Mike's Industry View - Issue #142
AI / Creativity
Starbucks Japan launches NFC-enabled pen — www.finextra.com Japanese caffeine hounds can now pay for their salted caramel mocha frappuccinos with a Starbucks-branded NFC-enabled pen.
Business/Marketing/Adv
Burger King is melting down plastic toys to recycle them into something actually useful — www.fastcompany.com The initiative is starting in the U.K. and is also removing all plastic toys from kids’ meals.
Interestingness
Trusted reviewers fight pay-to-play on Instagram — www.voguebusiness.com There’s a new market for an unbiased perspective as pay-to-play marginalises authentic content on platforms like Instagram
Wellness
How the wellness industry markets to men — www.glossy.co
“The true sense of modern masculinity is allowing yourself to be vulnerable. No one is perfect, which is a problem with social media; it’s all synthetic."
How Peloton made sweat addictive enough to IPO — techcrunch.com
"It makes lazy people like me work out. That’s the genius of the Peloton bicycle. All you have to do is velcro on the shoes and you’re trapped. You’ve eliminated choice and you will exercise. Through a succession of savvy product design choice I’ll break down here, Peloton removes the friction to getting fit."
Platform News
Instagram's New Shopping Feature Works Like a Digital Mall — www.wired.com Because #capitalism.
How TikTok Holds Our Attention — www.newyorker.com Jia Tolentino on the popular short-video app, which young people are using to churn through images and sounds at warp speed, repurposing reality into ironic, bite-size content.
Bob Iger on why Disney walked away from Twitter: 'The nastiness is extraordinary' — www.cnbc.com In his new memoir, "The Ride of a Lifetime," Iger explains why he decided against the deal to buy Twitter.