Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI TECH SCROLL: eBay buys Depop, Substack x Polymarket collab, Gucci's AI content & Spotify Prompted Playlists

Transcript

MINI TECH SCROLL: eBay buys Depop, Substack x Polymarket collab, Gucci's AI content & Spotify Prompted Playlists · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Hey everyone and welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
• 0:03
  culture podcast bring you the biggest stories from social
• 0:05
  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
• 0:09
  through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
• 0:11
  My name is Annabelle and I'm your Wednesday Mini Tech Scroll
• 0:14
  host and also the deputy editor of the Australian youth digital
• 0:18
  media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Tech Scroll
• 0:22
  for another week. I don't have much to say at the
• 0:25
  top of this week's episode apart from the fact that this week we
• 0:29
  have a close friend newsletter going out.
• 0:31
  We publish this newsletter once a month and it's basically like
• 0:34
  a content club. Lauren explained it on Mini
• 0:37
  Scroll yesterday. But basically we just have a
• 0:40
  TikTok, an article or any piece of content that we put forward
• 0:44
  to you guys and we share our analysis on in the newsletter.
• 0:47
  And if you guys comment your thoughts or send us Adm or
• 0:51
  whatever, we'll also include your thoughts.
• 0:54
  So I will link the TikTok we're discussing this week in the
• 0:58
  description as well as inside it at the end of the episode.
• 1:01
  If you guys have any opinions that you want to share other
• 1:03
  than that, Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe.
• 1:06
  I know we'd literally ask you guys every week, but we really
• 1:09
  appreciate it when you do. So my first story for today is
• 1:13
  that eBay has officially acquired Depop.
• 1:16
  This story actually broke last week, but it was after I
• 1:19
  recorded mini text scroll, so obviously I couldn't include it.
• 1:22
  I'm sure we all know what Depop is, but it is definitely one of
• 1:26
  the most popular secondhand clothing resale apps, and it's
• 1:30
  especially popular among Gen. ZI spend so much of my life just
• 1:34
  window shopping on the platform. Like for real.
• 1:36
  I just love it. Even though Deep Up really only
• 1:39
  gained mainstream cultural appeal maybe in the past five to
• 1:43
  seven years. I would say it has been around
• 1:45
  since 2011, and it was founded by Simon Beckman and Maria Raga.
• 1:49
  At the time that it was launched, there really weren't
• 1:52
  that many platforms that were bringing together buyers and
• 1:55
  sellers like the way Depop has. What really made Depop unique
• 1:59
  was that it leaned into a social fast ethos and community, which
• 2:04
  definitely helped it grow a significant user base, including
• 2:08
  some of our favorite Fashion It girls.
• 2:10
  I feel like every fashion influencer also has a Depop
• 2:13
  account where they sell clothes. So it's clear that Depop's
• 2:16
  popularity only grew over the years, which eventually led to
• 2:20
  Etsy acquiring the platform in 2021.
• 2:23
  According to reports at the time, Etsy had bought Depop for
• 2:27
  a total sum of 1.6 billion USD. And if we think back to 2021,
• 2:33
  this was really the peak of COVID, the peak of lockdown.
• 2:36
  So really everyone was online shopping and selling, whether
• 2:40
  they were trying to sell as like a side hustle or they were just
• 2:43
  cleaning out their wardrobe. Etsy's acquisition of Depop was
• 2:46
  described as a way for Etsy to access data and understand the
• 2:51
  purchasing habits of younger users.
• 2:53
  According to stats that were floating around at the time,
• 2:56
  around 90% of Depop's millions of active users were under 26 at
• 3:02
  the time, so that made them a Gen.
• 3:03
  Z Etsy, by contrast, had a bit of an older average user, with
• 3:08
  the seller's median age estimated to be around 39 in
• 3:12
  2021. So that was millennials, older
• 3:15
  millennials. So while Etsy could learn about
• 3:18
  Gen. Z through Depop, Depop could
• 3:20
  learn from Etsy as well, as they were set to scale, as Raga told
• 3:25
  the Financial Times in 2021 quote.
• 3:28
  Many of the challenges that we are going to go through as a
• 3:30
  business are things that Etsy has gone through before.
