A 99% Elon free Substack*
Hello and welcome to #4.
Can you believe it’s May soon? Like next week. It’s slightly scary how fast the year has gone for me, yes I know that’s a boomer kinda line, but it’s true. Time feels different post COVID, maybe I’ve watched too much Russian Doll (Netflix), but that’s another story. I’ve found 2022 quite positive from a personal perspective, I got COVID last year and was burnt out, in the post-COVID recovery I read and decided to work on my mindset and being organised to hit 2022 differently. It’s helped and I’ve written about that here and here in practice. I also found this podcast really affirming. Yes, I am putting cynicism aside in 2022, come join me.
*So. I wrote most of this Substak as an Elon free Substack, but then it snowballed, so feels silly not to put some analysis on it. I’ve said I’m not going to write about Elon three weeks in a row, so this week I can confirm, I will be writing about him next week.
Now, on to the #content.
0. Elon.
So. An Elon preface. I didn’t think he’d go through with it, but it seems he has. This whole Substack could have been on Twitter and Elon but that would be boring. Twitter *is* important in public discourse (I know, I know) whether you like it or not. The business numbers aren’t amazing but it’s culturally relevant, that’s why it’s worth $44b.
The situation is complex, with lots of speculation and people are going a bit OTT at both ends of the argument. My view? Who the hell knows. He could ship a lot of product innovation, but can he unlock revenue? (does he need/want to?) Will he drive more engagement, views and purchases for businesses (does he want to?), improve abuse and get rid of bots? (he says he wants to). One thing is true, being beholden only to one person rather than the markets may be positive for innovation and product. It sounds like it will close in 6 months (if it does). One thing is for sure, he has had a lot winners previously but he’s really leveraged himself on Twitter, why?
Here are some links I think are good 👇🏼😬
🔗 I liked this analysis. It’s long and I think probably the most comprehensive you’ll find anywhere 👇🏼
🔗 I think this is important too. 👇🏼
🔗 And this is worth a read. 👇🏼
And a thread. For lolz, if you know, you know and if you don’t read the comments.
And that marks the end of this week’s episode of Selling Twitter, the new Reality Show from Elon Productions.
1. 🔗 Is Mr Beast for real?
Mr Beast is a really, really big deal. I think this is the biggest piece on him I’ve read and it is a *very* long piece on him. It doesn’t hold any punches either.
One thing I hadn’t noticed but seems obvious now is that there is a consistent content theme in his videos, money. Be that giving it away randomly or donating it. It’s something the article mentions that I hadn’t linked together properly before but once you see it, you can’t unsee. See quote pullout below 👇
“But in truth, the main character of MrBeast’s channel is not actually MrBeast himself. It is cold, hard cash. Money — piles, sheaves, gobs of it”
Another interesting pullout is the mention of toxic work practices, something he denies.
“I’ve literally worked with over a thousand people. Two people thought I was pretty demanding, which was perfectly fine,” he says. “We have high standards, but it’s not a toxic work environment.”
The portrait is long and interesting, that a creator has so much sway at such a young age isn’t new - think of entertainers or musicians. In that context, the whole sector makes sense. The difference now is we have so much more visible and hidden data. Aside from him, the Creator and Influencer space is becoming more professional, more mature, more data-driven and it is delivering, when done right.
2. Weird internet.
On the weekend, a slightly random tweet started to get momentum on UK Twitter. It’s been made private now but it was innocuous and funny if not slightly random. It had 4m views last I saw. Here is a rip of it. ignore the numbers, the original blew up so much that the person prob got sick of the retweets and replies.
It then snowballed and led to the key indicator of successful virality - original content being ripped and remixed (Hi, TikTok). Watching this happen, it felt like the greatness of the internet. It was bizarre, kinda meaningless and yet, it gripped UK twitter at least for a weekend, thankfully it was also, really sweet. Those of us who have seen and been part of trends know they often take a life of their own. Sometimes, maybe, just don’t overthink it, huh?
