Shopping Addiction and the Enthusiast Economy

‍Stablecoin Strikes Back. Just when you thought crypto had finally lost cultural significance, Stripe is bringing it back. Stripe co-founder John Collison announced the return of crypto transactions at Stripe’s user conference this week. During the session, he built a metered product—the type that SaaS companies usually avoid due to the complexity in payment calculation—and powered the checkout with Layer 1 payment rails. Towards the end of the demo, he completed checkout with Solana in mere seconds. 

Certified Loser Boy. Drake might have used fake Tupac in his ongoing beef with Kendrick Lamar, but the hot water he’s in is very real. The Canadian rapper removed the song from his Instagram account after receiving a cease and desist from Tupac’s estate. The post was live for five days; about as long as Bobbi Althoff’s podcast career.

More Sights & Sounds. WPP reports a revenue hit after post-Covid tech sector downturn. Bytedance is taking their algorithm and going home. The Department of Energy faces a backlash by…. circadian rhythm scientists?? Not everyone deserves a $300 trash can but we’ll help you justify it. MGM is playing chicken with a trigger-happy FTC chair.

‍“I’m the Bad Guy” And you can be, too, thanks to Fornite’s latest activation. Billie Eilish joins the lineup for Fortnite Festival, a Rock Band-like game experience that launched last year. In its newest ‘season,’ the pop artist’s songs will be playable, and the shop will feature themed digital apparel (including her signature lime green).

Bon Iver Street? Gen Xers will remember when the ‘streets had no names.’ But leave it to the Millennials to decide that the streets should be named after sad midwest emo and experimental indie folk bands. “Actually, my street name is pronounced ‘Bone E Vair,’ Greg.” 

‍“Rollin’ in the Dough” We forgive you for not knowing that the newest frozen dessert brand is 1) owned by Snoop Dogg and 2) named after his Bored Ape NFT, ‘Dr. Bombay.’ Yeah. The brand is in a number of retail doors including Kroger, Publix, and Alberton’s, and retails at $5.99.

‍Swipe, Shop, Regret. “Is social media fueling Gen Z shopping addictions?” asks Future Commerce subscriber and Teleport co-founder Danielle Vermeer. Citing a TikTok post, Vermeer summarizes the “Shein high” as wearing off in “10 minutes” and then life becomes “boring again.”

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Our Take: This post is a fearful diary entry in our ongoing conversation about the Addiction Economy. As we have covered in the past, we’re seeing more gamification of content and multiplayer participation in monoculture affairs. Sports betting and crypto markets were just the beginning.

As brands become multiplayer, we’re witnessing co-creation as a means of continued engagement. This requires more participation and attention from the consumer, which begs for more frequent, and varied types, of consumption; not just products, but attention.

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What Sora Workflow *Actually* Looks Like. The AI video balloon has been popped by VFX artists. A writeup in FxGuide details the challenges of incorporating these early tools into a VFX workflow. The FX workflow for ‘Air Head’, a short produced by the Canadian production house, Shy Kid, included a heavy amount of tracking and rotoscoping work in common post-production tools like After Effects. Air Head was announced on OpenAI’s social channels in support of its video creation tool, Sora.