By CultureBanx Team
CBx Vibe: “The Come Down is Real Too” Belly
Snap (SNAP +5.43%) announced 12 new “Snap Originals” scripted shows in effort to regain its popularity with the very coveted but fickle teen user group. African American teens are the first-movers in many ways when it comes to deciding what’s going to take-off on social media. Will these new shows be enough to get back in their good graces, impress investors and fend off Facebook’s (FB +0.25%) territory poaching Instagram?
Why This Matters: Teenagers and their technology are inseparable with 9 out of 10 black teenagers using Snapchat, according to a survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Episodes of Snapchat’s new shows will try to engage this group and include six-seconds of non-skippable advertising, keeping in line with its current format of shows.
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CBx Vibe: “ATM” J. Cole
Stocks just came off their longest week long slump since March, following a decline that slashed 1,400 points from the Dow Jones Industrial Average at its lowest point. The potent market selloff was sparked by a sudden rise in interest rates, something that Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said will likely continue to get the U.S. economy back on track.
Why This Matters: Bostic spoke earlier this month and proclaimed the Fed should continue to raise rates until it gets to a neutral policy stance in order to assess how the economy is really doing. “Current conditions suggest, to me, that we ought to get to a policy stance where our foot is neither on the gas pedal… what we call an accommodative policy… nor on the brakes… what we call a restrictive policy,” Bostic said in a speech at an education conference in Atlanta.
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CBx Vibe: “Pull Up” A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie
Lyft just hired former Obama transportation official Anthony Foxx to develop more partnerships with governments and reshape mass transit systems in cities across the country. The brilliant and strategic hire comes as Lyft faces new challenging regulatory roadblocks while trying to expand their business.
Why This Matters: It definitely helps Lyft to have Foxx, the first former transportation secretary to join a Silicon Valley startup to navigate the muddled world of politics. This hire sends a clear signal that Lyft wants to operate in conjunction with governments unlike its dominant rival Uber, that has several regulators globally upset with the company.
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![Changing the Game: Marilyn’s Secret Privatizes Public Social Media]()
By CultureBanx Team
CBx Vibe: “I’m Every Woman” Chaka Khan
In a world where the toxic nature of social media has taken over many folks personal lives, Marilyn’s Secret seeks to empower women through its anonymous social network. Found Patrice Drayton wants to give users the option to keep their identities private, while creating a supportive community and weeding out trolls. “On traditional social media platforms people aren’t able to express their true identity due to shame, judgement and backlash,” said Drayton. The idea is to give women a chance to let down their guard, away from networks like Facebook and Instagram, where users present only their best sides. Drayton notes she has “a vietnamese friend who is unable to post pictures of her bi-racial child for fear her family might find out” on traditional social media sites. In order to enhance engagement for women the platform provides an escape to empower and encourage women to live of their virtual lives in the real world.
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CBx Vibe: “Some More” Future
The maker of popular candy Snickers and M&M’s wants to pony up more money for responsibly sourced cocoa. The new sustainability scheme will cost the company $1 billion over 10 years, as they try to corral the West African surge in cocoa production.
Why This Matters: Ivory Coast and Ghana grow about 60% of the world’s cocoa and want to regulate global supply to grab more of the profit. Candy makers like Mars usually buy cocoa six months in advance with cocoa accounting for about 20% of the average bar of milk chocolate. Mars wants all the cocoa it buys to be responsibly sourced by 2025. “We’ll see a combination of increased premiums overall and a bigger share of those premiums going to the farmers,” John Ament, global vice president of cocoa told Reuters.
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![Apple’s Free Content Strategy Takes Direct Aim at Netflix]()
By CultureBanx Team
CBx Vibe: “Mind Games” Mike Stud
The content wars are heating up between Netflix (NFLX -1.47%), Amazon (AMZN -2.04%) and Apple (AAPL -0.88%), especially since the latter has decided to start offering its original content for free. Great black content will be at the forefront of what Apple creates because, ultimately the tech giant wants to get a few successful franchises on its platform, to eventually create a paid Netflix-like subscription service in the future.
Why This Matters: Black people stream videos more frequently on all devices than the total U.S. population, according to Nielsen. As part of the company’s strategy to entice more African American viewers to its platform, they struck a multi-year content partnership deal with Oprah Winfrey this past summer. Offering content for free just shows that Apple wants to have a bigger stake with this group, by betting that authentic black storytelling is the key to winning viewers and platform loyalty.
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CBx Vibe: “On Your Own” Jorah Smith
Former Morgan Stanley (MS +0.60%) wealth manager John Lockette just lost the battle to have his racial bias suit against the brokerage firm heard in a U.S. federal court. Instead a judge ruled the claim must be settled in mandatory arbitration, as the deck of injustice continues to get stacked.
Why This Matters: Lockette’s complaint will be formally judged by Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services (JAMS), a private for profit arbitration firm. The fees will be paid for by Morgan Stanley which range from $500 per hour to $10,000 a day and the bank is a frequent user of JAMS services. So if the bank is paying the fees and consistently does business with them, there could be built in potential bias with the arbitration process that should be impartial.
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CBx Vibe: “New Thang” French Montana & Remy Ma
Investors may have the chance to capitalize on music downloads in a new innovative way, with the popularity of platforms like Apple (AAPL +-0.23%) Music and Spotify (SPOT -0.38%) dominating streaming. Swiss-Asia Holding is attempting to raise $100 million for securities linked to royalties generated from song rights.
Why This Matters: Nearly every major hip-hop release on Apple Music pulls in more streams than Spotify, which has over 100 million extra users. Investors looking to diversify their portfolios see these music royalty notes as an opportunity to buy into alternative assets, that aren’t connected to the broader market volatility.
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