🏂 Shaun White’s The Snow League Lands $15 Million In Funding

In today’s newsletter we discuss Shaun White’s The Snow League just landed $15 million In new funding, who stands to win if TikTok goes bye-bye, IAC spins of Angi, Taylor Swift is nesting, A.J. Brown gets his reading on, and Elon Musk is constantly in the news.

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WHAT WE’RE READING

👋 Who stands to win if TikTok goes bye-bye?

With the whirlwind of updates and conflicting stories coming out around a potential ban of TikTok going into effect on Sunday, January 19, 2025 here in the U.S., we thought it might be time to discuss who stands to win if TikTok goes bye-bye.

There’s been considerable discussion about who would benefit the most if TikTok were to go away, and I’ll give you a big hint:

Every other social media company.

Ok, now that we got the obvious out of the way, let’s dive into the details.

When you look at the numbers a handful of key players stand to gain, primarily within the existing social media and advertising landscape.

• Meta (Facebook and Instagram): Meta is projected to be the biggest winner.

  • Instagram's Reels, a direct TikTok competitor, is already a significant driver of user engagement, accounting for over 50% of user time spent on the platform.

  • eMarketer projects that Instagram and Facebook would absorb 22.5% and 17.1% of TikTok's reallocated ad spending, respectively.
    

• Google (YouTube): Google is another major beneficiary.

  • YouTube Shorts boasts over 2 billion logged-in monthly users.

  • eMarketer predicts YouTube would capture roughly 10.7% of the ad dollars previously spent on TikTok.
    

• Other Social Media Platforms: Several other platforms are expected to see a boost.

  • Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, and X (formerly Twitter) are collectively projected to receive around 18.3% of TikTok's reallocated ad spend.

  • Some of these platforms have already invested in short-video formats similar to TikTok.

  • Other rivals that are new to the scene, but who have not yet gained enough market share to really warrant the reporting (but we’ll do it anyways) include BlueSky, Mastodon, and Meta’s Threads.
    

• Elon Musk and X (if acquisition occurs): Recent reports (though denied by TikTok) have suggested the possibility of Elon Musk acquiring TikTok.

  • If this were to happen, Elon Musk and X would likely benefit substantially, inheriting TikTok's user base and ad revenue - which X desperately needs.
    

• Marketers: Because marketers have been preparing for the possibility of a TikTok ban they are ready to reallocate their ad spend to other platforms. This means the transition of ad dollars could happen quickly.

With new news dropping daily we’re just trying to keep up. Last minute legal challenges and potential acquisition deals could alter the landscape. However, based on current projections, Meta and Google appear poised to reap the largest financial rewards from a TikTok ban, with other social media platforms also positioned to gain.

🔨 Business

The once internet darling IAC, better known back in the day as InterActiveCorp, is spinning off their home improvement marketplace Angi, which they acquired back in 2017 for around $500 million dollars.

🏡 Real Estate

Is Taylor Swift “nesting”? She is if reports of a remodel at her $17.75M Rhode Island mansion are to be believed. The home, which already boasts 8 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, and is situated on 5.23 acres. The remodel is said to be adding a new room(s) that will measure 16 by 24 feet, and cost $1.7 million dollars when finished.

Can you say nursery?

🤖 Elon Musk

You know the old adage “no news is good news”? Yea, Elon Musk doesn’t subscribe to that. The man is CONSTANTLY in the news, either with his newly found bromance with Donald Trump/MAGA/power, or with any of the companies he owns, including Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly and forever to be referred to me as Twitter), xAI, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and the list goes on.

Right now Elon Musk is in the middle of:

• Being sued by the SEC for failing to properly disclose his ownership stake in Twitter before officially acquiring the company. That’s a no-no when you’ve acquired over 5% of a publicly traded company without disclosing it. Essentially he was buying the shares cheap without telling the world, which is illegal because had he told the world his true intentions investors would have driven up the price of the stock in order to get the best possible price for their shares.

• China isn’t ok with the U.S. outlawing TikTok, but if a ban were to go into effect then China just might be ok with Elon Musk buying TikTok. I’m sure there’s no backroom dealing going on here at all between the incoming Trump administration, Elon Musk, and the Chinese government.

Meddling in foreign affairs is to Elon Musk, like what starting a rumor about who the school’s most popular girl is dating was to you when you were back in 8th grade. It’s petty and doesn’t seem to do any good other than make you feel a little better about yourself at the expense of others, but that apparently doesn’t mean the world’s richest billionaire isn’t above acting out like a school yard bully. Right now Elon Musk is currently poking his nose into the business of foreign governments in the UK, Germany, France, and Norway, and they’re not happy.

📚 Good Reads

Philadelphia Eagles star wide receiver A.J. Brown doesn’t just cool down on the sidelines during a football game. He gets his reading on. During the Philadelphia Eagles playoff game against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, January 12, 2025, (spoiler alert: Philly won) the cameras caught A.J. Brown reading “Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life.” The book is written by Jim Murphy, who himself is a former professional baseball player and self-described “performance coach”.

The book quickly racked up sales following Sunday’s game, and as of Monday it was the #1 book sold on Amazon; it’s now ranked #6 as of the writing of this issue.

🏂 Sports

Shaun White’s new winter sports The Snow League just landed $15 million dollars in new funding from a who’s-who of investors including Left Lane Capital (which lead the round), along with existing investors Will Ventures, Ares Management funds, David Blitzer’s Bolt Ventures, Ryan Sports Ventures, and Peter Hirschmann who founded League One Volleyball also participated. Previous investors include Kevin Durant via his Boardroom Sports Holdings company.

Peacock is scheduled to air The Snow League, with primetime specials airing on NBC. The Snow League will debut in Aspen, Colorado in March 2025.

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irl Media NEWSLETTER is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.