Lab Weekly - 02/21/2025
The Future of Sports; Plus, the latest on Buzzfeed’s “oasis” social platform, Spotify’s new super-fan tier, and more must-know news and stats
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The Future of Sports as a Media Business
The fragmented sports media landscape, and how brands can engage the fans in new, exciting ways
In case you missed it…
Brand Takeaways from the 2025 Super Bowl Ads
From the consumer AI products, to the rise of women’s sports, to balancing Gen Z humor with nostalgia, here are four interesting trends gleaned from this year’s crop of Super Bowl ads that collectively reflect the current technology and media landscape.
Closing the “De Minimis” Loophole: What It Means for the Ecommerce Players
The ecommerce landscape faces a major shake-up that could impact retailers large and small.
BuzzFeed To Fight AI-Driven Social Media with a Platform of Its Own [The Verge]
BuzzFeed is developing a new social media platform aimed at counteracting the AI-driven algorithms that dominate platforms like TikTok and Meta. CEO Jonah Peretti frames this as a response to the growing dissatisfaction with algorithmic content selection that prioritizes compulsive engagement over user agency. BuzzFeed’s platform will be designed as an “oasis” from doomscrolling, and “built specifically to spread joy and enable playful creative expression.” The impetus behind this idea also aligns with the growing consumer need for media havens that we dissected in our Outlook 2025 report.
The push for “anti-algorithm” platforms aligns with broader trends in this space, such as decentralized social networks and purpose-driven communities that prioritize user well-being. However, whether BuzzFeed can successfully carve out a space in a crowded market remains uncertain. Competing against entrenched platforms requires not only a strong value proposition but also a sustainable business model that doesn’t rely on the same engagement-driven metrics it seeks to disrupt. If successful, BuzzFeed’s initiative could potentially influence how larger platforms approach content curation.
Related: Developer creates endless Wikipedia feed to fight algorithm addiction [ARS Technica]; Built on Bluesky, Pinksky brings its Instagram-like app to Android [TechCrunch]
Spotify Weighs $6 Premium for Added Features, Access to Tickets [Bloomberg]
This reported “Music Pro tier” is an interesting indication of Spotify’s growing ambition to capture more value from the music industry. For Spotify, this means leveraging live events, AI-powered personalization, and premium fan engagement to build a more resilient, diversified business model. And this rumored new tier seems to aim at exactly that.
And it’s not just music — It has become increasingly important for media companies to capture the attention and value created by the affiliated businesses (movies, sports. etc.) beyond the media content itself. Boutique movie studios like A24 engage their fanbase with exclusive merchandise and membership programs, while leading sports leagues increasingly invest in podcasts and social content — everyone is extending their reach beyond simply producing and distributing content, but rather aiming to create economic ecosystems where fans spend, interact, and engage across multiple platforms and touchpoints.
Related: Spotify’s push into video is missing some of the biggest podcasts [Bloomberg]; Netflix considers adding podcasts because they’re cheaper than quality films {Gizmodo]
Mistral Releases Its AI Assistant on iOS & Android [TechCrunch]
Mistral, a French AI startup that specializes in open-weight large language models, is positioning itself as Europe’s leading AI company. This European identity gives Mistral unique leverage in regulatory and enterprise markets, where concerns about data sovereignty, privacy, and AI governance are growing.
However, launching an AI assistant on mobile app stores to go directly up against the U.S.-dominated AI models from the likes of OpenAI and Google. The lack of voice interaction, a feature critical for AI assistants, may limit adoption in an increasingly multimodal AI landscape. The ability for Pro tier subscribers to opt out of sharing their data with Mistral may appeal to privacy-conscious users, but it remains to be seen whether faster inference speed and image generation alone will be enough to convince users to switch from well-entrenched AI brands.
Related: Perplexity just made AI research crazy cheap [VentureBeat]; Tinder will try AI-powered matching as the dating app continues to lose users [TechCrunch]
Situational Awareness:
Meta announces LlamaCon, its first generative AI developer conference [TechCrunch]
Named after Meta’s Llama family of generative AI models, this new conference bumps the usual developer conference event, Meta Connect, from its usual springtime spot to September. This move underscores Meta’s urgent determination to rally developers around its open-weight AI models to build more apps and features across its many properties and devices, including the popular Ray-Ban Meta glasses, especially in light of the recent success of other open-source AI models, such as those released by DeepSeek.
Amazon kills ‘Inspire,’ its TikTok-style feed for discovering products [TechCrunch]
The discontinuation of Inspire comes at a time when social commerce is rapidly evolving. Notably, TikTok Shop has reportedly outpaced competitors like Shein and Temu in sales, even amid looming regulatory challenges. This highlights a broader trend of consumers increasingly seeking engaging, content-driven shopping experiences that blend entertainment with frictionless impulse purchases. TikTok has a built-in audience of brand-friendly creators and engaged consumers; Amazon, despite its ecommerce dominance, has struggled to replicate that engagement.
Microsoft introduces AI model that can generate gameplay for Xbox [The Verge]
This new Muse AI model can assist game developers by creating game environments dynamically based on visuals or player inputs. Trained on gameplay data from Ninja Theory’s Bleeding Edge, Muse AI can generate interactive 3D worlds and respond to in-game physics and player actions. This could be a boom for player-driven content creation by providing new tools for AI-assisted modding and sandbox experiences.
HP to acquire parts of AI Pin startup Humane for $116 million [Fortune]
HP just spent $116 million to buy everything from Humane—except the one hardware product Humane actually built. The device was a high-profile failure upon launch, with tech reviewers, most famously Marques Brownlee (MKBHD), ripped it apart. So, let’s pour one out for AI Pin owners, who paid $700 for a high-tech paperweight that stops working in two weeks. But hey, this is the early experimental stage of AI wearables anyway, there’s bound to be casualties.
Apple launches new iPhone 16e [9to5Mac]
Apple’s latest budget-conscious iPhone notably comes with an A18 chip to enable Apple Intelligence features. Most of the cost-cutting comes from the back camera unit — like its predecessors, the 16e only has one camera lens.
OpenAI has hit 400 million weekly active users, up 33% in less than three months, OpenAI’s COO told CNBC. OpenAI is seeing that spill over to its growing enterprise business. The company now has 2 million paying enterprise users, roughly doubling from September.
According to the latest Nielsen Gauge chart for January 2025, the share of streaming service in U.S. TV time grew by 21% YoY, adding 6.6 share points since January 2024. Specifically, the season 2 of international hit Squid Game gave Netflix its highest monthly share yet at 8.6%.
EssilorLuxottica, which produces those glasses for Meta, has now publicly revealed that two million pairs of Meta Ray-Bans have sold since their October 2023 debut, The Verge reports, and that it’s aiming to produce 10 million Meta glasses each year by the end of 2026.
A quarter of U.S. shoppers have dumped favorite stores over political stances, The Guardian reports, citing a new poll by Harris. 31% of Americans reported having no interest in supporting the economy this year — a sentiment especially felt by younger (Gen Z: 37%) and Democratic consumers (35% vs. 29% of independents and 28% of Republicans), the Harris poll found.
If you find our insights valuable and would like to have a deeper conversation on technology and media innovations, or need to sound smarter in a client meeting or a pitch, please feel free to reach out to Chelsea Freitas, our VP of Strategy, at chelsea@ipglab.com.
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