Brigadoon Weekend | No. 3 | January 29, 2022
Curating the top ten emerging issues from the week shaping commerce + culture
ONE
Burkina Faso army deposes president in West Africa's latest coup.
NYT reports the morning after the coup in Burkina Faso, a crowd of revelers celebrating the military takeover in the dusty central plaza of the capital had two messages for the outside world: No to France, and yes to Russia.
"No, we don't want no more France. We are here because we want the defense of Russia. France hasn't done anything that gives us success."
The sudden clamor for Moscow's help was a further sign of how Islamist violence across the Sahel, a vast region south of the Sahara, is upending old alliances and eroding pro-Western, if often weak, democratic political orders.
This is the third successful military coup in West Africa eight months after juntas took power in Guinea and neighboring Mali last year.
Look for the Russian private security company Wagner, which has close links to the Kremlin, to increase its activities and take advantage of growing anti-French sentiment in West Africa.
TWO
In China the "little giants" are on the rise.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has named 4,762 little giants since 2019, many in semiconductors, machinery, and pharmaceutical industries.
The designation typically comes with lucrative incentives from the central government or provincial authorities, including tax cuts, generous loans, and favorable talent acquisition policies.
"What the country is trying to promote is more hardcore technology. In that sense, this is more in line with what they are trying to promote — things that make China more competitive." -- Yipin Ng, founding partner of Yunqi Partners
Venture investments in China hit a record last year despite the crackdown. The value of deals rose about 50% in 2021 to $130.6 billion, according to the research firm Preqin.
Look for China to continue to dampen Alibaba and ByteDance and push investments to focus on the government's priorities - think less computer engineering power for TikTok and more for biotechnology.
THREE
Milan gives abandoned World Expo buildings a Silicon Valley-style reboot.
Six years after the expo, a makeover of the sprawling site is just getting started.
Milan is taking cues from Silicon Valley to transform an area more than twice the size of the Vatican into a sustainable, post-pandemic technology center.
The $5.1 billion redevelopment of one of Europe's biggest vacant lots includes research labs, a startup accelerator, and a science campus.
The MIND Milano Innovation District will have housing and working space for 60,000 people, including accommodation for 3,000 students. The University of Milan will complete a new science campus with room for 18,000 students and 1,000 lecturers and researchers in 2025.
Italy ranks only 12th for venture capital investments in Europe, with 3.6 billion euros raised in the last five years, according to Dealroom.
Look for Milan to compete against other cities like London, Paris, and Amsterdam, as Europe seeks to better rival the US and China in developing new technology.
FOUR
The rise of the crypto mayors.
Maimi Mayor Francis Suarez now styles himself as a kind of crypto diplomat.
After taking over this month as president of the US Conference of Mayors, he urged members to sign a "crypto compact" calling on the federal government to eschew overly aggressive regulation of the industry.
Suarez's vice chair at the Conference of Mayors is a fellow crypto enthusiast.
Hillary Schieve, in her second term as the mayor of Reno, NV, announced plans to turn a famous whale sculpture in downtown Reno into an NFT.
Look for mayors to drive crypto boosterism with its bipartisan appeal among anti-government conservatives and socially liberal tech moguls.
FIVE
Can Ford compete with Tesla in the EV market?
Until now, most consumer EVs have been sedans, like Tesla's Model 3. But sedans are a dying segment of the overall US car market.
Ford has pledged that by 2030 forty percent of its global sales will be EVs.
According to the International Energy Agency, only two percent of the vehicles sold in the US in 2020 were EVs., far behind EV adoption rates in China and Europe. In Norway, seventy-five percent of new car sales in 2020 were EVs.
A new offering from Ford gives businesses a bigger incentive to go electric with their commercial fleets. Ford commands 45% of the US market for commercial vehicles and is a big player in Europe too.
Look for Ford's commercial fleet business to lead the company into the electric vehicle era.
SIX
Has the appetite for plant-based meat already peaked?
According to data provider SPINS, after a 46 percent rise in 2020 on the back of soaring demand at the start of the pandemic, sales in plant-based meat in the US in 2021 fell 0.5 percent.
The ebbing of the sales surge is down to products that fail to meet taste expectations.
"There are a lot of people that have moved to plant-based because of sustainability issues, but yet they aren't really satisfied with what's out there." -- Neil Rankin - Creative Director @ Symplicity Foods
Analysts also blame a long list of ingredients with unfamiliar names for making the product look like highly processed food and acting as a barrier to repeat purchases.
Despite sales growth falling in the US and UK, an extra $3bn was invested into the sector in 2021.
Look for industry consolidation leading to improved efficiencies, stronger players, and better products, fuelling renewed growth.
SEVEN
What Cameo knows about celebrity.
In 2019, 30,000 celebrities on the platform recorded 350,000 videos. In 2020, 40,000 recorded more than a million videos. In 2021 the number of celebrities surpassed 50,000.
To get on the platform, you must be deemed a "person of note" by Cameo, usually meaning you have about 25,000 followers on Instagram.
"The distance between the fan and celebrity is collapsed with Cameo because the technology is so slimline that it's almost imperceptible." -- Greg Jenner - Author @ Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from Bronze Age to Silver Screen
The financial incentive to join Cameo for celebs is crucial because many people are famous but not rich today.
Look for digital media to create more avenues for celebrity, but opportunities to make money in entertainment have not grown at a commensurate rate.
EIGHT
Gaming is the new Big Tech battleground.
Microsoft's audacious $75bn move on games publisher Activision Blizzard has detonated a bomb under the games industry.
"Fifteen years ago, you had about 200m gamers in the world, and today you've got about 2.7bn. It's become the biggest form of media." -- Neil Campling - Tech Analyst @ Mirabaud Securities
The purchase price represented only 3 percent of Microsoft's value and less than its latest annual operating cash flow.
The deal will face intense scrutiny by regulators that could take 18 months — and with both Google and Facebook on the receiving end of antitrust complaints from the US government.
Tencent, which leads the industry with gaming revenue in 2020 of $30.6bn, is widely seen as a model for the future of gaming in other parts of the world.
Look for the deal to add significantly to forces that have already been reshaping the sector in recent years and lead to the creation of ever-larger gaming empires.
NINE
Can CNN's hiring spree get people to pay for streaming news?
The plan to start CNN+, expected to go live by late March, is more than three years after Fox News launched Fox Nation.
CNN's traditional broadcast viewership has dropped significantly from a year ago.
CNN+ will mix hard news with a heavy dose of lifestyle coverage and tips on baking a pear cobbler.
"The silver lining beyond today's toughest headlines"
Look for news to find a way to stream as streaming has supplanted cable as television's primary home delivery system.
The company is placing a significant financial bet on CNN+, budgeting for 500 additional employees, including producers, reporters, engineers, and programmers.
"What we're building at CNN+ is not a side hustle." -- Andrew Morse - Chief Digital Officer @ CNN
TEN
Mammoth Mountain has revolutionized the development of world-class snowboarders.
The resort's forward-thinking culture and idyllic environment have produced some of Team USA's best snowboarders and freeskiers through its celebrated Mammoth Mountain Ski and Snowboard Team.
"I owe my whole career to the Mammoth team." -- Tessa Maud - 2022 US Olympic Snowboard Team + Snowboard Rookie Halfpipe
With its bright blue sky, big mountain, and great snow on meticulously maintained parks, Mammoth is one of the most popular snow resorts in the country and Team USA's official training venue for snowboarding and freeskiing.
All six women named to the US snowboard team for the 2021-22 season came from Mammoth.
Look for Mammoth's dominance in action during the women's halfpipe at the Beijing Winter Games.
