Thematic Reads: Week of December 9, 2019
Each week Team Tematica consumes a voracious amount of content as we look to stay on top of the latest data and mine it for tailwind and headwind signals for our 10 investment themes.
Aging of the Population
The global demographic shift towards a more senior population
- Older Women Are the Beauty Industry’s Next Potential Gold Mine (Bloomberg)
- Turning gray and into the red: The true cost of growing old in America (St Peter Herald)
Cleaner Living
Growing demand for items that claim to be better for you and the planet:
- Whiskey Makers Are Making a Play For Climate Conscious Drinkers (BNN Bloomberg)
- Stop using plastic cups because BPA exposure may be much worse than we thought (Fast Company)
- Government Studying Widely Used Chemicals Linked to Health Issues (The New York Times)
Digital Infrastructure
The Buildout and upgrading of our Networks, Data Storage Facilities, and Equipment
- Cell Towers and Data Centers in the 5G Economy (Cohen & Steers)
- MediaTek, Realtek to ramp Wi-Fi 6 chip output in 2020 (Digitimes)
Disruptive Innovators
Business models designed to transform an entire industry and leap-frog over incumbents.
- Qualcomm interview: Snapdragon XR’s future, from wired to 5G, VR to AR (VentureBeat)
- Scaled Robotics keeps an autonomous eye on busy construction sites (TechCrunch)
Digital Lifestyle
The increasingly digital landscape that now underpins the entire consumer experience.
- Facebook’s Portal now lets you sing on an AR stage (VentureBeat)
- Netflix has finally outdone Hollywood at the Golden Globes (Quartz)
- Disney+ could have 20 million subscribers by year-end (CNBC)
The products and services people will consume no matter the economic environment.
- Nearly a Third of Teens Use One or More Tobacco Products (The New York Times)
- Coffee consumption will exceed production in the 2019/20 coffee year: ICO (MarketWatch)
- New state gambling rules would ‘kill’ card rooms, some worry (Los Angeles Times)
Those things that bridge the gap between want and ability at every socioeconomic level.
- Luxury Beauty Brands Revamp Stores (PYMNTS)
- 2020 Porsche Taycan 4S is a heck of a value – Roadshow (CNET)
Consumers trading down when and where possible or looking to stretch the disposable dollars they do have.
- ‘End of the world’: This futurist has some grim news for the middle class (MarketWatch)
- For Middle-Class Shoppers, New Cars Are Moving out of Reach (Car and Driver)
Areas around the world where rising disposable incomes are driving demand for a host of products and services.
- 2019 Chinese Outbound Travel Report: Key takeaways (Luxury Daily)
- India to overtake Japan as the world’s No. 3 economy in 2029 (Nikkei Asian Review)
Reflecting the evolving needs across individual, cyber, corporate and homeland security.
- “Privacy-first culture” needed to earn, keep consumer trust: CMO Council (Luxury Daily)
- Pensacola disconnects city network after cyberattack (The Hill)
- These are the worst hacks, cyberattacks, and data breaches of 2019 (ZDNet)
What Else We Are Loving
Other reads, experiences, products, services and the like that we enjoyed so much this past week we just had to share
- December has been tough so far for one of Lenore Hawkins’ obsessions, Peloton (PTON), whose shares are down around 11% from their highs at the start of the month. The company’s shares first took a hit when some disliked its holiday commercial. The next hit came from a short-seller report arguing that shares would drop to $5 in 2020. Hawkins has both the Peloton treadmill and the bike at her home in San Diego and when she is traveling around the globe, as she often does, she is addicted to using the company’s app to help her not fall off the fitness wagon. If you are afraid of what the holidays may do to your waistline, we suggest checking out a 30-day free trial of their app and see for yourself what the hoopla is all about.
- Another favorite this month is Hydro Flask. Their 22-ounce version is perfect for keeping hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold without any annoying sweating to mess up one’s pristine (ahem) desk.
