Daily news and stories covering everything from the Fashion System, Investment, and AI to WEB3 and Crypto that truly matter in Metaverse Fashion.
AMAZON'S FORAY INTO ULTRA-FAST FASHION WILL BE A SEISMIC SHIFT IN E-COMMERCE | [FASHION SYSTEM]
FashionUnited
💥 The e-commerce giant Amazon is poised to disrupt the ultra-fast fashion market, a sector currently dominated by Chinese powerhouses Shein and Temu. This strategic move marks Amazon's entry into a burgeoning market segment characterised by rock-bottom prices and direct-from-China shipping models.
💲 Industry analysts note that price continues to be the primary driver of consumer behaviour, often superseding concerns about sustainability or customer service. Amazon's well-honed delivery capabilities, traditionally a key differentiator, may take a back seat as shoppers demonstrate a willingness to accept longer delivery times in exchange for significantly lower prices.
👔 According to Jianlong Hu, CEO of Brands Factory, Amazon's new discounted marketplace will focus on items under 20 dollars across fashion, home, and lifestyle categories. The model closely mirrors that of Shein and Temu, with Amazon managing shipping from its Chinese warehouses directly to US customers, while taking a commission on sales.
👓 As the lines between traditional e-commerce and ultra-fast fashion continue to blur, the implications for global trade, labour practices, and sustainability remain profound. Amazon's entry into this space may well accelerate the trend towards ever-cheaper, ever-faster fashion – a development that is likely to reshape the retail landscape for years to come.
DOES BURBERRY HAVE THE WRONG STRATEGY? | [FASHION SYSTEM]
The Business of Fashion
📉 Burberry’s latest revamp has faltered. Sales dropped 12 percent in the first three months of 2024. The British trench coat maker isn’t the only luxury player that’s struggling in a cooling luxury market, of course. Gucci’s sales fell 20 percent in the first quarter. But Burberry’s poor performance has ratcheted up the pressure on those piloting its long-awaited turnaround to deliver results.
🔅 A ‘British Coach’ strategy would double down on outlets, reduce costs, and increase exposure to off-price channels, leading to higher profits but lower multiples. A “brand elevation” strategy would follow the more traditional luxury playbook: slimming down off-price, spending on creativity and communication, continuing to upgrade distribution. A private equity buyer could undertake the grisly but arguably necessary measures to stabilise the Burberry brand away from the prying eyes of the public markets (e.g. cut outlet sales, build desirability before price hikes), and then sell for a luxury multiple when the brand has been uplifted. But our analysis suggests the returns from the “brand elevation” strategy are likely to be considerably lower than those from a “British Coach” approach.
〽 Burberry has continued to underperform its peers, because it has yet to convince the market that its strategy to move upmarket will bear fruit. Burberry was a premium brand in the early 90s, but CEOs Rose Marie Bravo from 1997, Angela Ahrendts from 2005, Christopher Bailey from 2014, Marco Gobbetti from 2017, and Jonathan Akeroyd from 2022 have all tried to push its positioning higher. Significant investments were committed — including flagship stores across the world — and many sacrifices were endured: giving up profits from lucrative licences in Spain and in Japan, doing without sales to lower quality department stores in the US, and removing promotions from full-price stores.
⬛ There has been talk of Burberry being a takeover target for 25 years, but never a move. For European luxury groups, elevating Burberry is too expensive and would take too long. For private equity, valuation multiples have long been too high, but it’s harder to dismiss the possibility today, given where Burberry’s market cap has gone. But rather than sticking with a strategy that’s not working, could becoming a “British Coach” be the cure Burberry is looking for?
METAMASK UNVEILS NEW TOOLKIT TO STREAMLINE WEB3, USER ONBOARDING | [METAPHYSICS]
CoinTelegraph
🎭 According to a press release shared with Cointelegraph, the toolkit enables developers to create decentralized applications (DApps) and protocols that offer new user experiences.
