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There was a moment when Snapchat looked like it was destined to be a relic in social media history, losing users and missing its own revenue forecasts. Not today. Snap, the app’s parent company, announced $1.51 billion in revenue as part of its third-quarter earnings on Wednesday, November 5. That figure was a 10% jump year-over-year (YOY) and beat Wall Street’s prediction of $1.49 billion, according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC. Snapchat beat Wall Street’s expected global daily active users (477 million versus 476 million) and global average revenue per user ($3.16 versus $3.13). Both figures were also an improvement YOY. Snap also announced a stock…

Social media is terrible for teens’ mental health—or is it? At the same time that rising rates of poor mental health among youth have been called a national crisis, and as parents and regulators call on social media companies to do more to keep young people safe online, a recent study by the Pew Research Center found that social media—while flawed—can sometimes be a positive influence on teenagers. In a survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17, 74% said social media makes them feel more connected to their friends, and 63% said online platforms give them a place to show off their creativity. There’s more good news: About half—52%—said social media makes them feel mor…

I started working as a remote employee back in 2006, long before it was common. I talked to my colleagues during the day, sure, but they were all in an office with cubicles. I worked alone. Later in my career, I was part of an executive team at a software company, making decisions about budget and strategy. So when I started my own business in 2022, many aspects felt like a natural extension of the way I’d always worked. Most advice about leaving corporate life focuses on the financial safety net: savings, pricing your services, and side hustles. But money isn’t the only reason people leave solopreneur life and go back to a nine-to-five. Some people are gen…

Yes, Spotify is down. Spotify users are reporting service outages on the music streaming desktop and mobile app. As of 8:50 a.m., U.S. users started experiencing technical issues with the app, with around 323 reports. By 9:05 a.m., reports had risen to more than 20,000 outages, and are about 40,000 outage reports at the time of publishing. Technical issues are mainly reported in the U.S. and Europe, with some additional reports in Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, United Arab Emirates, and Israel. “We are aware of the outage and working to resolve it as soon as possible,” a Spotify spokesperson told Fast Company in a statement. “The reports of this bein…

On Tuesday, Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek announced he will step down from his leadership role after nearly two decades. Ek will serve as the company’s executive chairman and two former co-presidents — Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström — will share the role as co-CEOs. “Over the last few years, I’ve turned over a large part of the day-to-day management and strategic direction of Spotify to Alex and Gustav — who have shaped the company from our earliest days and are now more than ready to guide our next phase,” Ek said in a news release. Ek continued, “This change simply matches titles to how we already operate. In my role as Executive Chairman, I will focus…

Star Trek—a franchise that famously promotes the philosophy “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations”—is being accused of “becoming” too “woke”. Last week, White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller shared a post from the X account End Wokeness that featured a short clip from the premiere episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Tragic. But it’s not too late for @paramountplus to save the franchise. Step 1: Reconcile with @WilliamShatner and give him total creative control. https://t.co/HRMDcYeBnU — Stephen Miller (@StephenM) January 16, 2026 The clip showed cast members Tricia Black (playing Lt. Rork), Gina Yashere (Lura Thok) and Holl…

It’s official: the robots are taking over. Taking over the internet, that is. Conspiracy theorists have long discussed the “dead internet” theory, which reasons that online spaces, once entirely populated and filled with content created by humans, have slowly become dominated by bots posing as people. The more extreme conspiracists allege that this transformation is deliberate, with governments and corporations using the bots to manipulate public perception. With the rise of AI since ChatGPT’s debut in 2022, the dead internet theory—or at least some version of it—has sounded more and more plausible. Now, according to a recent study, it’s closer to coming true. …

Eighteen months ago, it was plausible that artificial intelligence might take a different path than social media. Back then, AI’s development hadn’t consolidated under a small number of big tech firms. Nor had it capitalized on consumer attention, surveilling users, and delivering ads. Unfortunately, the AI industry is now taking a page from the social media playbook and has set its sights on monetizing consumer attention. When OpenAI launched its ChatGPT Search feature in late 2024 and its browser, ChatGPT Atlas, in October 2025, it kicked off a race to capture online behavioral data to power advertising. It’s part of a yearslong turnabout by OpenAI, whose CEO Sam Al…

Incredibly, when you think about it, US-based venture capital has remained structurally unchanged for half a century. The well known model revolves around the 10-year fund lifecycle, the 2-and-20 fee structure, and the relentless push for growth and outsized returns. Decisions are made in mysterious ways and are known to be full of bias against founders who don’t fit a certain mold. But even as rivers of investment flow into anything touching AI, there may yet be an ironic twist to come. Venture investing involves optionality and power laws. Very few investments will generate any returns at all, but the sector is premised on the idea that within any portfolio there will…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. A modest rise in negative equity is emerging across parts of the U.S. housing market, but the overall picture remains far more stable than anything resembling the Global Financial Crisis. Having negative equity—commonly known as being “underwater”—means a homeowner owes more on their mortgage than the home’s current market value. According to ICE Mortgage Technology, just 1.0% of U.S. mortgages were underwater in April 2025. By October 2025, that share rose to 1.6%. That’s an uptick, but still extremely low by historical standards. For comparison, du…

