Notes #15
Companionship content, a sports streaming service, Disney invests in Fortnite, and digital forgeries
Anecdote: Social media is no longer social
Culture: The friendship crisis
Money: Adam Neumann may buy back WeWork
Tech: AI bots choose violence
~5 minute read
1. Anecdote
SUMMARY
The percent of people who enjoy documenting their lives online has fallen from 40% in 2020 to 28% today.
Social media is no longer social. We should embrace new mediums that provide engagement and companionship.
When was the first time you had fun with friends on the internet? Mine was in chatrooms and running around Runescape. What a time to be alive.
How does that differ from today? Are you an active a participant on Instagram? Or are you swiping and occasionally tapping. Our digital lives have become much more passive and consumption based.
We’ve entered an era where social media is no longer social. Only 28% of people say they enjoy documenting their life online. A fall from 40% in 2020.
Our digital town squares have become broadcast channels and echo chambers.
How does this all develop? Hail the rise of companionship content. While I believe we need to take a harder look at our consumption diet and online participation, some content formats are not like the others.
Anu Atluru (creator of the image above) describes companionship content as, “long-form content that can be consumed passively…[It] isn’t consumed just for information or entertainment, but as a proxy for having company around, a way to mitigate the awareness of lacking it, or to make an otherwise dull task enjoyable — with a companion.”
While we certainly have less available time than we did when we ran around Runescape, wrote on each others’ Myspace/Facebook walls, and sent chatroom invites we are still social creatures and crave engagement.
As we wake up to our own passive consumption, I believe there will be a snap back to more interactive platforms. Whether that be because of a technological shift (hello VR/AR/Spatial computing), regulation forcing users onto other platforms, or a surprising change in user behavior is tbd.
The only thing I am certain of is that the future is gonna be weird, wild, and wonderful.
2. Culture
SUMMARY
A new streaming service focused on sports emerges (ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery).
DraftKings and Barstool strike a deal for online betting.
Kind of a wild list here that’s full of “no duhs.” (image above)
Joe Rogan signed a multi-year deal with Spotify. It’s reported to be worth $250M.
Companionship content is on the rise.
Toyota remains the top carmaker in the world for 2023.
Their hybrid vs full-electric approach has paid off.
Friendship crisis. “In a July survey by the Pew Research Center of Americans under the age of 30, less than one-third of respondents reported having five or more close friends. In total, 8% of Americans said that they had no close friends. That's a stark contrast from a 2003 Gallup survey, in which just 2% of Americans said they had no close friends — and 18- to 29-year-olds reported having a mean of 8.9 friends, which was higher than in other age cohorts.”
Comparison is the thief of joy and I can’t imagine social media helps this.
Barstool has partnered with DrafKings on a sports betting deal.
An increasingly growing, and fragmented market.
ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros Discover said they will launch a joint streaming service.
We unbundled to re-bundle. This service will include 15 networks: ESPN, ESPN+, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network, ESPNEWS, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, TNT, TBS, truTV.
3. Money
SUMMARY
Disney invested $1.5B in Epic Games, the makers of Fortnite.
Adam Neumann may buy back WeWork.
Maybe the youths aren’t in such bad shape (image above).
Risk tolerance towards tech stocks, etc and stimulation checks may be the cause of most of these gains. Younger generations also have smaller absolute value of net worth.
Accolade Wines, the second largest producer in Australia, will be bought by Bain Capital. Carlyle is the previous owner.
Interesting purchase seeing that alcohol consumption is on the downtrend.
Adam Neumann may buy back WeWork.
This story keeps getting better. Neumann’s lawyer (Alex Spiro) also represents Elon Musk.
Blush raised $7M for its invite only dating app.
Naval Ravikant participated. I’d love to know the entry criteria here and their plan to scale up. Small networks like this usually lose value as they scale.
Disney invested $1.5B in Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite.
Smart move. Allows them to reach more youths with Disney IP. I also believe the future of social is gaming, so this helps Disney extend their brand to active online users.
4. Tech
SUMMARY
AI safety and regulation against digital forgeries and fake news is increasingly important.
AI bots tend to choose violence in war game simulations.
A group of senators introduced a bill to hold people accountable for "digital forgery.”
Explicit photos/videos aren’t the only thing being made. Fake IDs that can be used to log into/sign up for brokerages have also been created (image above).
“AI chatbots tend to choose violence and nuclear strikes in war games.”
Don’t love that!
Meta is working to better detect AI images on platform.
AI safety is becoming a massive space (see digital forgery above).
My guess the echo chamber is caused by the bias of people seeing out their similar views. This in turn get backed by data to cause product keep companies surfacing that similar content for increased retention.