Weekly Market Links [18-24 Oct 2021] - Google Goes Streaming, China Relooks Crypto
It's a heavy week on crypto, as we lead up into Tech earnings in the next week. We talk about Google's streaming strategy, and how blockchain and crypto are shaping up in tech companies.
Tech
Google joins the subscription crowd! Called Pixel Pass, it includes YouTube Premium, storage, Google Play Pass, and Google Fi (telco plans, roaming).
Personally, this would be annoying for Telcos, especially South Korean ones with their own subscription models. However, I’m finding it strange Google is heading in this direction. Time will tell if it’s well taken-up, and in which markets (I’m thinking India, where Android use is high).
Google has reportedly been prioritizing its streaming project. Dubbed Google TV, it is a top priority, paying more to its partner than its rival Roku. Google will also pull Youtube from Roku, Dec 9 onwards. This move has both nuances of being strategic about their product presences on other platforms - additionally, this has an anti-competitive slant, indirectly forcing Google to go it alone in the streaming space.
JD plans to offer its own NFTs. Brave souls, going against both the state and media. This isn’t using their main website though - it is only for those who are signing up for their technology conference, coined JD Discovery (see what I did there)
It plans to roll out “copyright protection, public welfare, art collection and e-commerce” capabilities in due course.
Tencent also had its own NFT trading platform already, named Zhixin chain.
China as a whole looks at blockchain technology from whole industries, rather than the small-ish ones mentioned above. In recent news, there are plans to merge the digital yuan/blockchain network into global trade.
This is significant, as it is the first time the Ministry of Commerce has brought up the technology in a five-year plan. A very similar project was done between Singapore and Rotterdam, as well as trade finance registries between Singaporean banks.
The state is also making about-turns on crypto activities. China has banned crypto and mining altogether on Sep 24, but is looking at getting opinions from Chinese citizens about it. Interesting, this is like the 5th time it is happening, but OK.
Reddit is preparing to launch its own NFT platform. It currently has 430M MAU, mostly around “news updates and widely read discussion threads”. There is also a strong culture of ‘tipping’, and some subreddits are experimenting with their own coins at the moment.
Would be interesting to see creator/community economies grow - how do we eat though?
Ideas
Apple’s iOS15 is enabling students to copy notes in class - without others’ permission. That’s some fancy use case there. We’ve got to realize Camera and Optical Character Recognition tech have advanced so much over the years, this usage is actually happening.
You know what, since the whole creator economy and the crypto thing is happening, I’d like to sell my notes for the price of 0.00058 BTC.
If you share my notes, you get a commission while we all get a little bit richer and smarter. How about it?
