Product drops are quickly becoming important go-to marketing strategies, Microsoft is looking to sign off on another major merger and Packy McCormick enters into a lively debate with Professor G over Web3.
Walmart and crypto
From the mesha tribe
Walmart is preparing to set up its own cryptocurrency and NFTs, as well as health, fitness, and nutrition classes in VR and AR.
As soon as Facebook became Meta, retailers have been moving with great speed to find their own place in the metaverse and protect their IP.
The metaverse offers businesses great opportunities to expand revenue streams and connect with their customers in new ways.
Product drops
From Consumer Startups by Leo Luo
A product drop strategy has become one of the most popular marketing strategies, especially among consumer-facing startups.
It works by leveraging social proof, FOMO, and scarcity to build urgency towards purchase while also increasing brand affinity. These are the 4 most common modes of product drops:
Lead-gen drops: which drive sign-ups for a new product
Goodwill drops: to promote brand equity by adding value to its customer base.
Attention drops: to stay top of mind and grab customer attention.
Money drops: there to make money, often as a key revenue source.
The Web3 debate
From Not Boring by Packy McCormick
A rebuttal to Professor G’s ‘rant’ against Web3:
He misrepresented the definition by inserting ‘decentralized’ - in reality, Packy’s definition purposely didn’t use the word as it’s not a key feature: “Web3 is the internet owned by the builders and users, orchestrated with tokens.”
He misdirected numbers - the claim that 2% of all accounts own 95% of Bitcoin paints the wrong picture as the 2% includes wallets for exchanges (e.g. Coinbase) who hold Bitcoin for millions of people. It’s more like 2% own 71.5%.
He skewed the conversation regarding ConsitutionDAO to argue that DAOs are often not decentralized. That a 6-day-old project was not fully decentralized is a weak argument and is based on an inaccurate model of governance.
Ultimately, the point he missed was that it’s not about whether a platform is centralized and who owns how much but that the data is open and builders and users have a choice.
Facebook Marketplace
From Lenny’s Newsletter by Lenny Rachitsky and Deb Liu
Facebook Marketplace is the world’s second-largest marketplace (by monthly active users). How did they make it work?
Focused on trust. Being able to see profile pictures and how long someone has been active on Facebook became an important element for buying and selling in person.
The Facebook app was already being used multiple times a day by most users - it became both useful and serendipitous to have the Marketplace integrated within the app (together also with Messenger).
They leveraged community groups - Facebook Marketplace is people-powered commerce. Buying from your neighbors and reducing waste were founding principles.
Microsoft and mergers
From BIG by Matt Stoller
Microsoft has been a merger powerhouse since Nadella and Smith took over from Gates, bringing in 15 firms just last year.
As Microsoft look to buy Activision for $69 billion, government antitrust enforcers brace themselves to prevent mergers just like these.
Activision has important gaming franchises (Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Warcraft) and the merger would make Microsoft the third biggest gaming firm in the world, controlling the X-Box console platform and a lot of intellectual property.
The FTC recently announced that they will be revising merger guidelines to find new and broader ways to evaluate mergers.
Extra Reading
Peloton in the post-COVID world (Huddle Up, Joseph Pompliano)
Nomadland, Banksy and the future of Web3 work (Digital Native, Rex Woodbury)
David Swensen: the king of institutional investment (The Pomp Letter, Anthony Pompliano)
Compensation instead of conflict (The Pomp Letter, Anthony Pompliano)
The power of secondary marketplaces (The Sociology of Business, Ana Andjelic)
Hope as monopolies start losing some fights (BIG, Matt Stoller)