Category: Business

Beggars Music Group Financials for 2021 – Revenues up 29.7% Year on Year

Beggars Music Group had a strong 2021 (as they have just released their numbers in a filing on UK Companies House).

Beggars Group generated GBP 79.98 million in 2021 – which was up 29.7% year on year.

This figure includes Beggars’ share of various joint venture businesses including XL Recordings, Matador and Rough Trade, in each of which Beggars owns 50%.

Beggars is a huge player in independent music market and it’s great to see that they are still growing strong and getting a strong slice of the market.

Creating a Brand is Hard and It Takes at Least 5 Years!

The other day we official launched RouteNote Create under the RouteNote umbrella.

RouteNote Create was originally intended to be a standalone product – but I learnt a lot about starting a brand over the past 12 months and it is getting harder and harder with time to build meaningful brands online. The landscape and places you need to be visible are getting larger and larger and it’s very difficult trying to keep them all up to date and heading in the same direction with the same branding, tone of voice and message.

Note to self – If you are going to build a brand – then make sure it focuses on a new customer type and expect it to take at least 5 years to really show fruit!

Im Tired of YouTube Investment “Gurus”

There are so many investment “gurus” on YouTube and it simply just feels like this is now a step above a used car salesman!

Here is a very good example – Investment Advice! When he simply just adds his money into a very basic Vanguard ETF based off the S&P500.

This is probably as far as it gets from someone who should actually be giving investment advice!

What you really should be watching is video interviews from Warren Buffett – and then also spending a huge amount of time reading and working out your own way to value companies and their intrinsic value.

Fidelity Investments Slashing Valuations on Reddit, Stripe, Bytedance and Instacart

It seems like private market valuations for startups are getting slashed because of overall economic outlooks. In the past few months we have seen heavy declines in the public markets and now the private markets are following behind.

Fidelity Investments is cutting some of its portfolio company valuations.

  • Reddit valuation is down by more than a third.
  • Stripe valuation is down by about 13%
  • Bytedance valuation is down by 13%
  • Instacart is valued at half of its value from last year.

These are only private valuations inside of Fidelity and this was back in April – so its expected that these valuations have dropped even more since then.

It’s a tough time economically for everyone!

Coinbase Very Close to Acquiring Brazils Largest Crypto Exchange – Mercado Bitcoin

Report came out today that Coinbase (COIN) is currently in talks to acquire 2TMM, owner of Mercado Bitcoin, Brazil’s largest crypto exchange.

Mercado Bitcoin has reached 3.2 million customers in 2021, of which 1.1 million were added last year, with a trading volume of $7.1 billion in 2021.

Why it matters:

This gives Coinbase a very strong position in a market in which they have been struggling to gain traction. Brazil and South America overall is going to be a very important market in future for cyptocurrencies.

Katie Haun – Launches Haun Ventures with $1.5 billion in Capital to Invest in Crypto Startups

Katie Haun (who was previously at a16z as the head of their crypto investments division) has started her own venture firm focused on the crypto market and has raised $1.5 billion.

The capital, the largest ever for a solo female founder-led venture, is split across two funds, with the first $500M tranche set out for backing early-stage startups. The remaining $1B “accelerator” fund will focus on late-stage well-established firms across Web3.

SWIFT Network Restrictions Could Cripple Russia in the Ukraine War

I came across this information about SWIFT network posted the other day. This could have a very big impact on the Russian and Ukraine war and instead of trying to put it in my own words I thought I would repost it.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Western governments have dropped heavy sanctions on Russian banks, companies, and elites—including President Vladimir Putin himself.

But they’ve yet to move forward with what’s been called the “nuclear option”: banning Russia from using SWIFT.

What is SWIFT?

Belgium’s Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) runs a messaging service that facilitates transactions across 11,000+ financial institutions globally. Think of it as the “Gmail of global banking.”

Entities in every country except North Korea use SWIFT to shuffle trillions of dollars’ worth of funds across borders. And Russia is a SWIFT power user—as a major supplier of energy and other goods, it ranks sixth globally for payment messages sent on SWIFT. So if Russia were cut off from SWIFT, “the nation would essentially be severed from much of the global financial system,” the NYT wrote.

Thing is, not everyone’s prepared for that

While the UK and Ukraine are trying to boot Russia from the global group chat, the US and some EU nations are a little more hesitant. Here’s why:

  1. They’re not ready to go full James Franco in 127 Hours. Their citizens still use Russian energy to keep the lights on, so shutting down Russia’s Gmail account would essentially force financial communications onto a janky platform like 1990s-era AOL, resulting in a colossal headache for everyone involved.
  2. Another worry for the US is how blocking Russia from SWIFT would impact the dominance of the US dollar in the longer term. The US enjoys many benefits from the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency, and US officials are concerned that booting Russia from SWIFT would spur Moscow to join up with Beijing and develop alternative payment systems (on the blockchain, for instance) that undermine the dollar.

Of course, workarounds to SWIFT already exist, which is another reason why some sanctions experts say that blocking SWIFT access is an overrated tool for punishing Russia. You could do it, but you might be creating more problems for yourself in the process.

