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OVERWORLD:
-Temu’s Western takeover-
Mini-Stories:
-You can now lose in Civ to a paralyzed man-
-Gucci is doing bad-

THE DEPTHS:
-Pretty and strong, with the Witte Huis-

“Perfection is no small thing, but it is made up of small things.”
— Michelangelo

✦Trend Picks✦

Business

Temu’s Western takeover - making the rich, feel richer

There are two ways to live like a billionaire.

One, the good old-fashioned way: Make a sickening amount of money.

Two, the 2024 Chinese e-com shopper way: Buy everything dirt-cheap. so it'll feel like you’ve got a billy bank.

That you’re not about that life and will opt for the latter is Temu’s big bet. So, they created an “everything store” - like Amazon with piss-cheap pricing.

✦It’s working✦

Last month, Temu blasted their $21M “shop like a billionaire” Superbowl ad, and the internet ridiculed them. The ads looked… well, like they were bought from Temu themselves, as in they looked shit-cheap.

But for Temu, that $21M is kinda nothing. It's a diarrhea-cheap spend in their $3B global marketing strategy that’s working very well.

✦Six-figure earners shop there the most… lol✦

Yes, affluent shoppers who make $130,000+/year love Temu. They contribute to 44%+ of revenue and are the fastest-growing segment. At least the advertising isn’t false - at those prices, they’re indeed shopping like billionaires.

✦Doom scroll, and spend money✦

Amazon focuses on streamlining shopping for efficiency - but that's not Temu's style. Rather, they thrive on the thrill of discovery.

Its algorithm is much like Instagram and TikTok. It's a feed with suggestions based on browsing patterns. Which creates an endless feed of vomit-cheap items. In other words, it’s addictive.

✦What’s even in there?✦

The quality doesn't have to be shit. Temu's platform connects users with over 100,000 vendors - meaning the quality varies.

This leads to a diverse product range, often at differing prices, but always low. For example, $1 jewelry and $3 leather belts.

So next time somebody pulls up with blue fingers - know that the MF Doom ring they’re wearing probably cost $1.6.

✦Mini Stories✦

- You can now lose in Civ to a paralyzed man, thanks Elon-
-Gucci is doing bad-

🧠 You can now lose in Civ to a paralyzed man, thanks Elon.
Thanks to Neuralink, a paralyzed man can now play Civilization on his computer. The company, founded by Elon Musk in 2016, streamed the whole thing on X. If you missed it, watch it here - it’s 9 minutes and very cute.

The stream showed Noland Arbaugh, 29, paralyzed from the shoulders down, playing online chess and Civ (and hopefully obliterating noobs) using only his thoughts.

In case you didn't know: Neuralink makes a brain-computer interface that decodes intention from brain signals. The company's goal as of right now is to help paralyzed people use technology with their minds. But the big mission is to augment human minds with technology - basically, an iPhone in your brain. Very apocalyptic, and very controversial.

It’s good PR: Neuralink is obviously building goodwill by helping paralyzed and Alzheimer's patients first. After all, most are probably skeptical about letting Elon put brain-chip implants inside their skulls so they can become Google in the flesh.

But for now, Noland is happy - and that's all that matters. In the live stream, he describes the experience:

"I would attempt to move, say, my right hand left, right, forward, back, and from there I think it just became intuitive for me to start imagining the cursor moving ... I just can’t even describe how cool it is to be able to do this.”

📉Gucci is doing bad - sales soften as Asia isn’t buying as much.
If you thought real-estate wannabes spent a lot on Gucci belts, you should go to China and see how Gucci'd up they are.

It's estimated that more than a third of Gucci sales are from China, which is nice, as long as China has money. Cause when they don't Kering's pockets start hurting, bad.

Gucci accounted for two-thirds of their parent company Kering's operating income last year. Other brands like YSL, Balenciaga, and Bottega Veneta cover that last third.

Now, Big Daddy Kering anticipates a 10% drop in first-quarter revenues.

The reason is a 20% fall in sales at its crown jewel Gucci - which Kering blames the slowing economy in China for.

At least it looks good: Despite all of this, Gucci's collections are very well received. This is much thanks to their new creative director Sabato De Sarno's take on Gucci. It's a less extravagant, calmer, more relatable Gucci. But if it doesn't sell, it won't mean much.

✦Quick hits✦

• Condé Nast, the media empire that owns Vogue, The New Yorker, Architectural Digest, and more, is set to make $1.4B off Reddit’s IPO - because they own them too. A crazy come-up, as they bought Reddit in 2006 for $10M.

• TKO Group, owners of UFC, agreed to pay $335 million to settle a lawsuit where fighters said UFC was unfairly keeping their pay low.

• TikTok wants to pay creators to help them with search. They’re doing this by introducing "search value" to determine creator payouts in its new Creator Rewards program. This is cool.

• Cocoa beans are getting insanely expensive. This is because processing plants in Ivory Coast and Ghana, producing nearly 60% of the world's cocoa, have halted or reduced operations due to high bean costs. So… invest in cocoa?

• Dan Schneider, creator of Nickelodeon hit series such as “iCarly,” “The Amanda Show,” and “Victorious” apologizes for sexualizing young child stars with his shows. This is his response to the release of ID’s docuseries “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” which attempts an exposé of his TV shows.

• Also: Ariana Grande being sexualized on Victorious for 2 minutes straight.

• You should buy this: Loviselund Estate, a lakeside manor in Stockholm. It was built in 1682 built as a wedding gift from King Adolf Fredrik to Queen Lovisa Ulrika.

• Watch: How we need to clean up space trash (rockets, satellite trash, etc,) with lasers.

• Read: Uber-style pricing is coming for everything.

THE DEPTHS

Architecture

Pretty and strong, with the Witte Huis.

When the Witte Huis finished construction in 1898, the people of Rotterdam were afraid. They feared Rotterdam's weak soil couldn't handle such a tall, heavy block, and that it would sink.

Well, it still stands today, in all its 42-meter-high glory. These days, it's a dwarf in modern cityscapes, but back in the 1890s, these 40-50 meter high buildings were the world's first "skyscrapers."

Yes, the Witte Huis was Europe's tallest office building - rivaled only by American projects, as the Yanks loved scraping the skies.

(Below is the 55-meter-high 1885 Home Insurance Building in Chicago. It was demolished in 1931.)

Constructed for 127,900 guilders (how the fuck do you convert that?), the Witte Huis had plenty of money to pay for its Art Nouveau dress. It's chic as fuck, with floral motifs, pointy spires, cute striped shades, and mythical dragon statues.

And even though she never sank, this pretty girl was almost murdered - bombed with murderous intent. The 1940 German bombing of Rotterdam almost leveled the whole city. But like a symbol of peace, a white dove, the Witte Huis was the only standing building.

Now a protected monument, the Witte Huis stands as a symbol of Rotterdam’s unsinkable resilience and architectural heritage. It’s true, you can be both pretty and strong.