• 3:33
  Etsy has made massive improvements in terms of search
• 3:36
  and discovery and this is something that we can definitely
• 3:38
  learn from. And under Etsy, Depop did do
• 3:42
  quite well. I mean, we're all still using
• 3:43
  the platform and it did operate as a standalone brand
• 3:47
  independent from Etsy, and it also initially retained its
• 3:51
  existing offices and leadership and management team.
• 3:54
  But after five years, Depop has been acquired once again and
• 3:58
  this time by eBay. So eBay has agreed to buy Depop
• 4:02
  from Etsy for about 1.2 billion USD in cash, which is a $400
• 4:07
  million loss for Etsy. And this loss may be partly due
• 4:12
  to the growing popularity of other fashion resale platforms
• 4:16
  like Vinted and Threder. According to the BBC quote, the
• 4:19
  mass appeal of Vinted has had an impact on Depop's value.
• 4:23
  As Vinted made investments into global markets and improved its
• 4:26
  tech platform, more sellers gravitated towards it.
• 4:30
  And that was commentary from retail analyst Catherine
• 4:33
  Shuttleworth. Having said that, though,
• 4:35
  there's clearly still value in Depop, and ebay's decision to
• 4:39
  acquire Depop was similar to that of Etsy.
• 4:41
  As the statement reads from the brand's quote, the addition of
• 4:45
  Depop will accelerate ebay's C to C strategy by deepening its
• 4:48
  reach with younger fashion forward consumers and expanding
• 4:52
  its presence in one of the most dynamic areas of resale.
• 4:55
  As part of eBay, Depop will benefit from ebay's global scale
• 4:59
  and suite of capabilities, including its financial
• 5:01
  services, shipping solutions, and trusted experiences.
• 5:04
  That being said, I can definitely see how the
• 5:06
  acquisition of Depop tracks for eBay because the company has
• 5:10
  really been working hard to position itself as a place for
• 5:14
  youth audiences to go and purchase items from.
• 5:18
  Like when we think of last year's Met Gala, for example,
• 5:21
  Emma Chamberlain and Chapel Roan were just some of the
• 5:23
  celebrities that were wearing items credited or sourced from
• 5:27
  eBay, and those are major Gen. Z IT girls slash celebrities.
• 5:31
  This whole idea of eBay repositioning itself as a youth
• 5:34
  brand was covered recently, and the police don't make me focus
• 5:37
  Substack as the author Georgia wrote quote a few months ago, I
• 5:41
  was talking about why eBay would want to or should acquire Depop,
• 5:45
  expanding its US footprint, obviously, but also tapping into
• 5:49
  a younger resale customer base at a moment when eBay is trying
• 5:52
  to reposition itself. But I'm sure the bigger win is
• 5:55
  access to Depop's customer behavior and cultural data,
• 5:58
  especially as eBay tries to carve out a lead in the emerging
• 6:01
  US live stream commerce market. So yeah, I just thought that was
• 6:04
  a really good point, especially with the live stream angle
• 6:08
  because that is obviously catering towards younger users.
• 6:12
  But All in all, it does really just seem like the resale market
• 6:15
  is consistently gaining popularity and the space is
• 6:18
  continuously innovating and perhaps becoming overcrowded,
• 6:22
  but I'm not that mad about it. Speaking of collaborations
• 6:25
  though, that brings us to our next story and I need to cover
• 6:28
  everything that's going on with Sub Stack and Polymarket.
• 6:32
  This has caused so much conversation on my social media
• 6:35
  over the past few days, but basically Sub Stack has come
• 6:38
  under fire after collaborating with the platform.
• 6:42
  And if you've never heard of Polymarket, that is fair.
• 6:45
  Let me explain. The platform is basically
• 6:47
  described as quote a global cryptocurrency prediction
• 6:50
  market. So when you go to the platform,
• 6:53
  you have to connect a wallet and then you can basically make bets
• 6:56
  on the outcome of mostly current events.
