This is one reason I’m bearish on companies like Brud, which are creating virtual influencers (yes, it’s a thing). Gen Z has a strong “authenticity detector” and I’m skeptical that digitally-created influencers will replace real, tangible, relatable people.
-Revenue Growth - The slowing growth of its subscription customers is driven by the slowing growth of hardware revenue. Bike unit sales have slumped considerably (around 75% YoY) compared to previous growth rates (200-300% YoY).
At the same time, I think there’s a real challenge around over-economizing some of these spaces. My experience in some of the early tokenized social networks is kind of this icky feeling that you’re not just talking to each other for, you know, for its own sake, but you’re trying to somehow exploit the relationship for monetary gain.
But, my hopes for web computing always felt limited by both the inertia of what Chrome already was (it’s hard to move the cheese on people), and by Google itself. A company that once oozed innovation now stood in its way. At some point, so much of our focus became navigating a sea of reasons not to innovate, for fear of causing users to see fewer a... See more