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Tag: Meme stock

  • GameStop Wants You To Start Trading In Your Valuable Pokémon Cards

    GameStop Wants You To Start Trading In Your Valuable Pokémon Cards

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    Photo: Heritage Auctions / Bloomberg (Getty Images)

    The market for high-end collectibles like rare Pokémon cards has exploded in recent years, and GameStop seems to want a piece of it. The gaming retailer told some store managers this week that it would begin testing buying Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) graded trading cards later this month as it flails around for a new business strategy while its meme stock shenanigans continue.

    New Pokémon Scarlet And Violet Trailer Features Hot Profs, 4-Player Co-Op, And Lechonk, The Hero We Deserve

    “Exciting news,” read an internal message shared over on the GameStop subreddit yesterday. “We are happy to announce that we are officially getting into Graded Collectibles. Starting tomorrow, all associates will have access to the Main Menu Learning Course around accepting PSA Graded Collectibles (Just Trading Cards for now).” The company said the program’s rollout would begin next week in just 258 stores to start, including some located in Texas where GameStop is headquartered.

    It’s not clear yet how the program will work, if GameStop plans to resell the cards in-store, or what the limit will be on the prices it can pay. Some self-identified employees on the subreddit have speculated that the stores will only be allowed to buy collectibles graded PSA 8 and above. Still, the prices for those can run from, say, $50 for a Raging Bolt Ex from the recent Temporal Forces Pokémon set to over $29,000 for a rarer Charizard from the original base set.

    The backbone of GameStop’s business once upon a time was used video games. After players completed a new release, they could sell it back to the company for a fraction of the MSRP, which GameStop would then turn around and sell to a new player for almost the full cost of the new version of the game. This “circle of life” propelled GameStop to huge profits in the early 2010s, but has fallen apart as the majority of game purchases have gone digital.

    More recently, the company has doubled down on branded merchandise and collectibles like Funko-Pops and statues of video game characters to make up the shortfall. Despite raking in $1 billion thanks to a meme-fueled stock bonanza, GameStop’s pivots to cryptocurrency, PC gaming gear, and even TVs hasn’t yielded a new path forward for its ailing business. All along the way, GameStop employees have born the brunt the company’s excesses, failings, and resulting cuts.

    It’s unclear if GameStop’s longstanding reputation for poor trade-in deals will extend to its new collectibles program. “10% market price take it or leave it,” joked one person on Reddit. “5% market price cash, 10% market price in store credit, and they sell them at 500% market price.”

              

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    Ethan Gach

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  • Reddit Users Debate Preregister to Buy Shares, Deadline Near | Entrepreneur

    Reddit Users Debate Preregister to Buy Shares, Deadline Near | Entrepreneur

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    Last month, Reddit gave 75,000 power users first dibs on stock before the company goes public later this year.

    Though Reddit may have pitched the move as a “special program,” popular opinions within the Reddit community show that reception has been mixed.

    “I got requested to join the IPO, and I ain’t taking that risk,” one Reddit user posted. “The user base is not worth investing in.” Another presented a contrasting opinion, pointing out that the Reddit community relies on Reddit results for quality answers while also disputing the quality of that content.

    Related: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Says the ‘Surfer Mindset’ Is the ‘Right’ Approach in Business and Life.

    Still, others have deemed Reddit a “meme stock” which is a term that ironically originated on the platform.

    The 15 million members on the subreddit r/WallStreetBets have impacted the stock market before by manipulating low-performing stock or “meme stocks,” with GameStop being an example that cost institutions billions of dollars in losses.

    Some investors consider Reddit a good bet, though.

    “I want to invest in a search engine anyways because I think it’s a good investment to have,” Gillian Tahajian, a 24-year-old marketing analyst, told TechCrunch. “Google is overpriced, and Pinterest is failing me.”

    The deadline to preregister for Reddit stock arrives this week for the 75,000 users that Reddit chose to invite. According to Reddit’s S-1 filing with the SEC, which the company filed to prepare for its initial public offering, Redditors who contributed substantially to the community received preference for preregistration. Reddit considered a user’s “karma points,” which measure how much their actions contribute to the Reddit community, and moderator actions to make its picks.

    Related: Spirit Airlines Is the Latest Meme Stock Amid 131% Spike

    Reddit, which calls itself “the front page of the Internet,” was founded by Alexis Ohanian, Aaron Swartz, and Steve Huffman in 2005. The platform gives posting and community moderation power over to users, who are instrumental enough to the platform’s success that they were able to make the website nonfunctional last year in response to administrative changes.