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  So when I had a look at the site while I was researching for this
• 7:02
  episode, it included topics like the situation in Iran as well as
• 7:07
  any potential US Supreme Court decisions that were coming down
• 7:10
  the pipeline. So it is kind of a form of
• 7:13
  gambling where you are betting on the outcome of specific
• 7:17
  events and making predictions. And if it sounds weird that Sub
• 7:21
  Stack is collaborating with this platform, don't worry, you are
• 7:25
  not alone. The companies announced that
• 7:28
  they would be collaborating last week.
• 7:30
  And as the post on X Read quote, we are excited to announce our
• 7:33
  exclusive partnership with Sub Stack.
• 7:35
  Starting today, Sub Stack authors can natively integrate
• 7:39
  data from the world's largest prediction market.
• 7:41
  Journalism is better when it's backed by live markets, so this
• 7:45
  post definitely alluded to how the companies will be working
• 7:49
  together, but Sub Stack has offered more information on how
• 7:52
  the collaboration will look in practice.
• 7:55
  According to the Sub Stack support website, writers can
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  quote integrate market prediction data by embedding
• 8:02
  Poly market events on notes or articles, and readers will
• 8:06
  essentially be able to see real time changes in the widget.
• 8:09
  So I would say that the response to this collab has been pretty
• 8:13
  overwhelmingly negative. I thought I would read some of
• 8:16
  the responses under the tweet to just give you a bit of a
• 8:19
  picture. As one user wrote quote, this is
• 8:22
  unethical and disgusting. Polymarket is an illegal
• 8:25
  gambling platform that allows insider trading on genocide,
• 8:28
  wars, pandemics, and violence. It is the dark web of modern
• 8:32
  tech run amok. And as another user wrote,
• 8:35
  quote, nothing says editorial integrity like letting the
• 8:38
  betting odds write the headlines, which is honestly
• 8:41
  true. Anyway, I thought Kate Lindsay's
• 8:45
  commentary on this partnership for the embedded newsletter was
• 8:48
  really interesting. She spoke about how much of
• 8:51
  digital media these days is about really doing anything for
• 8:55
  money and just staying alive. And that was pulling mostly from
• 8:59
  her career so far and anecdotal experience.
• 9:02
  So with that context, she is, quote, familiar with doing
• 9:05
  anything you need for a company to succeed.
• 9:08
  But she did have a particular issue with the way Holly Market
• 9:11
  shared the announcement, particular the line quote,
• 9:15
  journalism is bettled when it's backed by live markets, which is
• 9:19
  quite a statement to make. As she wrote, quote, it's a
• 9:23
  statement from a company trying to appeal to a moment of genuine
• 9:26
  crisis by retroactively claiming to have a relationship with it.
• 9:30
  I'm supposed to believe that a sub stacker embedding the odds
• 9:33
  for will Jesus return in 2026 into their post will somehow be
• 9:37
  the turning point for media after a 30 year decline.
• 9:41
  And that is very true. And I have seen many people
• 9:45
  share similar gripes with the partnership, noting how it just
• 9:48
  seems at odds with the purpose of Sub Stack, or at least the
• 9:51
  perceived purpose of Sub Stack, which was democratizing writing
• 9:55
  and publishing. It has really become a place for
• 9:59
  riders to share their experiences, their truth.
• 10:02
  But with this partnership, it's kind of encouraging riders to
• 10:05
  lean into market positioning instead of analysis.
• 10:09
  And I thought how Jay Mandel wrote this for the Marketing
• 10:12
  Accountability Council on Sub Stack really hit the nail on the
• 10:16
  head. As he wrote quote, embedding
• 10:18
  tradable odds into conversations about politics, AI, or economic
• 10:22
  instability feels like monetizing the anxiety economy
• 10:25
  rather than calming it. And that isn't even to mention
• 10:28
  the gambling aspect, which has become increasingly influential
• 10:32
  in Internet culture over the past few years, especially with
• 10:34
  streaming platforms like Kik, for example.
• 10:36
  And to make matters worse with this partnership, this isn't
• 10:40
  even the first time that Sub Stack has been criticized for
• 10:44
  who it supports or who it aligns itself with.
• 10:47
  Let's say a couple of years ago, Sub Stack came under fire for
• 10:51
  the platform's response to Nazi content that was circulating.
