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- What's Appening: A Bot-ched Takeover Deal 🤖🤖
What's Appening: A Bot-ched Takeover Deal 🤖🤖
Elon Pulls Out, Battle for Your Lock Screen, Meta Dumps Facebook (Sort of), EPL NFT Launch
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ELON MUSK BLAMES THE BOTS: WILL THE COURTS FORCE HIM TO BUY TWITTER ANYWAY?
🌮 TLDR
In this week’s What’s Appening, we make a reluctant return to Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover. The Tesla boss has made a U-turn, claiming Twitter covered up its bot problem when the deal was agreed. Twitter now wants to take Musk to court to force the sale. Away from the Twitter circus, we have news of big changes likely to come to your smartphone’s lock screen. Elsewhere, Meta will now allow users to access its products without having a Facebook account. Our Stat of the Week looks at Glance’s global push for lock screen content. And What’s dAppening reports on the Premier League’s launch of NFTs, which will have a focus on utility, not speculative monetary value.
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🐤👨⚖️ Twitter – Court Battle on the Cards as Elon Musk Pulls Out of Takeover Deal
Did anyone think it would be easy? Elon Musk announced he was exiting the $44 billion Twitter deal on Friday in a move that should have come as a surprise to nobody. It’s 78 days since the Twitter board agreed to the takeover, meaning it’s about 77 days since Musk started complaining about Twitter (allegedly) cooking the books when it comes to bots. In a nutshell, Musk has said no dice to the deal because (he claims) Twitter misrepresented its ‘real’ subscriber numbers and, as a consequence, the value of the business. Twitter’s board made claims to the contrary, and it is now taking Musk to court to demand the deal go through. Of course, everyone knows Twitter has a bot problem – it’s one of the things that Musk promised to fix – but nobody is sure of the scale of the issue. Musk tweeted on Sunday that he welcomes the court case because he believes the legal discovery will force Twitter to come clean on its numbers to the SEC. So, what happens next? The problem with reporting on Elon Musk is that his ‘big’ personality makes it difficult to find and provide objective analysis. His ‘fans’ are claiming a huge victory, believing Musk has outsmarted the Twitter board and will end up getting the deal done at a knockdown price. His detractors, meanwhile, are crying foul play and asking why someone would agree to pay $44 billion for a product without doing as much due diligence as one would for buying a used car. For the rest of us, it’s simply tiring. And we will now enter a drawn-out court battle that will likely hurt more than just Twitter investors. #JustGetItDone Read more here.
📱😟 Lock Screens – The Next Frontier for Your Smartphone with Content (and Ads)
We are big fans of widgets at 3Advance: You can even check out our work in the area for Today’s Front Pages, which allows you to browse your favorite newspapers on your phone’s home screen. Whether it’s a quick glance at the weather or seeing the latest sports scores, it makes sense to have the information at hand without opening an app. But what if things are taken a step further? Glance, a company backed by Google and Samsung, among others, wants to start putting content on your lock screen. And, yes, that includes ads. The idea of your lock screen as an untapped resource has been talked about for a while, but there are competing ideas of what should be done with it. Apple, for instance, announced at WWDC that iOS 16 would allow iPhone users to have a more customizable lock screen. But that focus is mostly on unique designs and wallpapers, although Apple has teased widgets. Glance, and others, want something more substantial. It provides a feed of content on your lock screen – news, videos, games, photos, ads, etc. – all vying for your attention when your phone is supposed to be ‘closed’. Does it seem like a step too far? Most of us already battle with too much screen time, and the lock screen is supposed to act as a barrier to that. And while you might think it won’t catch on, check out our Stat of the Week below to see how Glance is already making big waves in Asia – and coming for the US. #AGlanceTooFar Read more here.
🆔🌠 Meta – Sign In with Facebook Will No Longer Be Necessary for Metaverse ID System
Back in October when Facebook changed its name to Meta and claimed it wanted to be known for building the metaverse, there were questions over whether a decoupling from Facebook would be possible. Part of that was through Meta’s continued use of Facebook as its default product epicenter, most notably the insistence on using “Sign In with Facebook” to access many of its products. That is now changing, with the company announcing that there would be a new Meta account available to users who wish to sign in without having Facebook. This is much more than a symbolic act as Meta strives to build its new image. Years of scandals, including data controversies, have left many of us reluctant to use Facebook login, something that has led to more prominence for Apple and Google’s login solutions. But for those who wish to explore Meta’s VR and metaverse products, there is now no need for the creation and maintenance of a social media account. It’s been broadly welcomed by those already using Meta’s Quest and Horizon Worlds, and we think it’ll help when Meta eventually scraps Sign-In with Facebook for all products in its ecosystem. #SignInWithMeta Read more here.
🧐 Stat of the Week – 400M
📱📈 400 Million Lock Screens Powered by Glance
We wrote earlier of Glance’s plans for lock screens. But we wanted to make it clear that this is not some scrappy little startup with a moonshot idea. Four hundred million Android devices in Asia already use the content provider. It will have to adjust its business model somewhat for its planned foray into the US market, though. In Asia, it has direct relations with smartphone manufacturers, whereas, in the US, the deals must be struck with mobile carriers (reportedly, two major carriers have already signed up), which command the bulk of smartphone sales through data plans. Still, it sees the US as the ultimate prize in its global expansion, as we are more likely to pay for digital services. Reports suggest it could be rolling out as soon as next month. Will it be a welcome addition to your smartphone? #EndlessScreenTime Read more here.
🕸️ What’s dAppening?
A dApp is a decentralized app. Here’s the latest in web3, nfts and blockchain apps.
🖼️⚽Premier League – Launch of NFTs Despite Collapse in Wider Market Value If you know 3Advance, you’ll know CEO Paul and CTO Darren are avid followers of the Premier League, and they enjoy a friendly rivalry as Liverpool (Paul) and Manchester United (Darren) fans. While they don’t agree on most things related to the rivalry between the two clubs, they do agree on the future of NFTs, and it seems the Premier League does too. Now, it might seem that the EPL missed the boat with its NFT launch, given the collapse in the value of the wider NFT market. However, the EPL’s vision is more in line with our own for NFTs. In short, they don’t see them as speculative trading assets but as digital collectibles that can help drive fan engagement and create a reciprocal digital ecosystem used by both fans and teams. The Premier League NFTs are expected to launch later this year, and they are expected to be low-value (in monetary terms) and, to an extent, non-tradeable. As we mentioned last week when reporting on China’s speculation-free NFTs, this feels like a much healthier way for fans to engage, allowing them to see an NFT for what it’s worth, not what the market dictates it’s worth. #NFTFC Read more here.
Meanwhile at 3Advance..
Our Texas team is expanding! While our heart will always be in DC, it’s exciting to see HQ2 in Austin TX flourish and grow. Last week, we brought on the latest member of our Product team, Kayne Lynn. Originally from Louisiana, Kayne has a finance background and ran his own startup, Revibe from 2018 to 2021. Kayne joins Rishi, Shawn and Sandip to form the strong Austin contingent of 3Advance. As we plan out our 2022 team retreat, maybe Kayne will give us some tips on what to get up to when we arrive in New Orleans at the end of September.🛬🎶