Hey Snackers,
Something to be proud of: 160M Americans (or ~67% of eligible voters) cast ballots in 2020, the most voters in a US presidential election ever and the highest turnout in 120 years — and all during a pandemic.
Markets jumped yesterday since investors see divided government as a positive for Big Tech — meanwhile, bitcoin rallied past $15K.
Tinder-owner Match gets high on pandemic loneliness and remote romance
Swipe Night is the new Date Night... Forget a five-course meal at Catch — the biggest date nights this summer were happening on Tinder. Match Group (aka: the Godfather of online dating) grew sales 18% last quarter as social distancing turned into social swiping.
- Average subscribers jumped 12% to nearly 11M, as the possibility of meet-cutes vanished. People shelled out more $$$ for premium swipey perks.
- Tinder's sales grew 15% thanks to Tinder Premium and virtual events like Swipe Night, which reeled in 15M viewers and record engagement.
- As the flirtiest of all stocks, Match is getting popular— shares are up 60% in 2020. But Tinder isn't its only asset...
Tell me about yourself... Over half of Match's sales come from Tinder, but non-Tinder brands saw the biggest growth last quarter. The shining star was Hinge, which more than tripled sales from last year and nearly 2X'd downloads. Before Match invested in 2018, Hinge downloads were dropping. Since Match took Hinge under its Cupid wings, downloads have consistently grown. Clever marketing campaigns like "Designed to Be Deleted" were key to that.
The focus is variety... To successfully penetrate the TAM (total addressable market) of singles around the globe, Match is going both broad and narrow. It's targeting specific markets with “demographic dating apps” like Chispa for Latinos/Latinas and BLK for Black singles. Given their success, it followed on with Upward for Christian singles. With variety, Match can attract users who want a more tailored experience (or don't like the sound of Tinder).
Nintendo levels up on Animal Crossing hype, but now the Console Wars are here
Bank of Nook just got a fat deposit... Nintendo released its financials for the six months ended September 30th, and things are looking super good for old Mario.
- Profit more than tripled as Nintendo sold 14M+ copies of hit game Animal Crossing: New Horizons — apparently, fictional island utopias fare well during pandemics.
- Sales jumped 73% as Animal Crossing and Mario drove big software and hardware sales. Nintendo sold nearly 7M Switch consoles in just the last 3-month quarter.
Cool hardware needs cool software... to be worth anything. The Switch has been around for almost four years, but the Animal Crossing frenzy turbocharged sales. Still, there are two Bowsers that could put a damper in Nintendo's 2020 glory...
- Console Wars: Next week, two long-awaited consoles are dropping (on the same day): Sony's PS5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X. Switch will get some fresh hot competition.
- Cloud Gaming: Games that you can play with just a laptop and WiFi are a threat to Nintendo. Sony has Playstation Now, Google has Stadia, and Microsoft has its "Netflix for games." Even Facebook and Amazon offer cloud gaming.
Nintendo is family-friendly... It's the Apple MacBook to Microsoft's PS5 "PC." It's winning with wholesome, fun-for-all games like Animal Crossing and Super Mario Origami King — not Assassin's Creed and GTA. Since its Game Boy days, Nintendo has built a rep as the easy-to-use, less-hardcore gaming option. This mainstream appeal gives it a leg up over competitors.
What else we’re Snackin’
- Sweat: Peloton's quarterly sales more than tripled from last year because Equinox is still closed and Hayden still needs 6 am spin.
- TokOn: TikTok-parent ByteDance is reportedly looking to raise $2B at a $180B valuation as its deal with Oracle and Walmart stalls.
- Vax: AstraZeneca expects its late-stage COVID-19 vaccine trials will deliver results this year, with potential rollouts pending FDA-approval.
- Buzzed: Pot producer Aphria is buying beer brewer SweetWater (delicious name) for $300M.
- Stay: Airbnb reportedly plans to make its IPO filing public next week, setting it up for a stock market debut in December.
- Chipper: Qualcomm stock jumps on an upbeat forecast, suggesting that consumers are upgrading to 5G phones like iPhone 12 (Qualcomm makes the chips).
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