May has been an exciting month for me, you’ll soon know more… but it has also been a very stimulating one, with these 6 stories of content really worth a read, view & look.

From mobile strategy to responsible consumption and failed investing, here’s my May article digest. I hope you’ll enjoy it and wish you a great Ascension weekend!

 

In France we have a regulated savings account called “Livret Développement Durable” (meaning: “Sustainable Development Passbook Account” or something like that). Well, it turns out that nothing proves that the money deposited on these accounts funds green projects, as this great “Checknews” article written with the help of journalism student Adeline Mullet skillfully investigates. One more reason to invest through crowdfunding 🙂

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One of these in-depth articles I enjoy reading when I have time – or when I just take it. “Mobile devices are still far and away the most popular way people use Facebook services, but after two years of privacy debacles, misinformation campaigns, and political polarization, how they interact with those services is starting to change,” Kurt Wagner writes, underlining that more than usage, it’s trust that seems to erode for Facebook. And needs urgent action.

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This is a “common sense” article, in which the author takes aim at a particular artifact – Apple’s AirPods – but could have taken many other examples to denounce programmed obsolescence: “For roughly 18 months, AirPods play music, or podcasts, or make phone calls. Then the lithium-ion batteries [will] slowly become unusable. […] They can’t be repaired because they’re glued together. They can’t be easily recycled […]. Instead, the AirPods sit in your drawer forever.“

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An Asian tycoon entrusted a sh*tload of (his own, but also that of Citigroup Inc.’s) money to an actual “robo-investing” service – call it “artificial intelligence” if you want – developped by a bunch of brilliant but financially inexperienced geeks, and lost money. Who to blame? The salesman, of course! Quite an entertaining and despairing story…

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A cool article about YouTube’s team’s efforts to adapt to DTC brands’ marketing challenges. Having a lot of (VC) money to spend and being very conversion-focused, DTC brands tend not to use the video-platform too much (at least, less than if it offered better ways to drive sales instead of awareness). So YouTube called together a “DTC council meeting” led by Nicky Rettke, director of YouTube performance advertising. Changes to come?

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Four months ago I got quite excited about LOOP, and it’s cool that the program is already up and running in Paris! This month, we made and received our first order, pictured here. Let’s say that… it’s a promising start: the product offer is very limited, prices are quite high, scheduling the delivery was quite a nightmare… but I’m happy to keep testing.

They’re not even close to being as convenient as meal-delivery, drive-thru shopping or even going to the supermarket down the street. But I guess we as early adopters will help the system improve and contribue to less waste in the long run.

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Thanks for reading!