Hello folks!
what did you have for breakfast
We hope you didn’t eat things like fries and chips. Because that could prove the news is correct. Market research firm Mintel suggests that Gen Z either replace breakfast with a snack or eat it as a side dish. And that means the breakfast market could be poised for a makeover.
But if Gen Z is perceived as health conscious, why do they end up consuming chips?
The hypothesis is that everything has to do with boredom, stress or other emotions.
Or even lose your cooking skills. And we don’t say that. When Home Run Inn, a Chicago-based pizza joint, recently conducted a survey of Gen Z and Millennials, only a third of Gen Z respondents considered themselves trained chefs. On the other hand, the percentage was slightly higher among Millennials, with almost half saying they were confident in their cooking skills.
And that means ready-to-eat meals may take precedence over ready-to-cook dishes. Sounds like great news for snack makers, doesn’t it? Maybe Generation Z should learn more in the kitchen when boredom sets in!
Here’s a soundtrack we picked for our readers this week🎵
Raat by Rono AKA Awkward Bong
We noticed a few things this week 👀
Celebrities are being sued over monkeys
Popular celebrities like Paris Hilton, Justin Bieber and Jimmy Fallon are being sued by a group of investors. The reason?
cartoon monkeys.
Wait! What?
Let’s explain.
In 2021, Sotheby’s, a popular international auction house, put an NFT up for sale. Now, an NFT, or Non-Fungible Token, is simply a certificate of authenticity of ownership of an asset located on a blockchain. So you could have tokens representing unique assets like art, music or other digital content. And purchase means you digitally own the media that the NFT represents.
Sotheby’s had a combination of 101 NFTs for sale. These NFTs were digital artworks of monkeys with different characteristics created or imprinted by a company called Yuga Labs. And they sold for a whopping $24 million, well above the original $12-$18 million offer.
But why have colorful pictures of monkeys in different outfits sold for millions of dollars?
You see, these monkeys represent an NFT called the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). As Daniel Van Boom put it in an article on CNET, “BAYC is to NFTs what Bitcoin is to cryptocurrencies.” And of those, there are only about 5,000-10,000 digital footprints. Some have rare attributes like diamond studs or golden fur. The rarer the image, the more expensive the NFT.
Celebrities like Timbaland and Eminem have also snapped up these BAYC NFTs and used them as Twitter profile pictures. So that explains the BAYC trend in a way.
Now we know what you’re thinking. Why buy an image of a monkey for millions of dollars when you can just right-click and download it? Well, you could. But people wanted to show “ownership” in some way. Let’s just say it was a status thing.
So if BAYC was selling for around $190 a piece when it launched, the hype actually pushed the price up to $400,000 a piece. But then came the global economic crisis. Several economies faced rate hikes to keep an eye on inflation. This means that people’s NFT purchasing power has fallen. NFT trading volume plummeted so badly that BAYC prices plummeted.
For example, Justin Bieber’s BAYC NFT was worth $1.3 million last year. Today it’s worth about $59,000.
And that’s exactly why collectors have sued Sotheby’s and some celebrities. Of course, the price drop cannot be regulated by an auction house or public figures. But the hype they generated could be why these NFTs were overpriced, meaning most of these investors lost a large chunk of their money when the market crashed.
Sotheby’s apparently defends these allegations of conspiracy to artificially inflate BAYC prices. We’ll just have to wait and see where this lawsuit goes.
***
Could Fitness Bands Be Gone Soon?
India is expected to become the largest wearables market by volume this year, already accounting for nearly a fifth of global shipments of 492 million units. And considering that we experienced 53% year-over-year growth in the first half of 2023, the prospects seem great.
But here’s the interesting thing. If you look at the shipment split for fitness bands, smartwatches, and earbuds over the most recent quarter, you’ll see that fitness band shipment growth is down over 75% compared to the same period last year. It’s the second year of declining sales.
What harms fitness bands, you ask?
For starters, there are smartwatches. The manufacturers were able to lower their prices and make them more attractive. So if you could buy a watch that was more useful than a fitness bracelet, at a similar price point, you would go for it.
And for brands, there is also the money aspect. In 2020, fitness bands contributed about 56% of volumes sold, but brought in just 22% of sales. Smartwatches are bringing in the dough. It also means manufacturers are likely to focus on products that bring them higher profits.
Second, we are also now witnessing the advent of smart rings.
Popular brands like BoAt and Noise are launching their new products and consumers might be inclined to buy these more convenient wearables. Smart rings can do the same job as fitness bands, but they have the advantage of being easier to wear. Also, the target audience appears to be “consumers who want accurate health and sleep tracking, but don’t want to stray from an analog watch.”
So that means fitness bands could soon be a forgotten innovation, right? What do you think?
infographic 📊
Money tips 💰
Make room for generosity in your budget
How often have you bought flowers, pens or toys from street vendors at traffic lights? You may not need what they sell but buy anyway just to support them. And it makes you feel good in a way. Generosity is good.
And research backed by Harvard Business School actually has evidence to support it. These researchers conducted an experiment in which a group of people were told they would be given some money to do one of two things. You could buy some treats and donate them to an anonymous sick kid at a local hospital. Or they could just keep the goodies they bought. Now, people who choose to donate also have another option. They could back out of their decision and just take the cash equivalent of the goodie bag later.
At the end of this social experiment, the researchers observed a small but “reliable” increase in positive sentiment among people who gave away their goodie bags compared to those who kept them for themselves.
So maybe it’s a message to put as much generosity as possible into our budget to make us feel better?
With small monthly donations you can support an educational program for children. Or pool some money each month and give it to charity at the end of the year. Giving part of a raise or bonus to people or causes that may need it is also an option.
It just might make your financial planning happier. Do not you think so?
Readers recommend 🗒️
Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins
Our reader, Vidya Sagar, recommends this book, saying, “Can’t Hurt Me is a fantastic autobiography by a man who is a retired US Navy Seal. He believes people can push their mental and physical abilities beyond their limits, from being aimless in life to becoming one of the greatest athletes of all time and a great motivational speaker.”
Sounds like a pretty inspiring recommendation, Vidya. Thank you very much.
With that, it’s time to wrap up today’s edition. I’ll see you next weekend.
Until then, don’t forget to let us know what you think of today’s newsletter. And send us your book, music, business film, documentary or podcast recommendations. We will feature them in the newsletter! Just click reply to this email (or drop us a message if you read this on the web: [email protected]).
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Weekly Finshots quiz 🧩
It’s time to announce the winner of our previous weekly quiz. And the winner is… 🥁
Avinaba Kumar Sahoo! Congratulations. Keep an eye on your inbox and we’ll be in touch soon to get your Finshots merch to you.
And for everyone else, here is the next chance to get the winner’s crown. Click this 👉🏽 link, answer all the questions correctly and tune in next week to see if you got lucky.
🖖🏽!
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