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TGIF. After a week that felt like a year, it’s finally time to kick back, relax, and let the music take us away. Today marks the start of Outside Lands, and we couldn’t be more excited to escape the daily grind. If you’re in SF this weekend for the festivities, drop us a line. We’ll be around… just look for the TFP totem.
In other news… fashion conglomerates join forces, #BookTok influencers launch a publishing house, and AI apps hit the dating scene.
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FASHION
Brand overload // Illustration by Kate Walker
Tapestry wraps up Capri to form fashion giant
The Future. Tapestry Inc.’s purchase of Capri Holdings could create one of the largest fashion houses in the world and put American-based offerings onto the same plane as its French and Italian counterparts. While Tapestry is still focused on clothing, the expected growth could help it expand into other luxury goods, which have been a boon to competing houses.
Chasing the French
The New York fashion scene is getting its biggest fashion house to date.
Tapestry Inc., which owns brands like Coach and Kate Spade, is buying Capri Holdings, which houses brands like Versace and Michael Kors, for $8.5 billion.
That’ll create a single company bringing in about $12 billion in annual sales — Tapestry is expected to make almost $6.7 billion this year, while Capri is going to bring in about $5.6 billion.
Tapestry CEO Joanne Crevoiserat hopes the combined conglomerate has the goods to take on French luxury giants LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, and Givenchy) and Kering (Gucci, Balenciaga, and Yves Saint Laurent).
That may still be difficult as LVMH brought in $79.2 billion last year, and Kering generated $20.3 billion. But it does vault Tapestry into that rarefied list of double-digit billion-dollar earners, which could make it a competitor the next time LVMH bids to print its logos all over the Olympics.
LA is hosting them in 2028, after all.
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CREATOR ECONOMY
Courtesy of Bindery
#BookTok influencers bind their own publishing house
The Future. Startup Bindery, a “Patreon for books,” wants to bring the new bestseller to the world with the help of TikTok’s #BookTok community, creating a system where creators help creators. Considering how big the movement has become in recent years, the next NYT bestseller may thank influencers for propping it up.
User-generated novels
#BookTok is turning a new page with Bindery.
Bindery lets creators set up paywalled membership clubs to distribute their writing.
Creators have the opportunity to publish their books, with Bindery sharing unpublished works with “influencer partners” (likely to get some #BookTok goodwill).
Bindery will then publish and distribute works chosen by #BookTok gatekeepers alongside third-party partners.
The startup also promises published authors will get better royalty rates than those in traditional book deals.
The hope, according to Bindery co-founder and head of product at Patreon Matt Kaye, is Bindery can fill in the niches overlooked by the big publishers and amplify the genres that’ve become popular with TikTok’s community (like the ones that make people cry on camera).
Of course, Bindery may have stiff competition from none other than TikTok itself.
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The biggest disruption to the smartphone since, well, the smartphone
What if you could turn your phone from a cost into an income source? Cool idea, right?
Meet Mode. They’re on a mission to disrupt the industry with “EarnPhone,” a budget smartphone that helps consumers earn and save $150 million+ for things like listening to music, playing games, and even charging!
That’s why we have our eyes on the launch of Mode’s Pre-IPO Offering. It’s the latest in a series of impressive raises among smartphone innovators, likely spurred by Apple’s recent $3 trillion valuation.
Why invest?
Mode saw 150x revenue growth from 2019 to 2022.
They’re one of America’s fastest-growing companies.
Over 10,000 investors already acquired shares — and with only days remaining prior to their closing update, allocations are limited.
*Disclosure: Please read the offering circular at invest.modemobile.com. This is a paid advertisement for Mode Mobile’s Regulation CF Offering.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Generative love // Illustration by Kate Walker
AI dating apps replace ghosts with bots
The Future. AI-enabled dating platforms are taking app stores by storm, promising users bots will do all the leg work in finding matches, making small talk, and even scheduling dates. In actuality, AI may be taking the humanness out of connecting (arguably, dating apps have already been doing this). But if finding the love of your life is simply a numbers game, then maybe dating bots are an inelegant way of optimizing your search… as long as they keep from fibbing.
Assisted flirtation
Dating apps are entering their AI era.
Teaser AI promises everyone gets a “chance” with someone else by having a user’s custom bot chat with other users’ bots. When the bots get small talk out of the way, the humans are looped in to decide if they want to set a date for real.
Iris Dating is basically Mark Zuckerberg’s FaceMash for dating, with the platform’s AI only surfacing potential matches based on users’ very particular attraction to specific facial features.
Blush AI isn’t really a dating app but an “AI-powered dating simulator” that allows users to practice their chitchat with the hope of building their confidence by walking them through typical conversation. Just don’t fall in love with it…
Bloomberg tested out these apps… and had some hilarious results. Teaser made up facts in conversation, Iris surfaced matches the user didn’t find attractive, and Blush was straight-up chaotic in the simulated conversation, moving between aggressively flirty and repeatedly asking where the user lived.
If none of these options sound appealing, there’s always Breakup Buddy — potentially the first breakup app programmed to assist users in getting over a heartbreak. Considering AI’s winning streak so far, color us suspicious that it’d help.
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Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
101 days into the writers strike, the AMPTP finally asked the WGA to return to the bargaining table, with negotiators set to meet today. Read more → deadline
After moving from its September date due to the strikes, the Emmys are officially scheduled to take place on Monday, January 15th. Read more → thr
Universal Music Group is reportedly in discussions with Google to license music for generative AI systems, focusing on making a legal tool to ensure artists are properly compensated for their work. Read more → hypebeast
Fashion & E-Commerce
Dior has tapped K-pop group Tomorrow X Together (aka TXT) as its newest global ambassadors. Read more → hypebeast
With ad revenue still down 50%, X is introducing a “sensitivity setting” that’ll let advertisers choose what content their ads run next to. Read more → engadget
DTC T-shirt brand True Classic has become a surprising success story, despite appealing to the broadest possible customer base (the opposite of the typical fashion startup playbook). Read more → bof
Tech, Web3, & AI
In a blow to Epic Games, the US Supreme Court will allow Apple to continue to avoid changing its payment offerings in the App Store. Read more → reuters
SF is in a civil war about whether or not to expand paid autonomous rideshare services offered by Waymo and Cruise. Read more → theverge
Running Tide is piloting the deployment of wooden “carbon buoys” to grow seaweed, which can be sunk to the bottom of the ocean with the carbon they capture and then eaten by undersea creatures. Read more → fastcompany
Creator Economy
115 digital creators with a combined 80 million followers signed the “Labor Over Likes” pledge, promising they won’t work with AMPTP-represented companies during the strikes. Read more → techcrunch
TikTok is requiring users to label videos where AI was used to generate “realistic scenes,” or they could be subject to removal. Read more → tubefilter
YouTube is deactivating links in Shorts because scams have become so commonplace. Read more → engadget
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.