Lab Weekly - 12/01/2023
Exploring Gen Z’s financial habits, plus, the latest news about Meta’s Threads, Amazon’s AI image generator, and more
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Gen Z and the Financial Revolution
This week, we explore Gen Z's unique financial habits, focusing on their increased spending on experiences (funflation, anyone?), flexible income management preferences, and digital-native approach to ownership and investment, highlighting the need for innovative financial services tailored to their needs.
In case you missed it…
2023 Holiday Shopping Trends
Let’s take a look at the retail trends emerging out of this early stage of the holiday season, in particular, how a year’s economic uncertainty and a summer of “funflation” has impacted shopper behavior this year, and what innovative experiential retail may help win over shoppers.
Event Recap: OpenAI’s Inaugural Developer Conference
At its first-ever developer conference, OpenAI announced significant updates to ChatGPt and beyond, including the launch of custom GPT bots, a Builder tool that requires no coding, and an upcoming GPT store that recalls Apple’s launch of the App Store.
Meta Connect 2023 Recap: Everything Brand Marketers Need To Know
During its annual Connect conference, Meta offered crucial updates regarding its AI and metaverse strategies, signaling another attempt at consumer attention land-grabbing.
Keep an ear out for our upcoming episode on 2023 holiday shopping trends, coming to your podcast app of choice next week!
Meta’s Threads Set To Launch In Europe [WSJ]
Threads is expected to have 23.7 million monthly active users in the US by the end of this year as opposed to X’s 56.1 million, according to Insider Intelligence’s forecast in September. Those numbers are now likely far off given the recent news.
As Twitter implodes amid a widespread advertiser boycott over Elon Musk’s controversial and antagonizing remarks, Meta is plotting a timely expansion for its Twitter alternative. The Wall Street Journal reports that Meta is set to officially launch Threads in Europe in December, five months after the app’s US-only launch in July. Needless to say, this expansion into Europe would allow Meta to tap into a larger user base as it tries to catch up to X, which has significantly more users.
At the moment, it remains unclear exactly how Meta has ensured Threads satisfies Europe’s Digital Markets Act, which restricts the commingling of user data between apps. However, the Journal did note that the company will allow people to view Threads without signing up for an account. Now that the battle between Threads and Twitter is starting anew, Threads seems to be in an even better position to win.
Related: White House launches Threads account for Biden, Harris [Reuters]; Threads makes it easier for users to find relevant content, expands keyword search in all regions [The Verge]
Amazon Joins AI Image Creation Fray With New Model [The Verge]
Amazon introduced the Titan text-to-image AI model during the AWS re:Invent conference this week. This new model, Titan Image Generator, is designed to produce "realistic, studio-quality images" and incorporates safeguards against toxicity and bias. Unlike standalone applications, Titan is a tool for developers to create their own image generators, requiring access to Amazon Bedrock.
Targeted towards enterprises rather than individual consumers, unlike OpenAI's DALL-E, Titan also features automatic embedding of invisible watermarks in all generated images, which meets a key requirement of the Biden administration’s executive order on AI. This could be a good tool for brands and marketers looking to experiment with AI-generated images for their product design and creative assets, and it certainly adds to the value of AWS, which is now playing catch-up against its main competitors: Microsoft’s Azure, which is boosted by OpenAI’s models, and Google Cloud.
Related: Amazon’s Q AI assistant lets users ask questions about their company’s data [The Verge]; AWS innovates with secure data sharing for marketing and advertising [TechCrunch]
Netflix Launching Trio Of Grand Theft Auto Games for No Extra Charge [Variety]
Ever since Netflix started to add video games over two years ago, the global streamer has quietly been building out a library of more than 70 video games, all available at no extra cost. And it is about to get its biggest gaming title yet, with a trio of games from the popular Grand Theft Auto (GTA) arriving in December.
Recent reports have suggested that Netflix games aren’t being played by a significant chunk of its users, and Netflix has never released any data on user engagement with its games. Given that the company is still doubling down on its video game offering, however, it reaffirms that Netflix mainly sees video games as a strategic investment for retention and long-term growth. Moreover, while the games are currently offered for free, this continued investment in gaming could be a stepping stone for Netflix to explore new revenue models in the future, like in-game purchases or add-on access.
Related: Netflix tests streaming games to US TVs to take on PlayStation and Xbox [The Verge]; Two years later, Netflix is still experimenting with games [The Verge]
It’s officially been one year since ChatGPT launched, and new data indicates the mobile app versions of ChatGPT have topped 110 million combined installs and have reached nearly $30 million in consumer spending, according to data provided to TechCrunch by mobile intelligence provider, data.ai.
A rush of deep discounts and the growth of flexible payment options were the drivers behind $9.8 billion in online sales in the U.S. on Black Friday — a record figure for the day. According to Adobe Analytics, sales were up by 7.5% on last year’s numbers.
A new Forrester research report found that TikTok usage is reportedly plateauing among teens, as the percentage of teens using TikTok at least once per week going down 1% from 69% in 2022 to 68% in 2023. However, ,the weekly rate of usage is still higher than the 63% the app clocked in at two years ago.
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 our Group Director Josh Mallalieu!
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