👛 The MetaMask toolkit will be available on any Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain supported by a user operation bundler, including Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Linea, Optimism and Polygon.
👻 The MetaMask Delegation Toolkit enables instant user onboarding without needing extensions or application downloads and removes the need for seed phrase management.
🗣 Speaking with Cointelegraph, Dan Finlay, co-founder of MetaMask, explained that despite this first version being Ethereum only, there are parts he thinks “can very easily be made chain agnostic.” “Only 8% of respondents consider themselves to be very familiar with the concept of Web3, which highlights a disconnect between public perceptions of Web3 and its potential.”
VALUATIONS OF STARTUPS HAVE QUIETLY REBOUNDED TO ALL-TIME HIGHS. SOME INVESTORS SAY THE SLUMP IS OVER | [VALUE PROPOSITION]
TechCrunch
🤖 Generative AI businesses aside, the last couple of years have been relatively difficult for venture-backed companies. Very few startups were able to raise funding at prices that exceeded their previous valuations.
🌍 Now, approximately two years after the venture slump began in early 2022, some investors, like IVP general partner Tom Loverro, are saying that the worst of the downturn is behind us and the startups that survived should shift from cash preservation mode to spending money on growth.
🏛 While fintech has been out of favor with investors since the start of the downturn, Choo said that the number of companies that can raise capital at higher valuations has increased since the beginning of the year. She pointed to U.K. challenger bank Monzo, which grabbed a valuation of over $5 billion in March, a nearly 15% increase from the $4.5 billion investors assigned it in early 2022.
⛩ Samir Kaji, founder of Allocate, a startup that allows family offices and wealth advisers to invest in VC funds, is also optimistic that valuations and the fundraising environment have improved for startups this year. “Things are much more sanguine than I’ve seen since the beginning of 2022,” he said. “The capital markets are coming back slowly, and if you can achieve real growth and fundamentals, there is going to be capital for [your startup].”
⚓ But those “all-time” high valuations are somewhat misleading, said Kyle Stanford, lead U.S. venture capital analyst at PitchBook. That’s because deal volume is still sluggish. There were fewer companies that raised a new round with a known valuation in the first half of 2024 than is typical for a six-month period.
CHINA LEADS THE WORLD IN ADOPTION OF GENERATIVE AI, SURVEY SHOWS |[SINGULARITY]
Reuters
👾 China is leading the world in adopting generative AI, a new survey shows, the latest sign the country is making strides in the technology that gained global attention after U.S.-based OpenAI's ChatGPT launched in late 2022.
🤖 In a survey of 1,600 decision-makers in industries worldwide by U.S. AI and analytics software company SAS and Coleman Parkes Research, 83% of Chinese respondents said they used generative AI, the technology underpinning ChatGPT.
💎 The results underscore China's rapid progress in the generative AI field, which gained momentum after Microsoft-backed OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022, prompting dozens of Chinese companies to launch their own versions.
📈 Last week, a report by the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organization showed China was leading the GenAI patent race, filing more than 38,000 between 2014 and 2023 against 6,276 filed by the United States in the same period.
📊 While many leading international generative AI service providers, including OpenAI, face curbs in China, the country has developed a robust domestic industry, with offerings from tech giants such as ByteDance to startups such as Zhipu.
AI WITH HIDDEN BIASES MAY BE SUBTLY SHAPING WHAT YOU THINK: 'YOU MAY NOT EVEN KNOW THAT YOU ARE BEING INFLUENCED | [SINGULARITY]
Fortune
👻 In less than two years, artificial intelligence has radically changed how many people find information and write. When searching for details about Supreme Court precedents or polishing a college essay, millions of people seek help from AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude.
👾 In his newly published book, Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future, Fortune AI editor Jeremy Kahn explores this new tech-infused reality and what should be done to avert the inevitable pitfalls. In the following excerpt from the book, he focuses on the little-recognized problem of subtle bias in AI and the potentially profound influence it can have on what users believe.
