issue 200
Hello! Wow, issue 200. That’s four years of weekly emails if you’ve been with me from the beginning. Thank you. To you all, seriously. You keep me going on this rollercoaster ride - the ups and downs occur far more than I’d like. Undulations.
I must say, it truly means a lot. As much as I pretend to not care, these emails mean a great deal to me. They’re personal. The’ve grown to take on a more blog-ish form of me and my psyche. My desires, reflections, ideas, learnings, justifications, and emotions. It’s my open diary. A self-drawn rhetorical triangle. Life, sketched in word.
I consider these almost messages in bottles, thrown into an ocean of content, that capture versions of my former self.
I’ll still untangle industry shifts, consumer behaviors, design systems, and all that jazz - but I find it generally boring. It’s rather vanilla to explain, synthesize, and comment on the news. It already exists. That’s the job of reporters, essayists, and analysts. I am none. And all.
I have a strange obsession with pesky one word labels are used to describe and define your whole being. Where do you work and what do you do. It’s shrink wrap, constricting identity. Social contract as construct. Your representation is not your reputation. It’s action. Wear all the caps.
You are what you say you are, you are your credits, you are your only self. I am me. Outsider.
I write this once a week, usually hastily morning-of. I procrastinate, like everyone else. I constantly think of what I’ll touch on next week, but I don’t consider “thinking” work - that pressure strains. I don’t consider this work. I don’t consider myself a writer - even though I’ve cashed checks off this thing from celebrated producers and filmmakers. That notion still rocks me, deeply.
I give you my estranged dichotomy under microscope. Sinless voyeurism.
Yet I convince myself it’s a relationship. A mercurial one. I feel I somehow owe it to you, and myself, to be more affectionate. You’ve unknowingly held me accountable to something I cherish (blogging?). It’s given me some added purpose. You are my reasoning to continue on with this thing - it’s my truth. It’s a commitment. It’s a joy ride, and here’s to many more. Excited for what’s to come.
Funny to think this is just last week’s issue spoken a little bit more plainly. It’s all memorialization of self. A cave painting. I really do appreciate you.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. Love ya. See you next week.
Tech
Contact, marketplace for booking creatives, raised $1.9m (is this not Daisy 2.0 from Maisie?) TC
Quantum Pigeon, helps creators market on social, raised $6m BetaK
Cent, mint tweets as NFTs, raised $3m TC
Niantic acq Scanverse, 3d scanning app Nianticblog
Unity acq Parsec for $320m for cloud gaming tech (met the team three years ago, blew it) TC
Sports Pro, player data integrated with XR, raised $5.2m Cision
Valve filed about a dozen patents, optical displays in sight BLtwtr
TikTok planning new AR tool studio Info MNtwtr
Left Right Studios, spatial audio experiences, stories and more, in beta Pairplay
Trust, data advantages for social and digital marketing spend, raised TC
Medium evolving partner program to create more flywheel effects Med
Dune, data from crypto sites and more, raised $8m from USV
Felt, collab software to help you think (and build) in maps, raised $4.5m TC
Smashcut, online coursework platform for content professionals, raised $7m (nice Daniel!) GN
A Kids Company About, media company looking to educate kids, raised $7m Cision
Byond XR, 3d shopping environments, raised $7m SA
Avia Games, addictive mobile games for cash, raised $40m VB
One Web, starlink competitor leo small sats, raised $300m bberg
SpaceX to potentially help with NASA suits (where’s the Tom Hooper movie?) EMtwtr
Saturn, community-centric platform for social calendars, raised $44m Fins
Tetavi, volumetric capture platform, raised $20m (use Depth Kit) Cision
Snipfeed, link in bio, raised $5.5m TC