3 game things.
Content creators are more core to games marketing than ever. This has been done for years in gaming so isn’t that new, I’m not going to argue with more smart use of creators. I work in this space, it works, when you know what you’re doing.
Are games core to prediction? This is a great read if you dabble in forecasting or not.
Small but interesting, The Pokémon Company has acquired its trading card game manufacturer. Sounds small, but it’s a big deal, because 1) Pokemon is a big deal and the trading cards are even bigger. This reminds me of this AMAZING video from Jan this year. Yes, that’s a $3.5m loss but can you put a price on top content? No. No you can’t.
3 web3 things.
This week it’s pretty ugly for Web3, or growing pains depending on your worldview. I sat through an incredible presentation on all things Web3 and NFTs a few weeks ago and even the most pro are expecting a downturn, perhaps a phoenix from the flames will then arise. I suspect it will.
The growing pains of something not being really illegal yet but maybe should be/is in other areas 👉⚽️ Ajax footballers Davy Klaassen and Daley Blind, both Holland internationals, stand accused of trying to financially profit from dressing-room information and revealing their team’s line-ups via the trading of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in Sorare a fantasy football game, buying up NFTs they knew would soon inflate in price. A good primer in this piece on Sorare too.
Remember when everyone thought that those Crypto Superbowl ads were incredible? I thought they were smart, but working in mobile/app industry I didn’t buy the ‘top of the app charts’ for a day or so meaning too much, nor a million downloads meaning much either, with enough cash you can have a firework to the top, but can you sustain a fire? I was unsure. Seems I had a point perhaps, as the FT reports that the marketing push fails to jump-start sluggish trading volumes as uncertainty prevails . I think that the marketing was excellent but you need more than a few fireworks and there’s a lot more at play with the product too.
This Linkedin post on Coinbase’s share price drop (see image below). Now, the market is down everywhere but I do wonder if this is the start of a refit of the sector. This comes off the back of dropping prices of NFTs too, for the record, I am still pro the potential of the world of web3/crypto but short term sceptical. BONUS piece, from one of my must-read newsletters by Katelyn Donnall (sign up here) on Crypto Culture really resonated with me too:
“Crypto culture has strangled crypto ethos. I have long been vocal on my disdain of crypto culture, and my love for crypto ethos. Reading that might sound weird, but crypto ethos is concept like self-sovereign rights, self custody, self empowerment. Crypto culture is concepts like wealth, entitlement, enrichment, and ego.”
Odds and ends, basic links. Little commentary, just pure linkage, in wine terms, low intervention links.
TikTok is testing new kindness and safety options. They are iterating on their product so fast it’s hard to keep up.
Do we have an innovation problem? Study finds we praise innovation but inwardly, we harbour a visceral aversion to it. Innovation was/is a buzzword for years and whole teams were built (esp in the UK non-profit sector, oddly?) but I often wondered if businesses wanted the messiness of innovation.
Interesting interview with the person in charge of Amazon Alexa amongst other things. The plum quote is the headline, “Amazon’s focus is on the real world, not the metaverse”
A remarkable piece from the person who built the TikTok censorship machine. Anonymous but worth a read.
Amazon developing AR. Lot of people in this space doing great work, be intrigued how they spin it.
Don’t know your internet slang? The FBI has done the work for you ROFLOL.
Adieu.
Thanks again for reading, I’ve found returning to writing quite cathartic and the routine of it all is really quite freeing oddly. I hope you enjoy and find something useful from the newsletter even if that’s is just one link, do let me know what you liked or if you thought something wasn’t as interesting, this is a two-way chat, or at least I want it to be.
Bonus.
I finished Russian Doll on Netflix, I adored season 1 so was straight on the now unfashionable binge. Season 2 is a little bit messier to start, a little bit more random, and a lot more Quantum Leap (now that IS a TV show). But once past the first 3 eps, there is something deep in it. This piece sums it up for me and made me think about the show differently. The creator always saw it as a three series arch, I’m here for it.