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Dan Frommer has just just released his latest Consumer Trends report (2023). If you'd like to download a free copy, you can do that over here. It is amazing to see how big of a deal Tik Tok has become. In Q3 2022, the average Android user spent 98 minutes per day in the app. That is a lot, and it's roughly 2x what Facebook and Instagram each saw (though if you combine these two apps, I guess they're pretty similar). Either way, this is where people's attention is now being spent. For those of us in real estate, the report also has some interesting slides on grocery stores. The key message here is that physical stores remain hugely important.
The year-over-year change in online grocery spending is now flat to a little negative:
No matter which generation you ask, more people prefer shopping for groceries in-store, versus online:
And even when people do shop for groceries "online", they still tend to pick them up from their local store or have that local store deliver it to them (so the store matters):
For the full report, click here.
If I had to pick only one social network to use, it would be Twitter. I, of course, also enjoy Instagram because I like taking photos. But if I had to pick one, it would be Twitter.
I just find that Instagram is more about passive consumption (like watching TV), whereas on Twitter I've found a way to actively engage in productive discussions around the topics that interest me -- everything from real estate and architecture to NFTs and photography.
The crypto community is also very centered around Twitter. I haven't looked at the numbers, but I would think that NFT activity has been, or at least should be, a boon for the company. That said, Twitter has never really been a great business and public company.
But maybe that changes now that Elon Musk has become its largest shareholder with a 9.2% stake in the company (currently valued at a few billion). The stock jumped over 27% today. Or maybe it doesn't change at all and this is just a fun side hustle for Elon.
Here is a typically funny explanation from Matt Levine introducing what just happened:
Look this all makes complete sense, obvious, intuitive, simple sense. If you are the richest person in the world, and annoying, and you constantly play a computer game, and you get a lot of enjoyment and a sense of identity from that game and are maybe a little addicted, then at some point you might have some suggestions for improvements in the game. So you might leave comments and email the company that makes the game saying “hey you should try my ideas.” And the company might ignore you (or respond politely but not move fast enough for your liking). It might occur to you: “Look, I am the richest person in the world; how much could this game company possibly cost? I should just buy it and change the game however I want.” Even if your complaints are quite minor, why shouldn’t you get to play exactly the game you want? Even if you have no complaints, why not own the game you love, just to make sure it continues to be exactly what you want? The game is Twitter, the richest person in the world is Elon Musk...
Social media can be both fun and useful. Over the weekend, we were exploring a few different design options for an address sign at Mackay Laneway House and so I posted this image on Twitter and storied it on Instagram. I got a bunch of responses, as well as some great suggestions. And we ultimately ended up making a small change to the design. That process was both fun and useful. The final design is now out for pricing and production.
But as we all know, there is also a dark side to social media. The algorithms that power social media have been optimized to amplify whatever drives the most engagement. Oftentimes that means whatever gets people the most enraged. In this recent NY Times article, Stuart A. Thompson and Charlie Warzel make a compelling argument that Facebook has actually been coaxing many Americans into taking more extreme views on the platform -- it made them more popular.
And we're not talking about extreme views on home address signs.
Dan Frommer has just just released his latest Consumer Trends report (2023). If you'd like to download a free copy, you can do that over here. It is amazing to see how big of a deal Tik Tok has become. In Q3 2022, the average Android user spent 98 minutes per day in the app. That is a lot, and it's roughly 2x what Facebook and Instagram each saw (though if you combine these two apps, I guess they're pretty similar). Either way, this is where people's attention is now being spent. For those of us in real estate, the report also has some interesting slides on grocery stores. The key message here is that physical stores remain hugely important.
The year-over-year change in online grocery spending is now flat to a little negative:
No matter which generation you ask, more people prefer shopping for groceries in-store, versus online:
And even when people do shop for groceries "online", they still tend to pick them up from their local store or have that local store deliver it to them (so the store matters):
For the full report, click here.
If I had to pick only one social network to use, it would be Twitter. I, of course, also enjoy Instagram because I like taking photos. But if I had to pick one, it would be Twitter.
I just find that Instagram is more about passive consumption (like watching TV), whereas on Twitter I've found a way to actively engage in productive discussions around the topics that interest me -- everything from real estate and architecture to NFTs and photography.
The crypto community is also very centered around Twitter. I haven't looked at the numbers, but I would think that NFT activity has been, or at least should be, a boon for the company. That said, Twitter has never really been a great business and public company.
But maybe that changes now that Elon Musk has become its largest shareholder with a 9.2% stake in the company (currently valued at a few billion). The stock jumped over 27% today. Or maybe it doesn't change at all and this is just a fun side hustle for Elon.
Here is a typically funny explanation from Matt Levine introducing what just happened:
Look this all makes complete sense, obvious, intuitive, simple sense. If you are the richest person in the world, and annoying, and you constantly play a computer game, and you get a lot of enjoyment and a sense of identity from that game and are maybe a little addicted, then at some point you might have some suggestions for improvements in the game. So you might leave comments and email the company that makes the game saying “hey you should try my ideas.” And the company might ignore you (or respond politely but not move fast enough for your liking). It might occur to you: “Look, I am the richest person in the world; how much could this game company possibly cost? I should just buy it and change the game however I want.” Even if your complaints are quite minor, why shouldn’t you get to play exactly the game you want? Even if you have no complaints, why not own the game you love, just to make sure it continues to be exactly what you want? The game is Twitter, the richest person in the world is Elon Musk...
Social media can be both fun and useful. Over the weekend, we were exploring a few different design options for an address sign at Mackay Laneway House and so I posted this image on Twitter and storied it on Instagram. I got a bunch of responses, as well as some great suggestions. And we ultimately ended up making a small change to the design. That process was both fun and useful. The final design is now out for pricing and production.
But as we all know, there is also a dark side to social media. The algorithms that power social media have been optimized to amplify whatever drives the most engagement. Oftentimes that means whatever gets people the most enraged. In this recent NY Times article, Stuart A. Thompson and Charlie Warzel make a compelling argument that Facebook has actually been coaxing many Americans into taking more extreme views on the platform -- it made them more popular.
And we're not talking about extreme views on home address signs.
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