A collection of interesting stuff #2

8 min readJun 24, 2021

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As social media becomes an increasingly toxic space, social companies are giving their users more control.

There has been an influx of new social media platforms recently, including Poparazzi, NewNew and BeReal. These fresh platforms are rebelling against the perfectly curated and edited, ‘me me me’ version of social media that we’ve experienced for a while. They focus more on showing real lives that are made up of many imperfect moments, and real creativity. Amidst the rise of these platforms, Pinterest (known for being a positive space) has committed to continue to drive positive inspiration and inclusivity in the social sphere by announcing their Creator Code guidelines. Additionally, Instagram, who has been testing hiding counts on Instagram for a while, have announced that both Facebook and Instagram will provide users the option to hide likes — which we really admire them for doing.

OK, and? For teens and young adults who are still finding their place in the world, research shows that the constant use of social media is linked to increased rates of anxiety, depression and poor sleep among young adults. And this gets worse when the photographs people are exposed to are often unrealistic (a highlight reel of someone’s best moments — or digitally manipulated/airbrushed).

Whether or not these new platforms thrive or die, one thing’s for sure. We are seeing a shift in the social space, especially as Gen-Z move away from inauthentic influencer culture and towards raw creativity and idols with genuine influence and value.

This reality is something that social platforms are not only realising but taking action against. It’s a positive move for social media. We hope it continues. This behaviour represents a gradual shift from feeling good (satisfaction) to doing good (substance).

01 The rise of the creator economy

Amid this shift in social media there is also a huge shift towards the creator economy. The last few years creators have been driving business for both social platforms and brands — and it seems social platforms are really beginning to realise the potential of their creators.

Snapchat launched Creator Marketplace, for businesses to partner with creators on advertising campaigns and brand activations, Pinterest announced its first ever Creator Fund, Instagram launched its Creator Week and Twitter launched Tip Jar and Super Follows.

Ok, and? In the 2010s, influencer marketing became a huge opportunity for businesses to increase brand awareness and find new ways of marketing their products, but what we’re seeing now is an increase in influencer fatigue and a move away from inauthentic ways of promoting brands and products.

With the rise of platforms like TikTok, and social media companies providing their users with more and more tools to create engaging content, creators are leveraging their already engaged fan-base to build their own brand. In addition to this, social media platforms are being forced to react to the rise in direct-to-fans platforms like OnlyFans and Patreon, which are democratising content creation and allowing creators to collaborate directly with their audience.

Social platforms are trying to ensure there is a symbiotic relationship between platform and creators, and are consciously trying to compete with the rise of new players and the surge in democratised content.

02 Warner Music Group is partnering with Genies to create avatars for its artists.

Warner has partnered with Genies to develop avatars and digital wearable NFTs for Warner Music Group artists. Genies has previously built avatars for the likes of Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes and Rihanna and they’ve recently launched their digital wearables, for example clothing, tattoos and accessories.

The plan is for these virtual avatars to play across platforms in the metaverse, and their next project is with Migos, with ‘Culture III’-inspired digital avatars and wearables.

OK and? We spoke about NFTs in last month’s issue, questioning just how long the hype around them will last. Our prediction was and still is that they will only last as long as brands allow people to do things with them in the metaverse, or somehow create/build their own. This is exactly what Warner is doing by partnering with Genie and it will be exciting to see what they do moving forward (but in our opinion it’s going to be hard to up Travis Scott in Fortnite).

03 Spotify’s data offering — why it’s winning.

Recently I got an in-app pop up from Spotify saying: “only you would listen to Britney Spears and Black Sabbath”. It didn’t annoy me. I didn’t swipe it away. It made me laugh. After some scrolling I realised it was Spotify’s new campaign ‘Only You’. NME dubbed the campaign as ‘an over-enthusiastic new boyfriend who’s too keen to impress’ — I don’t agree.

We all look forward to our end of year wrap-up where Spotify presents us with our top artists of the year and highly personalised playlists based on our listening data, and it seems they didn’t want to make us wait. ‘Only you’ tells you your bizarre pairings, your audio birth chart (like astrology lovers need more encouragement) and creates playlists for your dream dinner party (Louis Theroux, Bimini Bon Boulash and David Bowie BTW).

