Mike's Industry View - Issue #127
AI / Creativity
Warby Parker's AR App Lets You Try on Glasses Using Your iPhone — www.wired.com Warby Parker’s new AR app for trying on its eyewear is another example of how companies are exploiting face-mapping tech to help you buy their stuff.
Michael Acton Smith: From Moshi to Mindfulness — www.bbc.com Michael Acton Smith, the creator of Moshi Monsters' latest venture Calm, is now valued at $1bn.
Business/Marketing/Adv
Fortnite’s Marshmello concert was a bizarre and exciting glimpse of the future — www.theverge.com Fortnite’s live in-game concert was a shockingly stunning sight to behold, and it was also an unprecedented moment in gaming. It truly felt like a glimpse into the future of interactive entertainment, where the worlds of gaming, music, and celebrity combined to create a virtual experience we’ve never quite seen before.
Foot Locker Invests $100 Million In Secondary Sneaker Platform GOAT — www.forbes.com The global sneaker market is a $100 billion business, giving rise to a booming secondary market. Athletic footwear retailer Foot Locker is getting into the resale game with a major strategic investment in the GOAT Group.
Interestingness
Use Your Money to Buy Happier Time — hbr.org
Ashley Whillans, professor at Harvard Business School, researches time-money trade-offs. She argues more people would be happier if they spent more of their hard-earned money to buy themselves out of negative experiences. Whillans is the author of the HBR article “Time for Happiness.”
What Spotify needs in order to become a great podcast app — www.theverge.com
Spotify has acquired Gimlet Media and Anchor, but the company needs to work on its app before it can be the greatest place to listen to and create podcasts.
Platform News
I Cut the 'Big Five' Tech Giants From My Life. It Was Hell — gizmodo.com
Blocking them all
Teens Don't Use Facebook, but They Can't Escape It, Either — www.wired.com Gen Z appears mostly indifferent to Facebook, but they can't escape the social network; it’s their parents who are doing most of the posting.