💰 Microsoft One-Ups the Metaverse
JPM Aims at FinTech, Uber Boat, & Aldi vs. Amazon
So, what happened this week in the Tech & Startup world? 🌍
The Grapevine Newsflash 🔥
12 tech & startup stories in 186 super short seconds.
🏦 JPM Goes for Fintech One of the worlds largest lenders, JPMorgan Chase announced it’ll spend $12bn on technology in 2022 - likely more than the cumulative spend of Fintechs worldwide. Is this enough to fend off the Fintech assault or will this incumbent fend off the competition?
🚀 The Future of Fintech? Andreessen Horowitz has published a brilliant blog on the ‘big ideas’ that Fintech will tackle in 2022. Our favourite? The infusion of crypto into more Fintech products and the drive to take finance ‘carbon neutral’. This blog is a must read, check it out here.
🤝 Coinbases Partners with Mastercard. In anticipation for its upcoming NFTs marketplace, Coinbase has announced a partnership with Mastercard which will enable users to buy Non-Fungible-Tokens with fiat currency. This should lower the barrier to entry to buy NFTs, making it more accessible to all. We’re really excited about this one, you can read more here.
🤔 How Is OpenSea Doing? Checkout this awesome collection of dashboards on OpenSea’s performance. What’s OpenSea? It’s the eBay of NFTs.
🎤 Spotify’s Podcasting Blip. We all know Spotify has been doubling down on podcasts. However, Spotify just shut down it’s own ‘podcast production studio’. Read more here.
🛒 Aldi vs. Amazon. UK retailer Aldi has launched its first ‘grab and go’ till-free supermarket where advanced cameras track users' behaviour and get billed without needing to pay. This is a direct competition to Amazon Fresh, which has started rolling out across the UK. Read more here or understand more about the underlying tech here.
😎 Google’s AR Headset. Google is planning an Augmented Reality headset for 2024 to compete with Apple and meta. Read more here.
🛥️ Uber Boat The gig-economy transport company will operate ‘eco-friendly’ passenger riverboat services in London towards the end of this year. It marks a step towards decarbonization as well as Uber’s expansion into further transport methods.
🤑 TikTok Premium The short-form video service is looking at the option for creators to charge for exclusive content. This comes only 24 hours after Instagram launched the same feature. OnlyFans inspired?
📛 Unintended Consequences When Apple’s “AirTags” were announced, they were met with a positive reception. However, since then they’ve been used to enable both robberies and stalking. Should they be discontinued?
💭 Meme War Two of the most powerful people in tech, Jack Dorsey and Marc Andreessen, are at odds over “Web 3”. Dorsey sees VCs as an evil that ultimately centralizes the future; Marc however sees it very differently (having invested in some of the biggest Web3 winners to-date). Read more here.
💰 Microsoft One-Ups the Metaverse The global software giant has acquired Activision, the makers of Call of Duty amongst other games, for $68.7bn. This makes it the largest deal in gaming history. It’s a significant step forward towards the true ‘Metaverse’ but almost certainly will have push back from the regulators.
☕ How to Support Our Growth 🎉
We wanted to be upfront and honest with everyone super quickly. We’re both incredibly proud of this newsletter. We love our community, and we’re incredibly grateful to all of you who have ever opened a newsletter, shared a post or told a friend to sign up.
We also put a lot of time and money into The Grapevine to ensure we grow the user base, keep the website up and running, and have access to the best publications so we can share great stories with you. We’re also lucky enough to have some brilliant advertisers who help us balance the books.
If you love get this email for free every Friday and want to support our growth you can do that in just a couple of taps by contributing $5 directly to The Grapevine using the big green button below. If you do, please feel free to reach out on LinkedIn so we can thank you personally.
🤔 p.s. if you’re in the UK, Stripe will automatically take $5s in £s (about £3.75) without any fees or charges to you.
Want to have a chat?
Shoot us an email at founders@onthegrapevine.co
Don’t follow us on LinkedIn?
Over & Out,
Nick, Louis & NFTs