OpenSea Launches OpenSea Ventures – Investing in Startups around the NFT Ecosystem

Opensea have just announced their own Venture fund, Opensea Ventures. The fund will seek investments in startups working in domains such as NFTs, DeFi, blockchain, and others. OpenSea co-founder Alex Attalah will lead the venture fund. 

The fund will focus on startups that produce NFTs, create NFT protocols, produce blockchain and metaverse games, and develop NFT analytics. 

This seems like a natural next step to build out an ecosystem fast and potentially tie down some assets for exclusive sale in the Opensea platform.

Apple Will Allow iPhones to Accept Contactless Payments by NFC

Apple is reportedly going to allow iPhones to start accepting contactless payments. This is huge news!

It will dramatically affect any card company and how they collect their fees – as well as companies like Square and other POS services.

Apple has reporting been working on this service since 2020, when it purchased a Canadian startup called Mobeewave. Mobeewave’s technology only needs an app and the phone’s NFC to work.

I expect that Apple will roll out such a service as part of Apple Pay.

Game changer!

China Blockchain Services Network to Launch NFT Minting and Marketplace Service in China

It has been announced that China’s state-backed Blockchain Services Network (BSN) will soft launch infrastructure for NFTs in China.

BSN said the infrastructure, known as BSN-Distributed Digital Certificates (BSN-DDC), would offer “a diverse, transparent, credible and reliable” one-stop-shop for businesses to mint and manage their own NFTs without relying on cryptocurrencies, which are banned in China.

This will be a very interesting experiment from the Chinese Government as the vast majority of NFTs in the world at the moment are based off the Ethereum network.

Does Audius Pay Artists, Musicians and Record Labels for Streams?

No.

Audius has been live for over 3 years now and it is still yet to have a full payment system for artists and record labels.

Audius provide tokens to 5 top artists each week, but that has little to no value for any artist that is going to use their platform with the hopes of reaching more fans and making money from their music.

This feels like it is a completely dead project – even though they have over $1 billion stakes in the platform with a market cap of now less than $500 million.

Best Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and NFT Explanation Videos I Have Seen – Well Worth the Watch

This has to be one of the most interesting Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and NFT video I have ever seen. It runs through a huge amount of topics and structures and explains them in a very simple way.

After watching the video – there are some points that stand out as great points and others which are kind of irrelevant.

Even after the first 10 minutes there are points in which the previous financial bubble seems to be the exact same structure as what is occuring with NFTs at present. Interesting.

However, this is REALLY WORTH THE WATCH

On Running – Is This the Sports Version of Allbirds? Already Triple The Size of Allbirds

I came across On Running when Roger Federer invested in the company. I have done a bit of research into the founder and the company in the past and they seem to be driving in the right direction on all fronts.

On Running is listed on the NASDAQ market in the US under the ticker – ONON. The company is already selling over $650 million worth of shoes per year (which is three times larger than Allbirds at approximately $250 million).

This videos provides a good breakdown of the company, its founder and its history.

Im very bullish on On. It has a lot potential and could move into many markets.

Shareholders Need to Behave Like Owners – Warren Buffett

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4HZHrcm6mY

Very interesting question to Warren Buffett – in which he then provides a very interesting (yet simplistic) answer.

Shareholders need to act like owners – and in nearly all cases in America – this is forgotten. People forget that when they buy a stock in a business that they are becoming an owner in that business.

Take-Two Interactive Acquiring Zynga – Bringing Mobile Gaming and PC Gaming and Console Gaming Worlds Together

Take-Two Interactive have announced that they are planning to acquire Zynga for $12.7 billion.

This deal will bring the two worlds of Mobile Gaming and Console and PC Games together to make a powerhouse!

“We are thrilled to announce our transformative transaction with Zynga, which significantly diversifies our business and establishes our leadership position in mobile, the fastest growing segment of the interactive entertainment industry,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two, in a statement. “This strategic combination brings together our best-in-class console and PC franchises, with a market-leading, diversified mobile publishing platform that has a rich history of innovation and creativity. Zynga also has a highly talented and deeply experienced team, and we look forward to welcoming them into the Take-Two family in the coming months. As we combine our complementary businesses and operate at a much larger scale, we believe that we will deliver significant value to both sets of stockholders, including $100 million of annual cost synergies within the first two years post-closing and at least $500 million of annual Net Bookings opportunities over time.”

“Combining Zynga’s expertise in mobile and next-generation platforms with Take-Two’s best-in-class capabilities and intellectual property will enable us to further advance our mission to connect the world through games while achieving significant growth and synergies together,” added Frank Gibeau, CEO of Zynga. “I am proud of our team’s hard work to deliver a strong finish to 2021, with one of the best performances in Zynga’s history. We are incredibly excited to have found a partner in Take-Two that shares our commitment to investing in our players, amplifying our creative culture, and generating more value for stockholders. With this transformative transaction, we begin a new journey which will allow us to create even better games, reach larger audiences and achieve significant growth as a leader in the next era of gaming.”