🤖 Most tech companies train their chatbots to be agreeable, nonjudgmental, and “helpful.” The problem is that sometimes “helpful” isn’t helpful. In an effort to be empathetic, chatbots can wind up confirming mistaken or biased beliefs. A fine line exists between friendship and enablement. Most of the best-known AI chatbots, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini will challenge users if they seem to be endorsing a well-known conspiracy theory, such as the idea that COVID-19 vaccines cause autism or the QAnon conspiracy. But on many controversial subjects, such as issues around Israel-Palestine or whether people should celebrate Columbus Day, the bots tend to respond with some variation of “it’s a complex and complicated topic with strong opinions on both sides.”
👹 Some right-leaning politicians and technologists have accused the AI systems designed by the leading technology companies of being “woke,” and argued for the creation of AI models with explicit “political personalities” so that users can choose to interact with a chatbot that supports their viewpoints. Elon Musk has promised that his xAI research lab, which has built an LLM-based chatbot called Grok, will produce AI designed to be anti-woke. Such developments seem certain to further inflame the culture wars and provide little reason to hope that AI will do anything to counter filter bubbles.
WORLD'S FIRST MISS AI CROWNED — AND SHE'S HIJAB-WEARING ACTIVIST FROM MOROCCO GENUINELY EXCITED FOR THE WIN | [SINGULARITY]
New York Post
👑 Crowned the crème de la crème of artificial intelligence models, the leggy Layli — a lifestyle influencer in her home country — crushed more than 1,500 computerized challengers for the coveted title, which comes with a $20,000 grand prize for the human tech exec from her home country who brought her to life.
🗣 “The global interest in this first award from [WAICAs] has been incredible,” Fanvue co-founder Will Monange said in a statement to The Post. “The awards are a fantastic mechanism to celebrate creator achievements, raise standards, and shape a positive future for the AI Creator economy.”
🤖 As an internet idol, the avid activist vows to use her fame as a tool to empower women, protect the environment and spread positive robot awareness.
Daily news and stories covering everything from the Fashion System, Investment, and AI to WEB3 and Crypto that truly matter in Metaverse Fashion.
FashionUnited
💥 The e-commerce giant Amazon is poised to disrupt the ultra-fast fashion market, a sector currently dominated by Chinese powerhouses Shein and Temu. This strategic move marks Amazon's entry into a burgeoning market segment characterised by rock-bottom prices and direct-from-China shipping models.
💲 Industry analysts note that price continues to be the primary driver of consumer behaviour, often superseding concerns about sustainability or customer service. Amazon's well-honed delivery capabilities, traditionally a key differentiator, may take a back seat as shoppers demonstrate a willingness to accept longer delivery times in exchange for significantly lower prices.
👔 According to Jianlong Hu, CEO of Brands Factory, Amazon's new discounted marketplace will focus on items under 20 dollars across fashion, home, and lifestyle categories. The model closely mirrors that of Shein and Temu, with Amazon managing shipping from its Chinese warehouses directly to US customers, while taking a commission on sales.
👓 As the lines between traditional e-commerce and ultra-fast fashion continue to blur, the implications for global trade, labour practices, and sustainability remain profound. Amazon's entry into this space may well accelerate the trend towards ever-cheaper, ever-faster fashion – a development that is likely to reshape the retail landscape for years to come.
DOES BURBERRY HAVE THE WRONG STRATEGY? | [FASHION SYSTEM]
The Business of Fashion
📉 Burberry’s latest revamp has faltered. Sales dropped 12 percent in the first three months of 2024. The British trench coat maker isn’t the only luxury player that’s struggling in a cooling luxury market, of course. Gucci’s sales fell 20 percent in the first quarter. But Burberry’s poor performance has ratcheted up the pressure on those piloting its long-awaited turnaround to deliver results.