Kiddom, digital curriculum tailored to states, raised $35m TC
Stir launched tool for digital talent reps TF
Reddit raised $700m at $10b val NYT
Medal TV, gameplay clipping, acq Rawa for livestreaming in MENA TC
MIT built search engine on top of Google to track innovation Fastco
Fanatics raised $325m and acq Candy Digital for NFTs (that was a quick exit) WSJ
SpaceX first (known) acquisition is Swarm Tech, satellite connectivity startup TC
Deepbrain, conversational avatars for customer service, raised $44m VB
Hologram, IoT connectivity startup for more products than smartphones, raised $65m Chi
ServiceNow acq MazeWave, indoor mapping VB
Mirthy, social network for boomers, raised $1.1m TC
Canopy Servicing, customizable loan programs for customers, raised $15m TC
Amazon wants your palm signature, will give you a measly $10 TC
Chrono24, watch marketplace (rare collectibles mk) raised at unicorn status Yahoo
Media
Helium, 5G network on blockchain raised $111m Bberg
Salesforce to launch streaming service (anotha one! also, just sponsors longform content) Axios
FB and Goog laying fiber and undersea cables for Asia FT
Disney+ 116m subs Var
Olympics smallest ratings since 80s (but how many ppl are watching ripped/shoulder content online?) NYT
VerSe, news aggregator in India called Dailyhunt, raised $450m TC
NYT investing heavily in paid newsletters Axios
PSG offers Messi some crypto as part of package Reut
Cineworld eyes US stock listing, hopes windows will stabilize THR
FB plans to build less invasive ad products (sureee) Verge
Amazon’s Wondery acq to get more into podcasting advertising Bberg
Overtime starting its own internal branded content studio, to help athletes with NIL Dead
Integral Ad Science acq Publica, connected TV ad data, for $220m WSJ
ViacomCBS might be on the block NYP
And sells CBS building in NYC for $760m Var
Ackman buys 7% of UMG for $2.8b Var
Adidas sells Reebox to Authentic Brands for $2.5b (Authentic was looking for in-house film/tv ppl years ago) Reut
Nielsen flagged for poor media performance results Dead
ESPN+ 14.9m subs AA
UK concerned of the FB/Giphy deal WSJ
Disney+ launches Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea Var
Trusted Media Brands acq Jukin UGC vid library Var
Mailchimp exploring sale at $10b Bberg
ITV invests $1.7m in ismybillfair (hm) THR
WarnerMedia likely selling TMZ to Fox Info
Hackman Cap acq two studio spaces in London for $100m THR
AEG vax mandate Coachella THR
Entertainment
AMC and Warner Bros agree to 45 day window (for now) Var
Bleeker St (NA) and Stage 6 (ROW) commit to James Ponsoldt film Summering Dead
Robert Rodriguez’s Troublemaker sets two year at HBO Max THR
Jon Hamm Zooey Deschanel to “star” in podcast Love is a Crime from Vanity Fair about Walter Wanger (sign me up asap) Dead
Zal/Brit set Retreat at FX (I didn’t get OA) THR
Unilever financed doc on Fries that Peacock picked up (watch this space [I’ve been saying for four years]) Var
LOTR series moving from NZ to UK for season 2 (it’s a shit show I hear) Var
Otoy signs sweeping deal with the Roddenberry estate for holograms (a good coin to have bought months ago) Var
Blood Red Sky allegedly most successful German title ever on Nflx with 50m views (go watch Dark) Dead
Heeramandi new Netflix epic show about an undivided India THR
FX sets some more Ryan Murphy projects, very much American Horror-esque IW
AMC’s Shudder picks up a few at Fantasia, Hellbenders / Martys Lane / Last Thing Mary Saw Var
Kaling and Amazon option Hana Khan Carries On as film Var
Peacock orders Mike Schur Field of Dreams remake (and the game on the Iowa field last week!) Var
Sony and Amazon working toward $100m+ deal on Hotel Transylvania 4 Var
Madronna signs massive deal with WMG Var
IFC NA rights to Huda’s Salon Var
Dune limited edition book IW
Disney seems to regret Shang-Chi only opening in theaters, Simu Liu fires back IW
Emma Stone commits to Cruella 2 (opts not to sue but will see big payday) Var
Disney wants Free Guy 2, Shawn Levy on the film and ‘weaponizing IP’ IW
