Happy Sunday! What a week: we got a new US-UK trade deal; a new American pope; and a new reason not to let kids anywhere near our phones, after an 8-year-old boy ordered 70,000 lollipops for $4,000 on his mom's Amazon account. Today we're considering whether doomed short-form video app Quibi might have been right all along (hear us out) and how more of us than ever are flocking to ChatGPT. |
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The continued rise of microdramas — filmed specifically for phone screens, often a mere two minutes long, and typically action-packed — suggests that more people are looking to bite-sized, TikTokified vertical versions of longer content to keep themselves entertained in 2025. The genre sees feature-length scripted dramas chopped into short-form episodes and has boomed in China recently, with microdramas generating $6.9 billion in revenue last year, outweighing the domestic box office for the first time ever, a Shenzhen-based research company found. Now, as our attention spans close in even further, the rest of the world is starting to catch up — and the US is one of the countries leading the charge. |
In March 2023, microdrama apps notched just 43,000 downloads in America, according to Appfigures data cited by Robert Steiner in a Variety piece on the genre. This March, they clocked 4.6 million. That's growth of 10,600% for anyone keeping score, as series like "Accidentally Pregnant, Forever Spoiled," "Unwanted True Mate," and "Fated To My Cruel CEO" have registered hundreds of millions of views between them as audiences return to get a quick fix of thrilling (regularly romantic) drama. The rising genre put us in mind of Quibi, the short-form and short-lived platform from former Disney chair and DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, which promised to revolutionize the way we consume entertainment 5 years ago… before it was shut down six months later. |
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While the market shakes, biotech isn't stopping |
As market volatility takes hold and tariffs rise, Cytonics continues to advance a potential breakthrough in osteoarthritis treatment. It's based on A2M, a powerful protein that could prevent joint degradation and stop the progression of OA — something no drug has ever done. Cytonics is building with everyday investors like you. Company valuation has grown by over 1042% since their Seed round of financing.1 This increase in valuation is predicated on Cytonics' track record of accomplishing research and development milestones in pursuit of developing the first disease-modifying therapy for osteoarthritis. So far, Cytonics has raised $25M+ from 6,000 investors (across all offerings) backing their breakthrough. Cytonics isn't waiting on Wall Street — they're addressing the root cause of OA, with a grassroots effort. |
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Other great stories from the week |
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If you really need to ask an AI chatbot who would win in a battle between 100 men and a gorilla, or use it to dream up an image of President Trump as the next pontiff, you have many options today. You can use Meta's new, stand-alone MetaAI app, or you could ask Google's Gemini, and there's always Anthropic's Claude. AI chatbots are kind of everywhere these days. But the place that seems to be the most popular for such queries is OpenAI's ChatGPT.com. According to data from Similarweb, the web-based chatbot received 780 million visits last month from American users — a 14% jump from March. |
It's been a year since OpenAI rolled out the simplified website interface for its consumer-facing chatbot, and the company seems to be aiming for a significant slice of the web search pie that Google currently dominates. However, while 780 million monthly visits sounds like a lot, it's still far behind the 16 billion visits to Google.com, according to Similarweb's data. Google is racking up 96 billion web searches per week, versus ChatGPT's 1 billion. |
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CYT-108, a potential breakthrough in osteoarthritis treatment, recently completed Phase 1 clinical trials.3 The company behind it is Cytonics: a biotech innovator with real clinical momentum, not just promises. Discover the investment opportunity.2 |
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Advertiser's disclosures: 1 There is no guarantee that the stated valuation and other terms are accurate or in agreement with the market or industry valuations.
2 This is a paid advertisement for Cytonics Regulation A+ Offering. Please read the offering circular and related risks on the SEC website. Investing in private company securities is not suitable for all investors because it is highly speculative and involves a high degree of risk. It should only be considered a long-term investment. You must be prepared to withstand a total loss of your investment. Private company securities are also highly illiquid, and there is no guarantee that a market will develop for such securities. 3 See press release for more details. |
Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... See more |
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