🔅 A ‘British Coach’ strategy would double down on outlets, reduce costs, and increase exposure to off-price channels, leading to higher profits but lower multiples. A “brand elevation” strategy would follow the more traditional luxury playbook: slimming down off-price, spending on creativity and communication, continuing to upgrade distribution. A private equity buyer could undertake the grisly but arguably necessary measures to stabilise the Burberry brand away from the prying eyes of the public markets (e.g. cut outlet sales, build desirability before price hikes), and then sell for a luxury multiple when the brand has been uplifted. But our analysis suggests the returns from the “brand elevation” strategy are likely to be considerably lower than those from a “British Coach” approach.
〽 Burberry has continued to underperform its peers, because it has yet to convince the market that its strategy to move upmarket will bear fruit. Burberry was a premium brand in the early 90s, but CEOs Rose Marie Bravo from 1997, Angela Ahrendts from 2005, Christopher Bailey from 2014, Marco Gobbetti from 2017, and Jonathan Akeroyd from 2022 have all tried to push its positioning higher. Significant investments were committed — including flagship stores across the world — and many sacrifices were endured: giving up profits from lucrative licences in Spain and in Japan, doing without sales to lower quality department stores in the US, and removing promotions from full-price stores.
⬛ There has been talk of Burberry being a takeover target for 25 years, but never a move. For European luxury groups, elevating Burberry is too expensive and would take too long. For private equity, valuation multiples have long been too high, but it’s harder to dismiss the possibility today, given where Burberry’s market cap has gone. But rather than sticking with a strategy that’s not working, could becoming a “British Coach” be the cure Burberry is looking for?
METAMASK UNVEILS NEW TOOLKIT TO STREAMLINE WEB3, USER ONBOARDING | [METAPHYSICS]
CoinTelegraph
🎭 According to a press release shared with Cointelegraph, the toolkit enables developers to create decentralized applications (DApps) and protocols that offer new user experiences.
👛 The MetaMask toolkit will be available on any Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain supported by a user operation bundler, including Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Linea, Optimism and Polygon.
👻 The MetaMask Delegation Toolkit enables instant user onboarding without needing extensions or application downloads and removes the need for seed phrase management.
🗣 Speaking with Cointelegraph, Dan Finlay, co-founder of MetaMask, explained that despite this first version being Ethereum only, there are parts he thinks “can very easily be made chain agnostic.” “Only 8% of respondents consider themselves to be very familiar with the concept of Web3, which highlights a disconnect between public perceptions of Web3 and its potential.”
VALUATIONS OF STARTUPS HAVE QUIETLY REBOUNDED TO ALL-TIME HIGHS. SOME INVESTORS SAY THE SLUMP IS OVER | [VALUE PROPOSITION]
TechCrunch
🤖 Generative AI businesses aside, the last couple of years have been relatively difficult for venture-backed companies. Very few startups were able to raise funding at prices that exceeded their previous valuations.
🌍 Now, approximately two years after the venture slump began in early 2022, some investors, like IVP general partner Tom Loverro, are saying that the worst of the downturn is behind us and the startups that survived should shift from cash preservation mode to spending money on growth.
🏛 While fintech has been out of favor with investors since the start of the downturn, Choo said that the number of companies that can raise capital at higher valuations has increased since the beginning of the year. She pointed to U.K. challenger bank Monzo, which grabbed a valuation of over $5 billion in March, a nearly 15% increase from the $4.5 billion investors assigned it in early 2022.
⛩ Samir Kaji, founder of Allocate, a startup that allows family offices and wealth advisers to invest in VC funds, is also optimistic that valuations and the fundraising environment have improved for startups this year. “Things are much more sanguine than I’ve seen since the beginning of 2022,” he said. “The capital markets are coming back slowly, and if you can achieve real growth and fundamentals, there is going to be capital for [your startup].”
⚓ But those “all-time” high valuations are somewhat misleading, said Kyle Stanford, lead U.S. venture capital analyst at PitchBook. That’s because deal volume is still sluggish. There were fewer companies that raised a new round with a known valuation in the first half of 2024 than is typical for a six-month period.