In 2015, Disney discovered a new way to cash in on nostalgia: live-action remakes of its classic animated films. That started with Cinderella, brought back to the big screen 65 years after the original movie premiered. In the decade since, Disney has released 12 more of those remakes, with the gap between the original films’ release dates and the remakes growing shorter and shorter. The next entry is a remake of 2016’s Moana coming to theaters this July, a few months shy of the original’s 10-year anniversary. Disney remakes are designed to recapture the magic of the source material, replicating iconic shots and rehashing beloved lines, scenes, and songs. But that crea…

When Greg Giczi retired in February, his company threw him a party. Giczi had spent 12 years as president and general manager of WNIT-TV, a public television station based in South Bend, Indiana. Public broadcasting isn’t known for lavish budgets, so the party took place at the studio—a “big, open space with dramatic lighting,” Giczi describes. There were appetizers, wine, and beer, as well as heartfelt speeches. A huge snowstorm hit that night. But that didn’t stop a roomful family, coworkers, and others from coming out to celebrate Giczi; one person traveled over two-and-a-half hours. The board knew Giczi had been eyeing some electronics, so they gave him a “ni…

I was asked to be the keynote speaker recently for an important conference at Rutgers Business School on the future of business education. I thought it would be helpful for business school leadership and students and for recruiters of business school graduates to recap my message in this Playing to Win/Practitioner Insights (PTW/PI) piece. It is called The Future[s] of Business Education: Two Strategy Paths. And as always, you can find all the previous PTW/PI here. Audience participation The conference attendees were mainly U.S. business school deans and other senior faculty members. The array of deans was quite impressive with deans from leading schools including …

If you’ve skimmed your feeds today, there’s a good chance you’ve seen many headlines exclaiming that around two million donuts have been recalled due to possible listeria contamination. However, these headlines are a bit misleading as the recall happened over a month ago. Confused? Here’s what to know about the listeria donut recall, whether your morning donut is safe to eat, and why you’re just hearing about the recall now. What’s happened? Over the past day, the internet has been flooded with articles about a massive donut recall, with two million of the tasty treats affected. However, though this recall is widely being reported on now—the second week in Febr…

A middle manager sits in a 1:1 with their boss. They nod along to strategic priorities they already know are unrealistic. The deadlines don’t match the staffing plan. The “new initiative” competes with the last “top priority.” The team is already stretched thin. But the manager doesn’t say it—not plainly—because honesty can be misread as incompetence, negativity, or a lack of readiness for the next level. Two hours later, that same manager is in a team meeting projecting confidence about those same priorities. They translate contradictions into something coherent, reassure direct reports who are already anxious, and say, “We’ll figure it out,” while privately wonderin…

Figma prototypes have been the go-to for years. For digital product designers crafting clickable mockups of apps, this powerhouse design platform hasn’t just gained popularity—it’s become the indispensable tool of choice. Nearly every app, website, or digital experience that didn’t make you rage-quit was likely prototyped and rigorously tested in Figma before a single pixel was coded. The platform’s dominance is no accident. Figma prototypes help product teams communicate direction, test early ideas, and align stakeholders around what’s being built. At design consultancies like ours, they’ve played a critical role in due diligence where we stress-test client con…

Ah, brainstorming. The corporate rite of passage where creativity goes to die. It usually involves a room full of well-intentioned people offering ideas that feel familiar but not fresh. Why does this happen? Because most people stick to the “safe zone,” avoiding anything that might make waves, or worse, ruffle feathers. But here’s the problem: safe ideas don’t change the game. If you want ideas that truly shake things up, you’ve got to do something radical. You have to give your team permission not just to think differently but to think outrageously. And to do that, you need to encourage them to come up with ideas so bold, they might just get them fired. How to …

Leica is perhaps the most storied brand in photography. A portmanteau formed from the name of founder Ernst Leitz and the word “camera”, the first Leica popularized 35mm photography, while the legendary M system standardized the modern rangefinder in 1954 and has a hallowed reputation to this day. Leica’s stewardship of its brand, however, has not always quite lived up to its history. The company historically outsourced most of its point-and-shoot camera design to Panasonic, slapping its iconic red dot on existing compacts and charging an unwarranted markup. Early smartphone collaborations with Huawei and Sharp were similarly surface-level. But for the past few y…

The parent company of Hinge and Tinder is courting a potential new addition to its roster. Match Group on Monday announced a $100 million investment in Sniffies, a map-based cruising platform for queer men. As part of the investment, Sniffies will continue to be led by founder and CEO Blake Gallagher, the company said. “From the first conversations with the Match Group team, we knew they understood what makes Sniffies different. This partnership is about supporting that, not redefining it,” Gallagher said in a statement on the Sniffies Instagram—which was met with skepticism by followers. Sniffies launched in 2018 and has three million monthly active users v…