Ok, and? Spotify is a perfect example of a brand enhancing the customer experience and providing a value exchange. They collect your data but use it to create meaningful conversations, provide valuable insight and suggest personalised recommendations.

Spotify understands what business it is really in. It’s not just music — it’s discovery. Music is so tied to emotion and identity and people’s identities are multifaceted and ever changing. It’s no surprise that as we are increasingly exposed to so many micro-cultures, genres are blending and people’s tastes are more complex than ever. People have varying and unexpected preferences, and Spotify (supporting the user on their journey of discovery music and self), provides a meaningful service.

Moral of the story? Data shouldn’t only serve you, it should also serve your consumer. There needs to be a value exchange and brands need to work out how they can use data for the consumers’ benefit. On top of this, brands should work out what business they are really in — what is the service you provide above your product?

04 Etsy buys second-hand clothing app Depop to tap into gen Z

If you’ve been online at all recently, you’ll have seen that Etsy is buying Depop, the British secondhand fashion resale app, for $1.6bn (£1.1bn).

The company states it was in order to tap into one of the fastest growing trends — sustainability and reselling clothes online. Etsy has been seeking to expand its influence among a younger generation for a while, as its users’ average age is 39 — whereas more than 90% of Depop’s 30 million users are under the age of 26.

Ok and? Sustainability isn’t just a trend, it’s not going away. Through Etsy buying Depop they now have access to a huge user base (Gen Z- Gen Y). And it means they own a huge stake in the second-hand market place (as Etsy focuses more on craft and handmade items, whereas Depop focuses mostly on re-selling second-hand clothes). It will be interesting to see how they use the data of both businesses and whether Etsy follows in Facebook’s footsteps (with Facebook and Instagram) by keeping both companies separate.

05 Bitcoin will soon be an official currency in El Salvador

El Salvador President, Nayib Bukele, plans to introduce legislation that will make it the world’s first sovereign nation to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. It seems in some cases emerging countries are adopting new technologies faster than more advanced countries, as these new technologies offer them opportunities to improve the lives of their citizens. Given their positions economically and the quality of life experienced in these countries, they are more experimental and open to testing new innovations.

Ok and? These markets and their choices are important to pay attention to as their choices represent how the future will be shaped. They have the same mindset, agility and appetite for opportunity as startups and therefore are fertile ground for inspiration of the future.

El Salvador accepting bitcoin is one step in this direction and represents the fast momentum that these nations are gaining. Crypto is just one aspect of this type of shift, look to Prospera in Honduras as one of the world’s first private cities, and Seasteading as the formation of new nations in ungoverned space.

However with the China cracking down on crypto-currencies, it will be interesting to see what impact this has. If leading economies are starting to retract usage, its overall value may plummet.

06 The one developer who publicly agreed to try Facebook’s VR ads has stepped back

Facebook is building a bit of a VR empire, with its recent acquisitions of two gaming studios: Unit 2 Games (basically Roblox for VR) and Big Box VR (like Fortnite for VR). The company just announced that it will test VR ads with the objective of making its VR headset, Oculus, “a self-sustaining platform” where developers can earn revenue.

The first test of this was supposed to be in Blaston, a combat game, before rolling out to other games and apps in following weeks — but the project has received major backlash.

Blaston ditched the plan this week following a series of complaints from users. “After listening to player feedback, we realize that Blaston isn’t the best fit for this type of advertising test. Therefore, we no longer plan to implement the test,” Blaston said on Twitter.

A review from a gamer stated “Ads in a game I paid for? hell no, blaston is getting uninstalled for ever and I’m not gonna buy a single game [from] this company from now on,” wrote one reviewer.

OK, and? This poses the question, do we need ads in everything? There are so many platforms already for brands to get their messages across to consumers, both digital and physical. Brands need to think about how they can be creating experiences for their consumers and having meaningful conversations with them –not interrupting them and spamming them. VR is such an experiential moment, where users are being brought in to a virtual world. It’s still fresh, exciting and new. It’s an escape from reality.

The lesson from this is to talk to your consumer, and see what they want.

It will be interesting to see if Facebook listen to gamers concerns and feedback or if they try to implement this into another game.