• 10:55
  Hundreds of Sub Stack authors went on to ask the platform why
• 10:59
  it was platforming and monetizing, quote UN quote,
• 11:02
  Nazis. Sub Stacks Co founder Hamish
• 11:05
  McKenzie did go on to explain the platform's position in a
• 11:09
  note as he wrote quote. I just want to make it clear
• 11:12
  that we don't like Nazis either. We wish no one held those views,
• 11:16
  but some people do hold those and other extreme views.
• 11:19
  Given that we don't think that censorship, including through
• 11:22
  demonetizing platforms, makes the problem go away.
• 11:25
  In fact, it makes it worse. This whole exchange and response
• 11:29
  did end with a lot of writers choosing to leave the platform.
• 11:33
  And I do wonder, since Substack has recently gained all this
• 11:36
  cultural capital in the last year or so, I don't even know if
• 11:40
  all of these new users would be aware of everything that went
• 11:44
  down here. So I am definitely interested to
• 11:46
  see how current users of Sub Stack will react to this new
• 11:50
  collab, especially at a time where Sub Stack has been
• 11:54
  marketed as a social media platform that differentiates
• 11:57
  itself from the rest because it's maybe more quote UN quote
• 12:01
  authentic or values driven or just more meaningful.
• 12:05
  But yes, if you guys have any strong opinions about this
• 12:08
  partnership, I'm definitely curious to hear what you guys
• 12:10
  think. That brings us to our next story
• 12:13
  for today. And unfortunately, it is AI
• 12:15
  related. I really thought we could get
• 12:17
  through one week without mentioning anything about AI,
• 12:20
  but unfortunately that is not the case because I wanted to
• 12:23
  talk about this Gucci campaign that is making the rounds
• 12:26
  online. So the fashion house has started
• 12:28
  posting content promoting its Primavera fashion show coming up
• 12:32
  on February 27th. And it is quite a big deal
• 12:36
  because it is Demner's first fashion show for the house as
• 12:39
  the creator director of Gucci. And for context, he was formerly
• 12:43
  the creative director of Balenciaga.
• 12:46
  Anyway, that's just a bit of context, but some of the
• 12:48
  pictures that were posted included labels that said, quote
• 12:51
  UN quote, created by AI. And I thought I would explain
• 12:55
  some of these images to you. So the first included an older
• 12:58
  woman in what seemed to be a train carriage, restaurant type
• 13:03
  thing. I don't really know.
• 13:04
  And she had all of these men looking at her as she was
• 13:07
  standing in the middle of the aisle in in the tables.
• 13:10
  Another one was an older car that was kind of glowing in a
• 13:14
  Navy background. It was pretty plain.
• 13:16
  And the last one that I thought was worth describing for our
• 13:19
  audio listeners was an image that had two people sitting on
• 13:23
  the hood of a car with a neon Gucci sign in the background.
• 13:27
  This one might have been the most egregious because I had so
• 13:30
  many users commenting that it looked like GTA.
• 13:33
  As you probably would have guessed, though, many social
• 13:35
  media users were not happy with Gucci using AI to generate these
• 13:39
  campaign images. I saw so many comments along the
• 13:42
  lines of quote UN quote, who approved this or quote UN quote,
• 13:46
  This is how you ruin a brand. Now, we often talk about AI use
• 13:51
  and entertainment, beauty fashion here on Mini Tech.
• 13:54
  In fact, I think the last time we spoke about it was probably
• 13:56
  like 2 two weeks ago when I was talking about that Ariana Grande
• 14:01
  Vogue Japan cover. But a lot of the conversations
• 14:04
  we have about it are how the industry reacts to AI usage, as
• 14:09
  well as how this kind of technology is taking away
• 14:11
  opportunities for creatives. And of course, that is likely
• 14:15
  true in this case as well. But I think the case of Gucci is
• 14:18
  especially interesting because it feeds into a different
• 14:21
  discussion that has been going super viral lately, thanks to
• 14:24
  Eugene Healy. He was actually also a guest on
• 14:27
  Touch Grass last week. So I definitely recommend you
• 14:30
  guys to check out that episode. But Lauren also spoke a little
• 14:33
  bit about this topic there because he's making this whole
• 14:36
  content series about how luxury is quote, UN quote, dead, and
• 14:39
  how the idea of luxury has kind of moved beyond material goods
• 14:44
  to more behavioural practices like being chronically offline
• 14:48
  or going analogue. Because it really is a privilege
• 14:50
  to be able to do that. And part of the reason that he
• 14:52
  believes that luxury has quote UN quote, died is because of how
• 14:56
  the Internet has made everything super accessible.
