Nuggies
Thursday, July 16th, 2020
Welcome to the eleventh edition of Nuggies, an email newsletter that aggregates articles and commentary on business, economics, startups, and more, in bite-sized nuggets sent right to your email weekly. Created by and for college students.
Our quote of the week comes from investor and AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant "Wealth is a positive sum game and status is a zero-sum game."
This Week’s Articles:
The U.S.- China Tech Battle: Social Commerce, Super Apps, and the Future of TikTok, Morning Brew
This podcast is a really interesting conversation with venture capitalist Connie Chan from Andreesen Horowitz. It compares and contrasts app experiences between the US and China. China’s WeChat is a so-called “super app,” meaning it’s basically like text, Venmo, the App Store, and more all rolled into one. The podcast dives into how these differences affect consumer behavior and how TikTok and other social media platforms may monetize through ecommerce over advertising.
Listen to it here
Scale and Loyalty are more important online than offline, which drives much of the “winner take most” reality of the internet, Gavin Baker
Hedge fund manager Gavin Baker’s analysis helps us understand how “tech titans” tend to become titans, rather than just remain as smaller players. Baker dives into some the economics and costs of doing business online and how it favors larger companies over smaller ones and why the scale advantage is stronger in an online world. He argues online business must fight harder to acquire customers than offline business, but once those customers are acquired, they are loyal and rarely switch.
Read it here
The Intended Netflixation of Spotify, Hayden Barnes
If you’re wondering how in the world Spotify can pay Joe Rogan $100 million a year for his podcast, this article offers a good explanation. Hayden Barnes argues Spotify’s foray into podcasts is the same as Netflix’s move into original content. Spotify hopes exclusive podcasts will become a differentiator for them and protect them from an increasingly competitive market. Another interesting tidbit is that Spotify uses playlists like Discover Weekly to promote songs that have lower royalties are more profitable.
Read it here
How much trade is dodging Trump’s China tariffs? - Quartz
According to analysis on some “suspicious handkerchiefs and paper towels” among other goods, the article identified certain goods that skirt US tariffs. Merchants are able to accomplish this by shipping Chinese-made goods to countries like Vietnam, Thailand, and Taiwan before shipping to the US. Some estimates suggest that 5% to 10% of pre-tariff US imports from China might be mislabeled as part of the scheme.
Read it here
This Week’s Tweets:
This Week’s Wildcard (an extra, interesting nugget):
Place.ai’s Covid-19 API let’s you see changes in retail foot-traffic compared to where it was at a year ago. Play around which specific store chains and regions and try to figure out what’s going on with Florida.
This Week’s Question:
Should IPO’s have a pop or is it just a sophisticated wealth transfer?
What are we listening to this week?:
This week is Kaytranada’s 99.9%. On his debut album, the Canadian DJ and beatmaker grooves along with an impressive guest list over a fusion of hip-hop, funk, jazz, and electronic vibes.
Thank you for reading! Nuggies is created by Thomas Pero and Spencer Koehl, two undergraduate students at the University of Notre Dame.
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