As February comes to a close, Twitter launches Super Followers, NBA Top Shot and NFTs become our new obsession, Bridgerton transforms the dating industry, and we find the future of Boating navigation. So play your new favourite Sea Shanty mix, load up your crypto account, and let’s check in on the Weekly Wins we’re following.
1. Super Followers
Twitter launched a new premium service called Super Follow this week. What’s this? It’s a paid subscription feature that will allow users to sign up to get exclusive content, deals, and access to accounts for prices like $4.99/month. So essentially it’s paid Tweets. One reporter at The Information noted how this might impact things. Just like Substack has boomed for journalists, now they also could find, “reporters being able to paywall their tweets is going to shake up so many newsrooms.” They also are bringing Communities, a new feature that is Twitter’s answer to Facebook Groups.
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2. NBA Top Shot Bubble
If you haven’t yet warmed up your diamond hands and jumped onboard the digital bandwagon of NBA Top Shot, you may have missed your chance. In short, Top Shot has sold over $200 million in digital highlights. Still with us? Think of it like the future of trading cards, but with video clips and verified by blockchain technology. The top collectable is valued at $250,000. SBnation describes it perfectly as “a beautiful user interface that marries the thrill of collecting sports cards, with the promise of participating in cryptocurrency. It’s just happened to blow up at the perfect time.” Fun Fact: This week 80,000 users digitally lined up for 5,000 spots in a digital drop.
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3. The NFT Craze is here
And if NBA Top Shot isn’t your jam, everyone is also getting into the NFT game. NFTs or non-fungible tokens are now as buzzworthy as GameStop stock was a few weeks ago. In one example, “Sheldon Corey from Montreal, Canada, told CNBC he paid $20,000 for one of thousands of computer-generated avatars called CryptoPunks.” The grandfather of NFT’s CryptoKitties is selling nearly half a million a week. A Nyan Cat meme GIF sold for $600,000. And even social media bad boy Logan Paul launched his own NFT this week selling over $5 million also linked to a contest about Pokemon cards. Welcome to the world of crypto-collectables.Â
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4. The Bridgerton Effect
If you’ve watched the Netflix series, you can understand how the language of the past has made itself known in the dating world of the present. They say romance isn’t dead, and neither are the words courting, flirting, and even old fashioned wooing. “According to Tinder, “courting” has been included in 81 percent more Tinder bios this year, compared to February 2020. Interestingly, that data pertains to users 18-to-25, meaning Gen Z daters seem to be showing an interest in more traditional forms of romancing. The dating app thinks that the popularity of period dramas like Netflix’s Bridgerton are the reason for this.”
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5. Like Google Maps for Boaters
This one is pretty Pound & Grain insider baseball. Our producer queen Kelsey is a well-known sailboating fanatic. And this news of the future of charting in the form of navigation inspired by the modern iPhone App is here. Orca is the first new navigation system in over 20 years and plans to revolutionize the industry. Just proving that anything can be disrupted— even something as niche as the history-rich boating navigation industry. Which makes sense given 2021 is the year of the Sea Shanty. “Soon may the Wellerman come. To bring us sugar and tea and rum.”
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1. Super Followers
Twitter launched a new premium service called Super Follow this week. What’s this? It’s a paid subscription feature that will allow users to sign up to get exclusive content, deals, and access to accounts for prices like $4.99/month. So essentially it’s paid Tweets. One reporter at The Information noted how this might impact things. Just like Substack has boomed for journalists, now they also could find, “reporters being able to paywall their tweets is going to shake up so many newsrooms.” They also are bringing Communities, a new feature that is Twitter’s answer to Facebook Groups.
2. NBA Top Shot Bubble
If you haven’t yet warmed up your diamond hands and jumped onboard the digital bandwagon of NBA Top Shot, you may have missed your chance. In short, Top Shot has sold over $200 million in digital highlights. Still with us? Think of it like the future of trading cards, but with video clips and verified by blockchain technology. The top collectable is valued at $250,000. SBnation describes it perfectly as “a beautiful user interface that marries the thrill of collecting sports cards, with the promise of participating in cryptocurrency. It’s just happened to blow up at the perfect time.” Fun Fact: This week 80,000 users digitally lined up for 5,000 spots in a digital drop.
3. The NFT Craze is here
And if NBA Top Shot isn’t your jam, everyone is also getting into the NFT game. NFTs or non-fungible tokens are now as buzzworthy as GameStop stock was a few weeks ago. In one example, “Sheldon Corey from Montreal, Canada, told CNBC he paid $20,000 for one of thousands of computer-generated avatars called CryptoPunks.” The grandfather of NFT’s CryptoKitties is selling nearly half a million a week. A Nyan Cat meme GIF sold for $600,000. And even social media bad boy Logan Paul launched his own NFT this week selling over $5 million also linked to a contest about Pokemon cards. Welcome to the world of crypto-collectables.Â
4. The Bridgerton Effect
If you’ve watched the Netflix series, you can understand how the language of the past has made itself known in the dating world of the present. They say romance isn’t dead, and neither are the words courting, flirting, and even old fashioned wooing. “According to Tinder, “courting” has been included in 81 percent more Tinder bios this year, compared to February 2020. Interestingly, that data pertains to users 18-to-25, meaning Gen Z daters seem to be showing an interest in more traditional forms of romancing. The dating app thinks that the popularity of period dramas like Netflix’s Bridgerton are the reason for this.”
5. Like Google Maps for Boaters
This one is pretty Pound & Grain insider baseball. Our producer queen Kelsey is a well-known sailboating fanatic. And this news of the future of charting in the form of navigation inspired by the modern iPhone App is here. Orca is the first new navigation system in over 20 years and plans to revolutionize the industry. Just proving that anything can be disrupted— even something as niche as the history-rich boating navigation industry. Which makes sense given 2021 is the year of the Sea Shanty. “Soon may the Wellerman come. To bring us sugar and tea and rum.”