• 15:00
  We can pretty much search up anything we want to see and the
• 15:02
  results will pop up. We see influences doing their
• 15:05
  Ootds with luxury goods every second scroll basically.
• 15:09
  So it's just really not as inaccessible as it used to.
• 15:12
  And I was talking about this with Lauren, and I think you can
• 15:15
  kind of make a similar claim about how luxury is changing
• 15:19
  here. When we see luxury slash
• 15:22
  designer fashion houses using AI in a campaign, it kind of
• 15:26
  suggests that luxury has arguably become less about taste
• 15:30
  or bespoke or handcrafted designs and exclusivity.
• 15:35
  That just isn't what AI is made for or represents.
• 15:39
  Instead, we kind of have these luxury brands leaning into
• 15:42
  futurism and tech to signal that they are still trendsetting and
• 15:47
  ahead of the masses. Continuing with Gucci as an
• 15:50
  example, earlier this month it was reported that Gucci was the
• 15:53
  first luxury house to launch a sponsored AI lens on Snapchat.
• 15:58
  And last week, Gucci posted videos of a mannequin that
• 16:01
  repeatedly attempts and then fails to plug in a charging
• 16:05
  cable into the wall. And other videos showed this
• 16:08
  mannequin keying a car and repeatedly knocking on a door.
• 16:11
  And what this means is definitely up for
• 16:14
  interpretation, but it feels like it could be some kind of
• 16:18
  commentary on automation or being a fashion house in an AI
• 16:23
  driven world. But either way, it is kind of
• 16:26
  leaning into tech in one way or another.
• 16:28
  So if we see users understanding and experience of luxury
• 16:33
  becoming more behavioural, perhaps the brand's approach to
• 16:36
  luxury is also changing by leaning into tech and that whole
• 16:40
  futurist aesthetic. I'm definitely curious to hear
• 16:43
  what you guys think about all this though.
• 16:45
  That brings us to our last story for today and it is a quick one,
• 16:48
  but I did just want to mention a platform update that is just
• 16:51
  rolled out on Australian Spotify.
• 16:53
  So prompted playlists are being introduced to premium listeners
• 16:57
  in Australia as well as the UK, Ireland and Sweden.
• 17:00
  And this feature basically allows a user to type in a
• 17:03
  prompt and then Spotify will create a personalized playlist
• 17:07
  for you. And this will draw on your
• 17:09
  listening history as well as what might be popular in music
• 17:12
  at any given time. It is currently in beta and it
• 17:15
  is being rolled out as I've already mentioned and it is only
• 17:18
  available in English currently. I thought this was because we
• 17:21
  have seen over the years how much Spotify leans into
• 17:24
  personalized playlists and how users engage with it.
• 17:28
  One of the most obvious examples of this is probably Dayless, and
• 17:32
  these obviously often come with kind of insane playlist titles.
• 17:36
  And for years there's been discourse online whether Spotify
• 17:39
  makes these titles crazy on purpose so that users share
• 17:43
  them, or if it's just what kind of auto populates.
• 17:47
  Either way though, day lists have definitely become one of
• 17:49
  the most culturally relevant features offered by Spotify.
• 17:53
  Now I want to look at what my day list is right now.
• 17:56
  You guys are going to get insight into my music taste,
• 17:58
  which is actually funny because you guys are often commenting
• 18:00
  about what artists I like and I I see it and I appreciate it.
• 18:04
  My day list, if anyone was wondering is currently Club
• 18:08
  Classics Strut Wednesday morning.
• 18:10
  So clearly that is a lot of brat.
• 18:12
  And also we have some Beyoncé, Pink, Panthers, Adela, Addison
• 18:17
  Ray, you guys get the vibe. I think you guys know by this
• 18:19
  point. Anyway, back to prompted
• 18:22
  playlist. They've also been billed as a
• 18:23
  way for users to better understand the algorithm when it
• 18:26
  comes to music discovery on Spotify.
