MATANGO!

#Box office receipts are not an indication of the movie quality.

Box office is a combination of how many theaters it was played in and how much marketing is behind it.

At the same time, social networking is built into the most popular Chinese online shopping platforms, like Taobao, Tmall, and JD.com. They feature livestreamed videos of shopping influencers, and robust chat and photo-sharing functions, blurring the lines between social media and e-commerce.

The model has delivered: In 2023, TikTok’s Chinese sister app, Douyin, said its platform sales exceeded 2 trillion yuan ($2 billion). Xiaohongshu doesn’t disclose detailed figures, but the app’s aggressive expansion into social commerce in 2023 coincided with the first year it turned a net profit to the tune of $500 million.

So China has several profitable social media companies and a model that works regardless of the platform. It feels like Insta has tried this and doesn’t quite understand the mechanics but imitates showing influencer driven decisions. The difference is that western influencers sell their exposure while TikTok (et al) use influencers as their product and charge to alter the algorithm to expose the product to a targeted audience. It’s insidious because people will be shown something that they didn’t know they wanted and led to believe that they made the decision to get this thing. It’s Inception, but with our hobbies and interests.

The ramifications for niche porn are tremendous. Both weird categories of pornography and the idea that small groups will be fed a constant stream of their own unique interests. Imagine if you didn’t know this was happening and had an expensive hobby. Social media wants you to buy things and will give you the connection to spend instead of pursuing the hobby.

The hobby may soon not be about what we do but what we bought to show we are hobbyists. Consumption as participation. I guess we already do this with streaming entertainment, so why not?

Those who can, do. Those who can’t, preach

Street Sharks: Origins

10k steps a day is roughly 5 miles. $4k a day would be the disability insurance at that point.

And what, lose another 3 years and a third of the country’s young to losing the fight for Estonia? Russia is absolutely incapable of successfully invading anything. They couldn’t even stay in Syria when a bunch of untrained militia said they might show up later. Russia is weak.

Liberalism is a poison. We live in Authoritarian vs Community times now.

A little Luigi action. Love seeing killers get their reward.

As a Nazi puncher, he has excellent taste. Maybe I should yell at the moon?

Dubya lied about everything. Mission Accomplished? Nope. Economy is doing great? Not under him. Dick Cheney was just vice president? Nope.

Open the shark fin on the top of the car. Take out the SIM chip. Manic cat doesn’t care how.

This warning only applies to the pyramid tea bags and not the paper sachet.

That’s because there’s no schools in the picture.

They should be beaten to death without a soundtrack. Nothing should hide the sounds of their comeuppance.

Propaganda works

Post nut clarity applied to business decisions is like cheating

Looking like Mexico will be Trump’s Poland.

The government doesn’t set the price of lots or land, that’s determined by the seller. A deed will still be worth its value unless total lawless anarchy takes over. If the government is overthrown, the price of land is only effected by the stability of the currency.