    Reddit could be seeking a $6.5 billion valuation, according to a CNBC source.

    Data from Semrush”s Traffic Analytics Tool reveals that Reddit was the third most visited website in the U.S. in December 2023, beating out Facebook by roughly 535 million views. Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok took 10th, 13th, and 17th place respectively. Globally, Reddit takes 9th place according to Semrush, which brings its traffic numbers above TikTok and WhatsApp, but below Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

    Related: Netflix Documentary ‘Eat the Rich: The GameStop Saga’ Explains the Meme Stock Saga That Cost Wall Street $20 Billion

    Reddit’s SEC filing discloses that the company had 267.5 million active users per week, more than 100,000 active communities, and a total post count of 1 billion. The company was unprofitable last year, with a net loss of $90.8 million, but plans to become profitable through “advertising, monetizing commerce on the platform, and licensing data,” according to the filing.

    The filing further shows that Reddit currently generates 98% of its revenue through advertising.

    Reddit struck a $60 million deal with Google in February that allows the company to train its AI models on Reddit posts.

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    Sherin Shibu

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  • GameStop’s New Billionaire Boss Calls For ‘Extreme Frugality’ In Email To Staff

    GameStop’s New Billionaire Boss Calls For ‘Extreme Frugality’ In Email To Staff

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    After years of pulling the strings from behind the scenes, GameStop chairman and billionaire Chewy founder Ryan Cohen appointed himself CEO of the ailing video game store on Thursday. His first email to staff, obtained by Kotaku, called for “extreme frugality” and said “time wasters” would not be tolerated as the meme stock company fights to survive.

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    “It is not sustainable for GameStop to operate a money losing business,” Cohen, who first joined the board of directors back in 2021, told corporate employees. Despite effectively being in charge of the retailer for a couple years now, engineering short-lived pushes into better online deliveries, NFTs, and selling things like gamer chairs and TVs, GameStop has remained mostly unprofitable during his reign.

    A recent exodus among the c-suite, including Cohen’s firing of his own hand-picked CEO, Matt Furlong earlier this year, has left the company seemingly more adrift than ever. GameStop initiated several waves of layoffs in 2022, and has continued to decimate staffing levels at individual stores, even though its meme stock windfall means it still has roughly $1 billion in cash reserves.

    Cohen’s first email to employees after making himself boss struck a grim and threatening tone. “Every expense at the company must be scrutinized under a microscope and all waste eliminated,” he wrote. “The company has no use for delegators and money wasters. I expect everyone to treat company money like their own and lead by example.”

    It’s not clear what’s left to cut at the company, however. The core of GameStop’s troubles remains an ongoing shift from physical game sales to digital downloads. A massive Xbox leak earlier this month suggested Microsoft might soon be phasing out disc drives for its own consoles altogether. Funko Pop! and other collectible merchandise has taken over more and more of the chain’s retail shelves, but has so far been unable to make up for the losses from fewer sales of used games.

    Here’s Cohen’s full email to GameStop employees:

    I will be straight to the point.

    It is not sustainable for GameStop to operate a money losing business. The mission is to operate hyper efficiently and profitably. Our expense structure must allow us to endure any adverse scenario. Whether it’s a difficult economy or revenue deceleration from shrinking software, we must be profitable. Our job is to make sure GameStop is here for decades to come. Extreme frugality is required. Every expense at the company must be scrutinized under a microscope and all waste eliminated. The company has no use for delegators and money wasters. I expect everyone to treat company money like their own and lead by example.

    Prospering in retail means survival. If we survive, we stay in the game. Survival is avoiding the deadly sins that often lead retailers to self-destruct. This is usually a result of the following – buying bad inventory, using leverage, and running expenses too high. By avoiding these self-inflicted mistakes and focusing on the basics, GameStop can be here for a long time.

    I expect everyone to roll up their sleeves and work hard. I’m not getting paid, so I’m either going down with the ship or turning the company around. I much prefer the latter.

    It won’t be easy. Best of luck to us all.

    Ryan

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    Ethan Gach

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  • 9 Ways Memes Can Change Your Business

    9 Ways Memes Can Change Your Business

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The so-called “creator economy” spans a hugely diverse field with products including dance videos on TikTok, crocheted doilies on Etsy and eye-popping memes on iFunny. It is becoming a formidable force. In 2021 alone, the creator economy raised a record $1.3 billion in funding, underscoring the investment community’s vote of confidence in its future. Fast forward to 2022, and memes are clearly no longer just for laughs.