• 18:29
  Over the past few years, we've definitely seen music discovery
• 18:32
  on the streaming platform be led by AI, especially with features
• 18:36
  like AI DJ. And that is probably something
• 18:39
  that will continue moving forward, especially as Spotify
• 18:42
  really leans into other facets of audio, whether that be audio
• 18:46
  books and podcasting. Well, I guess brings us to the
• 18:49
  end of Mini Tech Scroll for today.
• 18:51
  I really hope you guys enjoyed. Lauren will speak to you guys
• 18:55
  for a regular mini scroll tomorrow, but also a new episode
• 18:58
  of Touch Graph went live this morning so you guys should
• 19:01
  definitely check that out. And also don't forget to leave a
• 19:04
  comment about the close friends TikTok.
• 19:06
  I really feel like I'm just asking you guys to do a lot, but
• 19:09
  we really appreciate it Anyway. Thanks for listening.
• 19:12
  Bye. Has anyone else noticed this
• 19:14
  specific brand of creator where you can't really tell who
• 19:17
  they're making videos for but it kind of feels like they're
• 19:19
  trying to sell you something? I called them billboard creators
• 19:22
  and I'm curious why these accounts exist and why they're
• 19:25
  so extremely popular. I think Dixie is sort of the
• 19:28
  first modern variant of the Billboard creator because she
• 19:31
  was thrust into a really unique situation, having to find a
• 19:34
  talent after she was already massively famous, but ultimately
• 19:38
  it seemed like the public was not willing to forgive her for
• 19:40
  experimenting, so her team retreated back into the very
• 19:43
  profitable realm of advertising. Since then, Dixie has posted
• 19:47
  basically nothing except her ads, but millions of people
• 19:50
  still watch them, which makes me think her main appeal has less
• 19:53
  to do with the content she's creating and more to do with the
• 19:56
  sensational level of fame. She for some reason, Haley
• 19:59
  Kalil, also known as Haley Bailey, is kind of another
• 20:02
  blueprint for this. She aggressively follows trends
• 20:05
  and is an expert on making you think.
• 20:07
  She thinks what you think. And she's had huge success by
• 20:10
  capitalizing on the offense or people that the masses are
• 20:13
  paying attention to. This is danger as a sort of pop
• 20:15
  culture fairy, like you know something has entered the mass
• 20:17
  cultural consciousness once Haley Bailey makes a video about
• 20:20
  it. Most often, her videos are skits
• 20:22
  recreating viral moments or typical videos regarding the
• 20:25
  predominant opinions you'd find on any viral post comment
• 20:28
  section. Nick Lunk and her boyfriend Sam
• 20:30
  Guys are proud examples of this. They do trend videos, they
• 20:33
  hardly ever speak to the camera, and they always look extremely
• 20:37
  beautiful and put together Despite having 45,000,000
• 20:40
  followers. It's difficult to discern what
• 20:42
  type of person Brooke is on TikTok other than relatable.
• 20:46
  In fact, it seems like being relatable is the core objective
• 20:49
  of all non sponsored content. Building a fan base off of
• 20:52
  impersonal content that encourages your audience to
• 20:55
  project onto it makes it extremely easy for brands to
• 20:58
  slot in and use you as a billboard.
• 21:00
  They can borrow your followers because those followers have no
• 21:03
  consistent expectations of value communication.
• 21:06
  The sensation of it all, the fame that these smiling,
• 21:08
  friendly people hold, is what keeps the audience interested in
• 21:11
  them. But when you really think about
• 21:12
  it, these billboard creators aren't selling their own
• 21:15
  personal brands to connect with sponsors, they're actually
• 21:18
  selling you their followers. It's extremely similar to how
• 21:21
  social media companies started selling their users attention to
• 21:25
  the highest bidder. Billboard creators grow their
• 21:27
  following for the same reason that social media platforms grow
• 21:30
  their user base, because more followers equals more dollars.
• 21:34
  Centennial World Podcast Network operates on Gadigal land.
• 21:37
  We would like to acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the
• 21:40
  traditional custodians of this land, and pay our respects to
• 21:43
  elders both past and present.