👋 Make a mistake at work? We suggest finding a scapegoat. Or, if you’re in Sri Lanka, a scapemonkey. The country blamed a mischievous monkey that “came into contact” with its power grid’s transformer for a nationwide blackout that kept 22m people without power. There will likely be more monkey business in the country: An estimated 2m-3m toque macaque monkeys live in Sri Lanka.
🎧 On the pod:Are video podcasts the future of Netflix?
NEWS FLASH
💰 How low would you go for $700m+? Would you dig through 25k cubic meters of trash? British IT worker James Howells is seriously considering it. In 2013, Howells accidentally tossed a hard drive containing the key to ~7.5k bitcoins — then worth ~$7m — that he’d mined in 2009. Knowing that figure has gone way up in the years since, Howells is considering buying a landfill in Newport, South Wales, where he believes his hard drive was ultimately dumped. While hunting for buried treasure sounds fun, locating a tiny drive in a landfill section holding 15k+ metric tons of waste does not. Sorry, Howells.
🏎️ You’re the only loser who didn’t buy a Bugatti last year. Or maybe it just feels that way: Classic car marketplace Bring a Trailer sold a record-breaking $1.5B worth of cars in 2024, despite a downturn for the broader classic car market. While live classic car auctions struggled, Bring a Trailer was winning online, holding 45k auctions of trucks, motorcycles, parts, and memorabilia, with 1.3m+ bidders raising their virtual paddles. A 2022 Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport was its most expensive sale of the year, ringing in at $4.1m, and its most popular auction was the sale of a BMW once owned by Michael Jordan.
🎮 Heads up, gamers: Sony’s State of Play is today at 5pm ET. The ~40-minute livestream — available on the PlayStation website, Twitch, and YouTube — is expected to provide updates on forthcoming games, which could include “Marvel’s Wolverine,” “Ghosts of Yotei,” and “Death Stranding 2.” Sony recently scrapped two live-service games, something it’s done several times before, as it struggles to gain traction in the GaaS (games as a service) market — games where video game publishers maintain a revenue stream by producing new content to sell to players — despite the success of “Helldivers 2.”
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
Playing defense: Archer Aviation, a startup building electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOLs), just raised $300m in fresh funding, bringing the company’s total to ~$3.4B. Once focused on air taxis, the startup recently steered into building defense aircraft.
Fewer sweets for your sweetie: You better write a really good card this year, because that box of chocolates might be a little light. Valentine’s Day chocolates could cost 10%-20% more than they did last year, with the price of cocoa hitting a record $12.6k+ per metric ton in December — up 100%+ since the beginning of 2024.
Speaking of romance, Taco Bell wants to help you say “I do” in the weirdest possible way. The company launched a Las Vegas wedding package for $777 that includes catered Taco Bell for up to 25 guests, matrimonial swag, and, of course, a bouquet made of sauce packets.
BRANDING BOOTCAMP
Your voice is your most-prized asset
You’ve been putting off being a thought leader for how long now…?
Here’s a surprising fact: Daily, people watch a collective 1B+ hours of YouTube content on their TVs.
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan revealed that TVs, not smartphones, are now the primary device US viewers use to watch the platform’s content, including podcasts, livestreams, YouTube Shorts, sports, and TV programming accessible to its 8m+ YouTube TV subscribers.
YouTube also dominates as the most-watched streaming platform, surpassing even Netflix.
How’d that happen?
People began watching YouTube on TVs more during the pandemic, and the trend has continued, perThe New York Times.
YouTube’s broad range of content appeals to multiple demographics.
People turn to YouTube for big cultural moments, including elections, sports games, and music festivals.
It’s improved its TV app, adding features that make content easier to browse and components that leverage its role as both a video and social media platform.
And then there’s the creators
While big streamers spend money on original content, YouTube’s creators spend their own money to produce content. Videos that get few views don’t lose the company money, but it takes a 45% cut of those that generate ad revenue.
Plus, content has vastly improved from YouTube’s early days, with modern creators producing talk shows, shorts, episodic content, and even feature-length films. Some even prefer YouTube to traditional entertainment pipelines, as it’s faster and gives them more control.
So, what’s next?
YouTube is adding and/or expanding several creator tools, including autodubbing in multiple languages, podcast discovery and monetization aids, and AI that can help with video ideas, titles, and thumbnails.
It’s also adding a “second screen experience” where users can interact with the videos they’re watching on TV with their phone — e.g., leaving comments or making purchases — and ad formats for (our new always-on) TVs, like pause ads and QR codes.
Meanwhile, rival Netflix is reportedly pursuing deals with podcasters, per Business Insider, including tapping them for talk shows.
That may appeal to the 89% of weekly Gen Z podcast listeners who watch or listen to podcasts with video content, but Netflix has competition from… Oh, YouTube again — it’s also the most-used service for podcasts in the US.
Fun fact: Some YouTube watchers are animals who enjoy compilations of birds. Unfortunately, there is no data on cat viewership.
From Carnegie Hall to the dog house: One musician is tapping into the $147B US pet market with music just for pets.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
Increase in Spotify streams for Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” in the hours following his Super Bowl halftime performance. The track was one of 10 he performed during his 13-minute set, which featured appearances by SZA, Samuel L. Jackson, and Serena Williams.
“Not Like Us” just swept up five Grammys, and an obvious part of the appeal is that it’s a diss track against rap rival Drake, who reportedly dated Williams in 2011. But it’s also common for a Super Bowl artist to get a popularity bump following their performance:
Rihanna’s streams popped 211%, while songs “Where Have You Been” and “Pour It Up” saw 450%+ increases in 2023.
Jennifer Lopez and Shakira’s streams jumped 267% and 187%, respectively, in 2020.
Usher’s streams surged 550% in 2024, while his 2005 hit “Caught Up” jumped a whopping 2k%.
AROUND THE WEB
📅 On this day: In 2005, artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s “The Gates,” which consisted of 7,503 gates hung with orange fabric, debuted in NYC’s Central Park. The husband-and-wife duo had dreamed up the installation in 1979, but spent years seeking approval.
📺 Game: Are you a “Severence” fan? Please enjoy your day at Lumon Industries.
🧠 Opportunity: AI is moving fast. Are you keeping up? Our sister AI newsletter, Mindstream, is hosting a free webinar on how to master prompts, pick the right tools, and build GPTs. Register here for free.
