Hey Snackers,
Impossible Foods. Beyond Meat. Four more plant-based brands joined the meat-free party just this week. You're only as good as your faux-beef name creativty, so we're ranking 'em here:
- Kellogg's plant-based burger: "Incogmeato"
- Hormel's plant-based beef: "Happy Little Plants"
- Kroger's plant-based deli meats: "Simple Truth"
- Tyson's plant-based shrimp: "New Wave"
Before the big August jobs report arrives today, markets jumped Thursday as China and the US agreed to chat trade war again in early October.
Match drops 5% as Facebook Dating just happened
Whip out the pint of gelato and romcom marathon... Tinder-owner Match is feeling the pain as Facebook's dating feature goes live in the US (just update your app and opt-in if you're looking to mingle). Technically, Facebook told us last year that this was coming, but here's the love story timeline.
- 1st date (fall 2018): Colombia. The magic begins when Facebook started testing in the land of Arepas.
- 1st trip (winter 2019) Latin America. Facebook expands the tests regionally to Mexico and Argentina.
- 1st fight (spring 2019) Feedback. Listening to early users, Facebook updates the feature to make it easier to set up a profile (and creepily proposes a pic for you).
- Facebook makes it Facebook official (today): Another 19 countries enjoy access, including the US (Europe waits 'till 2020).
"If you're a bird, I'm a bird"... The Facebook dating concept is that simple. Since Facebook knows what you like/click/join/share, Zuck thinks he can play match-maker better than Tinder. But the most unique feature we could find in our Snacks research is "Secret Crush":
- Facebook Dating defaults to not matching you with friends, but there are 9 exceptions.
- If your sophomore Geography class partner is the one that got away, you can "Secret Crush" tag them.
- If they unknowingly reciprocate, Facebook makes the connection (warning: You get 9 "Secret Crushes" max).
Instagram is Facebook's surprise +1... That's what crushed Match. Match investors have known for months what Facebook was up to. What they didn't know was how much Facebook's Insta would be involved. Turns out Facebook integrates photos from Insta profiles into the dating feature. Since Instagram is where a whole generation's digital-selves obsessively live, FB Dating is now much more of a threat than Match expected.
WeWork plans to massively devalue itself to save the IPO
This isn't how I imagined my dream IPO... According to WSJ, WeWork is thinking about dropping its valuation in order to IPO down to $20B-$30B. That's half of where it was. The last time WeWork raised money, its valuation reached $47B. This update is just a few weeks after it officially filed its IPO paperwork (aka "the S-1"). Here's what wounded the coworking unicorn:
- What WeWork wanted: Investors to be sooo excited to own We stock that there would be overdemand, requiring an increase in the planned offer price.
- What actually happened: The opposite. Powerful investors are telling WeWork the stock is too pricey, and nobody wants to buy at that price when it goes public soon.
- The reason: Lack of transparency. The IPO paperwork WeWork issued last month didn't clarify key details about its (un)profitability. One investor called WeWork's S-1 "a masterpiece of obfuscation."
- The result: WeWork's reportedly dropping the price, basically putting its stock "on sale for 50% off" so investors can get comfortable enough to buy shares at the IPO. None of this is official yet.
Tough day for WeWork shareholders (they already exist)... Even though WeWork hasn't IPO'd, its employees, early investors, and venture capitalists already own shares (some as compensation for work). Now the stock could be worth 1/2 what We was hoping for. WeWork's valuation got (very) high as a private company, so when shares hit the public market (and anyone can buy them) their price could come down to reality.
What else we’re Snackin’
- Him: Lululemon jumps 4% courtesy of some guys — men's sales surged 35%
- Waves: Sonos whips up its own portable speakers (finally) that is weather-proof
- People: Goldman Sachs has a new CEO — and partners are quitting as he makes his mark
- IOU: Stripe is all over payment processing as the world's most valuable private fintech company, and now it's offering loans
- eDrive: GM calls shotgun on Google — the carmaker's integrating its apps and voice assistant into cars by 2021
- Cancelled: British snap elections won't happen, meaning another Brexit delay is most likely
Friday
- Happy Jobs Friday, aka the big government jobs report for the month of August
Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Lululemon and Beyond Meat
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