, and Patreon to fundraise. So Spotify is investing in new features to be a one-stop-shop where artists drop new music, sell merch, and engage with fans.
Spotify wants to be the public square for creators… With the creator economy valued at $100B+, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Snap are building tools to attract exclusive content. The company that ultimately wins over creators may be the one with the best tools and biggest user base. Spotify has 165M paying listeners — more than Apple and Amazon combined. Now it’s focused on giving creators more ways to get paid.
Ask app not to track? Facebook missed quarterly sales expectations as ad-revenue growth slowed big-time from the previous quarter (33% growth vs. 56%). FB blamed Apple’s iOS update, which lets users opt out of ad tracking — and warned it could continue hurting sales. BTW: Snap blamed its earnings miss on the iOS change too. (Twitter didn’t feel a hit.) But the real highlight of FB’s results was the metaverse.
BRB, I’m inside the internet… FB is doubling down on its vision of an immersive digital future. FB wants to be a metaverse company — not a social company (it’s even planning a meta-focused name change). Instead of engaging with just a screen, the metaverse is an internet you can be inside of. Think: going to a VR concert with friends' avatars, shopping at VR stores, working in a virtual office, and even owning VR real estate. Facebook’s meta moves:
FB’s rebrand is about self-reliance… FB expects its investment in the metaverse to reduce its total operating profit by a whopping $10B this year. But that could be worth it if it means Facebook won’t have to be as dependent on other companies to make $$$. Ad sales currently make up 97% of FB’s total — and rely on your scrolling on Apple and Google phones. But the metaverse could be a hub for virtual interaction and commerce, from games and ticket sales to hangouts, all powered by Facebook.
Authors of this Snacks own shares of: GM, Google, Spotify, Snap, Shopify, and Amazon
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