AMC plans to accept bitcoin for movie tickets Dead
NYFF adds films to lineup, like Titane / Flee / Memoria IW
Collaborative
John Hanke says metaverse as nightmare, make a better reality (preeeach! also, no gamers or ppl actually in games say metaverse) Nianticblog
Emily Short on NPCs and plot for games ESblog
The piracy entertainment site making bank off ads Bberg
A look at Gyldendal, more interactive e-‘books’ for gen-z (watch this space, signed yours truly) Fastco
White paper on identifying deepfakes PDF
Om Malik on Apple’s new photo-sharing service Glass OMblog
Interview with the founder/ceo of DuckDuckGo Prot
Matt Mullenweg on growing Automattic the last year or so MWblog
Looking at Legendary and it will find a buyer LAT
HTC Vive on making a more affordable mo-cap system IW
Profile on Ryan Cohen, Gamestop chief (largest individual Apple shareholder too I think) WSJ
Facial recog extremely vulnerable, can create ‘master’ faces Vice
A look at Hindenberg Research, exposes company scams and frauds NYT
Shira Ovide on the subscription buffet being over, more a la carte NYT
First ever light detected in a black hole (god?) CH
RDJ’s Footprint Coalition Q2 letter PDF
Richard Yao on the infra needed for live commerce Med
Profile on The Weeknd GQ
Beyonce building hemp and honey farm (queen bee) VF
Fun branding for minor leagues team Trash Pandas boosts sales NYT
White paper on offensive language and hate speech detection Googai
MGM Resorts positioning itself as player in contemporary art world WSJ
Captcha makes you think like AI OneZero
Artificial camouflage for robots (if it’s just now making the paper, the US Army has had it for decades) MIT
WandaVision showrunner on positive work/life balance THR
All the AI under the WeChat hood Stat
Imbuing new meanings behind emojis (watch the doc The Emoji Story) WSJ
Sara Fischer on the slowing of digital media investment, now SPAC targets Axios
Adoba and Cynthia Erivo launch digital rollerskate collectibles Adweek
Clint Eastwood Cry Macho trailer YT
Profile on Red Ventures (CNET and other digital media owner) NYT
A look at the South Korean games publisher Krafton (study up) Nikkei
Kanye has already done about $7m on Donde merch HighSnob
Be optimistic about the future of our oceans Smiths
Aliea Clark on streamer-led commerce RWblog
MTV VMA noms THR
Joyce Poole has recorded a library of elephant sounds NatGeo
City noise pollution Vox
Coffee cutting down the rainforest NYT
Columbia’s interactive storytelling curriculum Med
Martin Freeling on direct to consumer content distribution MusicX
Fred Wilson on crypto experiences on top of consumer stack next big thing AVC
Vector DAO collaborative of technical designers working on projects Med
Reggie James on ourselves as media bodies and vibier products HCRss
The Chinese elephants are making their way back home (has been on the news a lot in NZ) Vice
Privacy and your VPN Markup
Michael Dell profile Forbes
Rex Woodbury on capitalism, crypto and culture RWss
Lambo CEO on hybrization plans and new sleek Countach Bberg
Google difficulties recycling hard drives Grist
Ashton and Mina Interview (go bathe)
Blockchain investment report H1’21 CBI
Brian Solomon shot breakdown for From the Garden (magic) BStwtr
A shark photo being shared around the internet for the last decade plus (can I rep the shark?) Natgeo
Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital raised an “easy” $800m TC
Looking at the dark web for money laundering (I wrote a pitch about this a decade ago) Krebson
Alanna Gregory on livestreaming shopping TC
The physics of knots MassSci
Romeo Hunte and Tommy Hilfiger Interview
Frame on the origins of monopolies (told in IG story format, which I wrote about a year ago in issue 155) Frame
Li Jin on working toward a healthier creator (user) economy LJss
Oscar Meyer weinies to have dogecoin with them (top) HypeB
Video on content everywhere, hyper-connectivity Nielsen
James Bond aventure travel package for a cool $80k RR