CHINA LEADS THE WORLD IN ADOPTION OF GENERATIVE AI, SURVEY SHOWS |[SINGULARITY]
Reuters
👾 China is leading the world in adopting generative AI, a new survey shows, the latest sign the country is making strides in the technology that gained global attention after U.S.-based OpenAI's ChatGPT launched in late 2022.
🤖 In a survey of 1,600 decision-makers in industries worldwide by U.S. AI and analytics software company SAS and Coleman Parkes Research, 83% of Chinese respondents said they used generative AI, the technology underpinning ChatGPT.
💎 The results underscore China's rapid progress in the generative AI field, which gained momentum after Microsoft-backed OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022, prompting dozens of Chinese companies to launch their own versions.
📈 Last week, a report by the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organization showed China was leading the GenAI patent race, filing more than 38,000 between 2014 and 2023 against 6,276 filed by the United States in the same period.
📊 While many leading international generative AI service providers, including OpenAI, face curbs in China, the country has developed a robust domestic industry, with offerings from tech giants such as ByteDance to startups such as Zhipu.
AI WITH HIDDEN BIASES MAY BE SUBTLY SHAPING WHAT YOU THINK: 'YOU MAY NOT EVEN KNOW THAT YOU ARE BEING INFLUENCED | [SINGULARITY]
Fortune
👻 In less than two years, artificial intelligence has radically changed how many people find information and write. When searching for details about Supreme Court precedents or polishing a college essay, millions of people seek help from AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude.
👾 In his newly published book, Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future, Fortune AI editor Jeremy Kahn explores this new tech-infused reality and what should be done to avert the inevitable pitfalls. In the following excerpt from the book, he focuses on the little-recognized problem of subtle bias in AI and the potentially profound influence it can have on what users believe.
🤖 Most tech companies train their chatbots to be agreeable, nonjudgmental, and “helpful.” The problem is that sometimes “helpful” isn’t helpful. In an effort to be empathetic, chatbots can wind up confirming mistaken or biased beliefs. A fine line exists between friendship and enablement. Most of the best-known AI chatbots, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini will challenge users if they seem to be endorsing a well-known conspiracy theory, such as the idea that COVID-19 vaccines cause autism or the QAnon conspiracy. But on many controversial subjects, such as issues around Israel-Palestine or whether people should celebrate Columbus Day, the bots tend to respond with some variation of “it’s a complex and complicated topic with strong opinions on both sides.”
👹 Some right-leaning politicians and technologists have accused the AI systems designed by the leading technology companies of being “woke,” and argued for the creation of AI models with explicit “political personalities” so that users can choose to interact with a chatbot that supports their viewpoints. Elon Musk has promised that his xAI research lab, which has built an LLM-based chatbot called Grok, will produce AI designed to be anti-woke. Such developments seem certain to further inflame the culture wars and provide little reason to hope that AI will do anything to counter filter bubbles.
WORLD'S FIRST MISS AI CROWNED — AND SHE'S HIJAB-WEARING ACTIVIST FROM MOROCCO GENUINELY EXCITED FOR THE WIN | [SINGULARITY]
New York Post
👑 Crowned the crème de la crème of artificial intelligence models, the leggy Layli — a lifestyle influencer in her home country — crushed more than 1,500 computerized challengers for the coveted title, which comes with a $20,000 grand prize for the human tech exec from her home country who brought her to life.
🗣 “The global interest in this first award from [WAICAs] has been incredible,” Fanvue co-founder Will Monange said in a statement to The Post. “The awards are a fantastic mechanism to celebrate creator achievements, raise standards, and shape a positive future for the AI Creator economy.”
🤖 As an internet idol, the avid activist vows to use her fame as a tool to empower women, protect the environment and spread positive robot awareness.
Daily news and stories covering everything from the Fashion System, Investment, and AI to WEB3 and Crypto that truly matter in Metaverse Fashion.