Sam Blumenthal

Young viewers “have a strong connection to our boys; they wanted to dress like them and play along,” Vashketov says. “They believe Vlad and Niki to be their friends. Creating merchandise was a very natural and organic step for our brand.” After selling T-shirts and blankets, the family is branching out. Up next: toy lines from Playmates and Zuru... See more

Because ecommerce is such a big market, there have been many attempts to do pieces of what Swaypay is going. There are platforms and agencies like Tribe that match influencers with brands, and there’s a growing number of alternative payments solutions that offer customers a different way to pay at checkout. No one currently does both, and that’s... See more

When the basis of competition changed away from pure processor performance to a low-power system the chip architecture needed to switch from being integrated (Intel) to being modular (ARM), the latter enabling an integrated BlackBerry then, and an integrated iPhone four years later. More broadly, breaking up a formerly integrated system —... See more

On the flip side with regard to Miquela, some may argue, is that she’s more real than many ’real’ influencers. For starters, she acknowledges that she is a robot. And she speaks the truth. She was brought to life around the same time the world realized how detrimental social media could be. She makes us question what is real and our parameters of... See more

Synthetic media allows brands to have lifelike digital mascots. Instead of an animated Ronald McDonald, customers could interact with a virtual recreation.  Digital characters will also populate stores: imagine a virtual person taking your order at a fast food drive-thru or answering your questions at the Apple Store. Artificial intelligence will... See more