Myspace Tom, meet Noplace Tiffany |
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Pool inflation is real: the average price of a new in-ground swimming pool in the US has gone off the deep end, soaring from $43K in 2019 to $74K last year. Many Americans are opting to sweat out the summer heat rather than drain their bank accounts. After the holiday weekend, US stocks were the only ones that had a happy Monday: the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at record highs. This week investors have eyes on comments from Fed Chair Powell, June inflation #s, and the beginning of Q2 earnings szn. |
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Bringin' back the "Top 8"… Social app Noplace, which launched last week and briefly hit No. 1 on the App Store, lets users rank their friends into a top 10. That's not the only way it imitates millennial-fave Myspace: its founder, Tiffany "TZ" Zhong, appears to be users' first friend (remember Tom?) and the app was originally named Nospace. Noplace also lets users create profiles with their birthday, relationship status, and interests (horror movies, "Animal Crossing," etc.). The app's main feed is reminiscent of X with reverse-chronological text-based updates. |
- Un/filtered: Noplace users can choose between "wholesome" mode and an "unfiltered, unhinged" experience for their feed. Teens get more moderation by default.
- Momentum: 500K folks signed up for Noplace's pre-launch waitlist earlier this year after the app went viral on TikTok, and it's backed by Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian's venture fund.
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Everyone wants to be… the next big social platform, but most surge in popularity and sputter out. BeReal and Lapse were both billed as anti-Instagrams. BeReal, the impromptu pic platform, was bought out last month after its monthly users fell from 74M in 2022 to 23M this year. Lapse also had little luck with unfiltered pics: in November, downloads dropped 70% from their October peak. Bluesky and Mastodon emerged as X replacements, but with users in the single-digit millions, they're guppies compared to the big-fish platforms. Meta recently said that Threads (its X rival) has 175M monthly users after its first year. |
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Social media is a #s game… Users don't seem happy with major platforms like Insta and X (see: data-privacy and moderation issues, adverse effects on mental health), but new social apps aren't very social when most of your friends don't use them. Despite Meta's haters, its apps have nearly 4B monthly users. Threads/Instagram chief Adam Mosseri told Sherwood, "It is easier to get people to try something than to build something that people want to use on a regular basis." In other words: sustaining hype is hard. |
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Prestige partners… Saks Fifth Avenue is adding a new chain to its bag: Saks parent HBC said it would buy rival Neiman Marcus for $2.6B. Saks and Neiman (which also owns Bergdorf Goodman) are two of the US's oldest department-store chains with nearly 80 combined locations across North America. But business hasn't been as glam as it was in the "Gossip Girl" days: Neiman filed for bankruptcy in 2020, and a year later Saks spun off its website in hope of boosting online sales. Now… |
- New bag: If the deal's approved, the new company (dubbed Saks Global) will have more bargaining power to add luxury brands at a lower cost.
- Prime time: Amazon (which has expanded into luxury fashion) has taken a stake in the merger, saying it has plans to innovate on behalf of customers and brand partners.
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Struggling to find the shoe section… Department stores have lost their luster as Americans pivot to shopping online directly from brands (or from ecomm giants like Amazon and Revolve). Department stores made up about 14% of US retail sales in 1993, but last year that fell to under 3%. Macy's is closing 150 of its namesake locations this year. Consumers are becoming more brand-centric, with a third of US online adults buying luxury goods directly from brand sites. |
- Now open: Gucci parent Kering has spent billions on new locations in shopping capitals like Milan and NYC. LVMH and Chanel are also reportedly eyeing new Fifth Avenue storefronts.
- Direct to consumer: Ralph Lauren saw its strongest customer growth since the pandemic after it added 1.7M D2C shoppers in Q3 last year.
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Sometimes you have to combine to outshine… Saks and Neiman have similar high-end offerings and customers. Instead of competing, they're choosing to join their shopping bags to snag a bigger share of the luxury market. Luxury sales are expected to grow 3 to 5% this year and are up nearly 30% over the past four years. |
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- Grounded: Boeing plans to plead guilty to misleading regulators ahead of 2018's and 2019's deadly 737 Max crashes. The biz agreed to $455M in safety spending and a $244M fine (victims' families requested $25B).
- Skymount: Paramount and Skydance agreed to merge next year (pending regulators' OK). Combined, the two media mammoths will be valued at $28B. Paramount has struggled as cord-cutters moved to streaming.
- GameOn: "Fortnite" will return to iPhones in Europe after Apple signed off on the Epic Games Store in the EU (shortly after Epic called it out). The companies had a legal battle royale over App Store payments.
- Outshein: As low-priced Chinese goods flood the US and Europe, the EU is reportedly moving to impose an import duty on products from Chinese ecomm platforms like Shein and Temu. Right now, items under 150 euros are duty-free.
- MiPhone: Microsoft reportedly told employees in China that they'll need to use Apple devices (instead of Android) to verify their IDs when logging in. The company is boosting security after hacks and breaches.
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- Fed Chair Powell expected to give twice-yearly testimony on monetary policy before Senate Banking Committee
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Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Reddit |
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Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... See more |
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