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🏠 TikTok's Backup Plan

🏠 TikTok's Backup Plan

TikTok has a backup plan and it’s #10 in the app store.

Stephen Flanders & Jason Levin
March 29, 2023

Together with

Gm. TikTok has a backup plan and it’s #10 in the app store.

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ANNOUNCEMENT

Refer Readers, Get Bitcoin

We’re starting back our referral program!

You probably saw Balaji Srinivasan bet $1M that Bitcoin was going to $1M.

Well, we’re giving away Bitcoin all of April:

5 Referrals: $10 in BTC
20 Referrals: $50 in BTC
100 Referrals: $150 in BTC

P.S. We’re also offering a surprise gift for the top referrer.

FRESH POWDER

Looking at three startups that just raised. Congrats!

VR

Strap On Your Therapy Goggles

When you think about VR, you probably picture Zuckerberg losing a lot of money, immersive gaming experiences, funky-looking goggles, or the movie Ready Player One.

All of those are dope, but VR actually has another use case that has the potential to help countless people.

I’m talking about therapy.

Face Your Fears

It’s common for people to struggle with anxieties and phobias. Some are afraid of public speaking. Others can’t kill spiders. Some can’t stomach heights.

Often, people are prescribed to face their fears. Of course, this is easier said than done. If you’re scared of heights, you're not going to rush to the top of a skyscraper.

This is where VR can help.

With VR, you can simulate your fears without having to actually face them. It’s still an anxiety-inducing experience, for sure, but it’s much more manageable than doing it in real life.

For many people with phobias, this has been absolutely transformative and has delivered results much faster than in traditional therapy.

Waiting For Its Moment

However, despite its effectiveness, VR therapy still hasn’t become commonplace.

And that’s because VR still isn’t widely used.

But, this could be changing soon. There’s no shortage of companies looking to cook up VR headsets. Maybe the Apple MR headset will be VR’s iPhone moment. Maybe Meta will finally validate their Metaverse bet. Maybe some other competitor will come out of nowhere, ChatGPT style.

Whatever the case, hopefully it happens soon, because VR therapy is too powerful to not be mainstream.

APPS

TikTok’s Backup Plan

Well, it’s looking like a TikTok ban / forced sale is going to happen.

But ByteDance has a backup plan. They’ve been using paid ads to drive traffic to their app Lemon8, an Instagram rival that describes itself as a "lifestyle community” whatever the heck that means (TikTok clone lol).

After never breaking the top 200 in the app store, Lemon8 jumped to the Top. Charts on Monday becoming the No. 10 overall app across apps and games.

“The firm confirms that such a fast move from being an unranked app to being No. 9 among the top free apps in the U.S. — ahead of YouTube, WhatsApp, Gmail and Facebook — implies a “significant” and “recent” user acquisition push on the app publisher’s part,” wrote TechCrunch.

What is Lemon8?

A Lifestyle Community, duh.

Seriously what does that mean???

From the looks of it, it seems like TikTok and IG had a baby.

All over TikTok, you can find users posting about Lemon8 as “Pinterest meets Instagram” or “like Instagram and Pinterest had a baby”.

For example, says one creator, Gabrielle Victor speaking to her 435.3K followers, “it’s so f***ing cute. Aesthetically pleasing. It’s like Pinterest and Instagram came together and had a baby.” Another creator, Passion Willems (73.9K followers) recommends, “if you haven’t heard of it, I recommend you run over to the App Store and download it!”

Well you’ve heard it here. America’s new lifestyle community is here (whatever the heck that means.)

QUICK HITS

Seed Round

Stat: 72.5%: The percentage of businesses who said their employees rarely teleworked in 2022. So long, WFH era. It’s been a blast.

Story we're watching: Apple has acquired WaveOne, a startup that was developing AI algorithms for compressing video. So far, Apple has notably stayed out of the generative AI arms race. Is that about to change?

Rabbit hole: 40 Mind-Expanding Concepts (The Prism)

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

Some of the Twitter source code was leaked online.
Apple is making progress on its Self-Driving System.
Smart bandages are coming to keep you chronic-wound-free.
United Airlines is planning to bring flying cars to Chicago.

THREE LIES AND A HEADLINE

News is so weird these days. Three of these headline are fake stories from The Onion while one is actually true. Can you spot the truth amongst the fakes?

A. Jimmy, Rosalynn Carter Announce Divorce

B. Prisoner Given 10 Extra Years For Good Behavior To Serve As Role Model For Fellow Inmates

C. MTA Announces New Minimum Income Requirements To Ride Subway

D. The Great Shoulder Resurgence Is Coming