    The sector’s trailblazers — behemoths like Meta and more specialized entertainment tech players like FunCorp, whose team I was privileged to join in 2021 — were fortunate to be at the forefront of many industry changes, including the explosion of memes into pop culture.

    Related: The Secret to Building Brand Devotion is Not a Loyalty Program. Here’s What Customer’s Really Want.

    Innovative players across industries are harnessing their power to build communities and inspire strong sentiment around their brand for the benefit of the business. Here are some exciting new ways in which memes can help you achieve your strategic objectives, both as they relate to your customers and your teams:

    1. Reach a younger audience. Memes don’t have a target age, but if you are keen to grab a larger part of the younger demographic, they might be the most effective medium of short-form communication. Approximately 54% of Gen-Zs, 41% of Millennials, and 21% of Gen-Xers look for new memes every day, according to GlobalWebIndex data, while 75% of users aged 13-36 regularly share memes. Considering these stats, using memes to help your corporate messages reach younger customers and potential partners seems like a no-brainer.
    2. Mount a low-cost marketing campaign. When done right, a meme that takes a limited budget to create can leverage the power of social media to go viral, which means your meme marketing campaign has the potential to go viral as well. Companies across sectors, from grocery delivery players to luxury retailers, are already using this to their advantage, with Gucci‘s meme-based ad campaign “#TFWGucci” (“That Feeling When Gucci”) representing one of the company’s highest engaging ad campaign, generating over 21,000 comments and 2 million likes. Apps like Yepp have built-in editing tools that simplify meme creation, even for a novice, helping take the art of meme-making into the mainstream.
    3. Increase engagement with your social media page. If you enjoy memes, you know the internet gets flooded with clever takes on trending news. You can keep track of popular memes and share the ones that are topical and well-aligned with your corporate image to fuel greater engagement with your audience online. A recent research report highlighted the benefits of this strategy, revealing that while millennials generally eschew commercial and sponsored content, 84% of them are influenced by user-generated content, including memes on company pages.
    4. Help your brand stand out. Given the short-form nature of meme content and its punchy messaging style and visuals, memes can stay in your memory long after you’ve clicked on them. There is a way to leverage this by incorporating memes into your branding, ensuring better brand recall than other communication formats. It’s a crowded space, and memes help break through the wall of indifference and capture consumer attention. One company nailing this is Barkbox, a company selling dog toy subscription boxes. Barkbox has racked up an impressive 1.8 million followers on its Instagram page by almost exclusively sharing memes. It now surpasses the follower count of the country’s largest pet retailer — PetSmart — by a cool 1 million people.
    5. Build brand loyalty. While traditional marketing may alienate some consumers by being overly aspirational (think beach body ads, reels for the latest diet supplements), memes tend to unite people by reminding them that they are not alone in their thoughts and feelings. In doing so, memes become a powerful tool for community-building, helping foster a sense of belonging among consumers that translates into brand loyalty.
    6. Align your onboarding with your workplace culture. Starting a new job can be a daunting experience, and deciphering the work culture at your new office can be difficult. If you pride yourself on fostering a unique working environment far from the stuffy, hierarchical offices of the past, then using memes to welcome new employees might be a good way to highlight this. Memes, when chosen appropriately, can help your new team members understand the new workplace better and easily fit into it.
    7. Encourage team building. Memes have the power to inspire strong feelings, which laugh-out-loud content tends to do. While memes are most often used for external marketing in business, corporate culture gurus are now also looking to memes, seeking more ways to unite and inspire employees. Creating work channels for sharing your favorite memes or holding corporate competitions for the best meme created by employees on a particular topic of relevance can be an unusual and fun way to encourage team building. And they can certainly help spice up a presentation when used effectively.
    8. Spice up internal communications. Deploying a mix of topical memes in internal communications can help you drive your key points home and even inject some fun into the driest of topics. It is great to hear the crowd break down into genuine laughter during an internal new product presentation or a weekly team meeting, and memes are a quick and simple way to achieve this, inserting a bit of fun into the everyday. Thinking beyond internal comms, corporate and investor presentations might benefit from memes in the same way as well.
    9. Help break up monotonous tasks. Not every job can always be exciting, as monotonous tasks are often a necessary part of a job and cannot be avoided. At the same time, feeling engaged is a key component of employee satisfaction and retention. Consider making small changes for big impacts, like inserting a “meme of the day” into your team’s workflow or even ask the team to suggest their own suitable memes for a bit of fun and to encourage social interactions to help break up the monotony of some tedious tasks that cannot be cut from the work routine.

    Related: How to Use Memes To Transform Your Marketing Strategy

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    Max Kraynov

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