Sam Blumenthal

The daily check-in is a simple yet brilliant feature that encourages users to engage with Pinduoduo on a daily basis. While each check-in does not generate revenue for Pinduoduo, the product experience eventually ties back to commerce if/when users redeem their vouchers. This theoretically should yield a higher customer lifetime value for... See more

From 2019 to 2020, deepfake videos grew 6,820x (!), from 14,678 videos to 100 million videos. They began to invade mainstream internet platforms. Tom Cruise, for example, isn’t on TikTok. But you’d be forgiven for thinking he is: the account @deeptomcruise posts (very convincing) deepfakes of Tom Cruise.

Pinterest has rolled out its latest advancement in inclusive beauty search to serve the millions of people that use Pinterest for hair and beauty inspiration. Following AR Try on and skin tone ranges, the platform unveiled a first-of-its-kind technology with Black, Brown, and Latinx Pinners in mind that empowers users to search for hair inspiration... See more

Douyin Livestream Emerges As The New Capital For DTC Brands. Inside Douyin livestreaming: The difference between social commerce and traditional e-commerce is that social commerce is largely developed around social content, instead of the product. Douyin boasts 600 million daily active users with strong purchasing power. Douyin livestream... See more

An NFT represents an access pass to an unspecified, generative possible future associated with an object. It is a key to a possible world. A key that is distinguishable from other keys. A key to a world that may or may not open up. A key that carries some hints of the kinds of locks it might unlock. A key that, unlike fungible tokens (or stock),... See more

On his blog, gaming company founder Kyle Russell envisioned a successor to Marvel’s cinematic universe popping up on a project like Loot: Assuming the project’s originators went with the direction of the Loot zeitgeist, all of this would be [intellectual property] that could be re-used and remixed by anyone. That might sounds crazy — isn’t the... See more