Book Clubs, Bridgerton & Bots 👑
This Week in Review ☕️: GenZ and millennials have a new way to socialize | Reddit files for IPO at $5 billion target valuation | Moon Landing after 50 years | Asia celebrates the Year of the Dragon |
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Quick Bites:
Big Tech📱: Reddit plans to go public, with a target valuation of $5 billion.
This comes after the company was last valued at around $10 billion in a funding round in 2021.
Reddit will also become the first social media company to file for an IPO since Pinterest in 2019.
Reddit, an unprofitable social media platform which looks the exact same since 2010 with ZERO upgrade whatsoever, lost $90 million last year YET paid its CEO $193 MILLION in comp 🤯🤯
Reddit's board when folks ask why they need to raise $$$ when they paid its CEO more than the CEOs of Apple & Amazon COMBINED ?!!!!! 🤔👇🏻
Key Highlights, according to The Wall Street Journal:
💡$804 million in revenue in 2023, up 20% from the previous year
💡73 million daily active users
💡Signed a $60 million a year data-licensing deal with Google last month
💡Debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in March
One of the biggest winners? Sam Altman of OpenAI, who is the 3rd largest shareholder of the company, and has invested over $60 million since 2014.
He would cash out over $400 million if Reddit hits its target valuation of $5 billion.
Our Thoughts💡: Hedgefund billionaires, Wall Street, Amber Heard, Baby Shark, Game of Thrones Season Finale..👇🏻
Redditors wondering what to destroy next 💭
Culture📚: GenZ and Millennials are bringing back the book club.
The growing popularity of book clubs reflects a renewed interest in events that allows people to socialize following the lack of in-person interaction during the pandemic, CNN reports.
Umm at our weekly book club, we drink so much wine that no one has noticed we're completely illiterate 😈
Clubs are taking advantage of the trend by organizing new gatherings to talk about books from dating events to coffee shops and group runs.
In addition, social media is also helping young readers to discover new genres; #BookTok was TikTok’s most popular community, outpacing #CarTalk and #MovieTalk, according to CNN.
#BookTok, which people use to review their finds and look for what to read next, has more than 220 billion views.
Some experts say resentment about Amazon's dominance over the book industry (Amazon controls more than 50% of the print book market) is driving some people to their local bookstores.
Personally, we don't think Barnes & Nobles or the thousands of bookstores that were driven to bankruptcy by Bezos are feeling too sorry for this renewed interest in book clubs today!
About time, Bezos realizes what we've known all along- Books are a labor of love, not profit ❤️✨
Our Thoughts💡: Woke up today with what we call a "Book Hangover":
That moment when you finish a book, look around, and realize nothing has changed and everyone is just carrying on with their lives.. As though you didn't just experience severe mental trauma at the hands of a paperback
Space 🌙: Odysseus has landed! For the first time since 1972, the US is back on the moon.
In a first for corporate America, Intuitive Machines Inc. landed a robotic spacecraft on the moon after 51 years.
The mission could lead to an era of for-profit lunar exploration.
First moon landing in over 50 years.. Some of these new photos are incredible.. 👇🏻
Gosh, looks like a giant flour tortilla.. Only thing missing is ground chicken, salsa, tomatoes, guacamole, green peppers, lettuce and refried beans 🌮
Oh and a generous dollop of sour cream ofcourse.
Despite being tipped on its side after landing, the operators said the craft is "alive and well".
Harsh environment, a lack of experienced lunar engineers and the need for precise last-minute adjustments added to the challenges of landing the spacecraft, Bloomberg.
Odysseus was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, last week.
Our Thoughts💡: Undoubtedly a huge milestone for the US space industry. Marked with immense dangers but an ultimate success.
However, the Odysseus crew will soon enter the riskiest part of their mission- coming back from the moon to an UNTAXED, unhinged Florida ⚠️
Artificial Intelligence 🤖: Nvidia surpasses $2 trillion in market cap, during intraday trading.
The world's most valuable chip maker joined the big leagues, with only 7 American companies every being worth a trillion dollars.
Its stock rallied following the company’s earnings report; Nvidia posted $22 billion in revenue in Q4, above the $20 billion predicted by analysts, according to CNBC.
Background💡: In 1993, CEO Jensen Huang purchased 20% of Nvidia for $200 because that was the only cash he had in his pocket when the company was being incorporated.
Today, that stake is worth over a cool $50 billion.
Moral of the story💡: CASH IS KING💰
Nvidia reported $12.2 billion in net income during the quarter, up a staggering 769% from $1.4 billion last year, CNBC reports.
The company has benefited from the tech sector’s unstoppable demand for artificial intelligence capabilities over the past year.
Nvidia makes the pricey chip processors for the servers that power large AI models.
“Fundamentally, the conditions are excellent for continued growth”
-Nvidia CEO during the company’s quarterly call with investors last week.
Culture 🇨🇳: Across Asia and in communities around the world, people spent the weekend celebrating 'The Lantern Festival'.
The Lantern Festival is held two weeks after Lunar New Year, which was on 10 February this year, and welcomes in the Year of the Dragon.
People have been celebrating with fireworks, dancing, singing and splendid lantern displays, BBC reports.
How the festival was celebrated globally, reported by TIME Magazine:
Malaysia 🇲🇾 : Penang hosted a street festival with fire juggling, food, art, a dragon dance, and a traditional 'Malay Dondang Sayang', a type of song that has been honored by UNESCO's cultural heritage.
Indonesia 🇮🇩 : In Jakarta, families visited Chinese temples and then ate 'Lontong cap go meh', a traditional holiday dish consisting of a rice cake in banana leaves.
Others in Indonesia pierced their faces with needles- a ritual believed to destroy evil spirits
Canada 🇨🇦 : Vancouver, home to a large Chinese community, hosted a series of events, including art exhibits, film screenings and origami.
UK 🇬🇧: London had a 'Chinatown food crawl' and a celebration in Southampton.
USA 🇺🇸: New York City hosted a make-your-own lantern event.
San Francisco hosted its massive Lunar New Year Parade in Chinatown on Saturday
Quicker Bites:
Bitcoin resumes its rally; crosses $54,000 for the first time since December 2021.
Yale University will require SAT scores again.
Berkshire Hathaway inches towards $1 trillion valuation.
Sweden to become the 32nd alliance member of the NATO.
Samsung unveils wearable ‘smart ring’ for health tracking.
Palestinian Prime Minister and Government resign.
World surpasses key warming threshold across an entire year for the first time.
Russia is preparing a summer offensive against Ukraine.