Hi, we've got 3 charts, 6 data snacks and 4 jobs (!) for you today:
This week former president Donald Trump launched his latest venture - a social media platform, TRUTH Social, to take on big tech.
TRUTH Social users will be able to post "Truths" on the "Truth Feed", with the design fairly clearly modeled on Twitter, president Trump's preferred platform where he had almost 89 million followers before his account was permanently banned.
Even with the backing of an ex-president TRUTH Social is entering what is already an intensely competitive social media scene. This chart, which we first published last year, shows the Google search volume for selected platforms. It gives a decent sense of when each platform was generating its "peak buzz" on Google. Above all else it shows that getting some traction is hard, but keeping it going is even harder.
With that in mind, most notable on this chart is the ongoing rise of Reddit and TikTok. Both are being searched for more than they ever have been on Google — while Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram (a bit) are all below their peak search interest.
TRUTH Social might grab the headlines and buzz for a while (early reports suggest signing up was a bit buggy) but for the Trump Media & Technology Group, it's not where they see the biggest financial opportunity. An investor presentation from November reveals the company's (pretty optimistic) projections for the future.
Not content with just battling big tech, TMTG is also looking to make streaming "great again" with TMTG+ — a streaming service to compete with Netflix, Disney and the other 50-odd streaming services available in North America. The investor presentation has TMTG+ getting to 40 million paid subscribers by the end of 2026, which would be just over half what Netflix currently has in the US & Canada.
Almost every chart to do with the US housing market looks a bit the same right now — up and to the right (see mortgage rates from last week).
Indeed, fresh data out yesterday showed US house prices rising 18.8% in 2021, which is the biggest increase in 34 years of data. So what do you do when everyone needs a house? You build houses.
The good news for anyone looking for a house is that government data shows that more than 1.5 million housing units are currently under construction in the US — the most since the 1970s.
Once on the market, that inventory should help to redress the supply-demand imbalance... if the houses can get finished.
In a housing gold rush, sell garage doors
Raw material shortages and supply chain hiccups have made building houses hard. Lumber prices have soared, concrete and cement have seen record demand and glass windows were cited as a sore spot for 63% of home builders in October. But nothing has been quite as absurd as the shortage in garage doors, as reported by the NYTimes.
A shortage of garage doors has been holding up inspections and completions all over the country, with some home builders now ordering garage doors before they even start building a house. As Brookfield Properties CEO Adrian Foley said: “It used to take us 20 weeks to build a house... now it takes us 20 weeks to get a set of garage doors".
1) The most valuable TV show in the US is... The Office. The rights to the classic sitcom have been revealed to be $498k per episode per year, ahead of rivals Seinfeld ($361k) and Friends ($360k)
2) Brent crude oil prices flirted with $100 this week as markets anticipate disruption in the increasingly likely event that Russia launches a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
3) Covid cases continue to fall in every state of the US. Weekly cases for the country are now down ~90% from the January peak.
4) Sorry New Yorkers, you're officially the worst Uber passengers, according to state-level data released by the ride-hailing giant. San Antonio folks were chill — getting the highest average rating.
5) Gong analyzed more than one million sales calls to understand what super successful salespeople do differently than their peers — get the 9 Secret Elements Of Successful Sales Conversations.**
6) What makes people spill secrets they've been told in confidence? It's all about morality according to a new study — people appear more likely to reveal secrets that violate their own moral values.
**This is sponsored content.
