Hearts were broken
Ether to the moon, state of COVID, and the forgotten Unicorn.
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Market summary: 📊
Investors clearly got a little too enthusiastic last week, so this week is about redemption. US turned red too, with tech taking a brutal flogging despite outstanding earnings reports.
US:
S&P 500 - down 0.67%
Nasdaq 100 - down 1.85%
India:
Nifty 50 - down 0.94%
Sensex - down 0.95%
What’s brewing hot? ☕
✅ Bill downloads Tinder—I mean, some of the jokes on Twitter are real funny, but all that aside, Bill and Melinda Gates are separating, ending a marriage that lasted 27 years, and probably will best be remembered by folks outside the family for the outstanding work the couple did together through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, addressing several of the world’s most pressing issues. The joint work on philanthropy will continue post separation though. Meanwhile, the 2020-pandemic led divorce spike needs to be talked about.
✅ Meanwhile, Ether to the moon—while you’re out busy hunting for new coins on Reddit, good ol’ Ethereum kicks off a monster run in plain sight. $ETH topped $3,500 a token for the first time yesterday, giving some throwback to the 2017 mania (if you were around then). But, ETH fans promise the rally this time is backed by “legit” development under the hood. Folks sitting around on the sidelines are basking in some epic FOMO -- which again is literally the bedrock of every bull thesis. Still time to get in?
Discord broke Microsoft’s heart 💔
Days after telling Microsoft to GTFO with their $10 billion check, Discord is now rubbing salt into the wound by partnering with Sony, the maker of PlayStation, and Microsoft’s arch nemesis in the gaming business.
To sweeten the arrangement, Sony’s is also getting a tiny stake in Discord, and the chat platform will be widely integrated into the PlayStation network.
Quite a spectacle to see the happenings play out—we’re guessing Microsoft perhaps tried throwing its weight around a little too much, which probably gave some monopolistic vibes to the generally “community-first” and developer-friendly Discord founding team.
Besides, given Discord has plans for its own IPO coming up, any less-encroaching offer made by Sony would obviously make more sense. Whoever countered the deal from Sony’s team, up for a fat bonus this year pal!
Last we checked, Discord had about 140 million month active users on its service, and now extending that with the PlayStation Network which has another 120 odd million, this is a thick cozy community forming fairly independent, and outside the purview of big tech platforms. Watch out.
Bottomline: it was looking as though Sony’s grasp on the gaming space was weakening—with literally every Big Tech giant doubling down on key innovative avenues. But with this deal Sony has secured a firm grip on one angle of the game at least, community.
Piecing 5G together, finally 🗼
COVID dented the 5G market and pushed back timelines of mobile carriers by at least 12 months. But we’re finally there, and the telco department in India has now greenlit mobile carriers to go ahead and kick off their live testing efforts.
4 telcos had applied for testing—Airtel, Jio, Vodafone, and MTNL. For the first 2 months, the telcos will be allowed to procure and set up all the equipment they need, while tests will run for the next 4 months. Telcos will essentially check if their equipment works, if the waves deliver strength as expected, etc., which will then feed plans of a thorough nationwide rollout.
Also, worth noting that none of the network equipment installed will be coming from any Chinese vendors this time. Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, as well as home-grown Jio rule this land.
Bottomline: 5G will essentially offer a huge boost to mobile data speeds and latency, unlocking possibilities for high-fidelity applications from AR to mass IOT monitoring. Considering how India embraced 4G, wanna take a shot at guessing what may be in store in the next 5 years?
In today’s major COVID responses 😷
Corporations and institutions are rapidly adjusting their sails to get through the COVID 2.0 storms… Quick round up of a few notable happenings:
IPL has been suspended—the only distraction away from the ensuing chaos had to be halted because players tested positive. Looked inevitable though. Star India, the official broadcaster of the games, is eyeing another catastrophic year with a Jupiter sized ₹1,500 crore hole in the pocket because… no ads
Maruti Suzuki just sliced its production by 50% because no demand coming for a while now, and would suck to clog the pipes with inventory and have cars sit out on lots
Meanwhile, vaccinations proceed aggressively. Mumbai set up the nation’s first drive in vaccination center for folks who are slinging the excuse of “no time”
For the third straight day today, total infections nationwide showed some signs of slowing down, as lockdowns show effect and citizens alarmed get back into sanitization mode.
But we’re not going to get out of this without 50-60%+ levels of vaccinations though, which could still be a month or two. Sit tight.
Closing out—the forgotten unicorn 😢
Clubhouse, the platform that literally made people buy iPhones, is rapidly going out of fashion.
For the month of Feb, total downloads came in at a tiny 900K, relative to the 2.7 million downloads seen in March, and the 10 million downloads seen in February.
Yeah.. we know about the tech adoption curve and how it sees multiple troughs before glory, but when you’re one of the fastest ventures to get to the Unicorn status, to further 4x your valuation in the next 3 months, trumping all prior evidence of Silicon Valley extravagance, you’re going to be scrutinized.
Meanwhile, Twitter just opened up Spaces for everyone with more than 600 followers. Looks like the market’s 15% whipping to the stock after a terrible earnings performance is finally pushing the team to make some moves.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
🤷 How many is too many?- The founders of Chingari have announced a new app called Fireside which is an audio social media app, like Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces. So, $5 billion?
😋 For your productive sessions - kinda breaking protocol here, but we found a gem on Product Hunt—an unending playlist of lo-fi hip hop. Bonus, press G for cute GIFs. You’re welcome.
Hit that 💚 if you liked today’s issue.
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