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Lockdown getting ya down?

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Here's everything you need to know today - in under 3 minutes.

Today's big stories:

😎 Canva's doubled its valuation

🚊 Zip Co has hopped on the Bitcoin train

👀 LinkedIn is looking for content creators

Oh, and get this...

Apple dropped the mic on some brand-new hardware at its iPhone 13 event, and there was a lot going on. We're talking new iPads and iPad minis, a new Apple Watch Series 7, and of course, the new iPhone 13 (and the 13 mini, 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max).

Canva's doubled its valuation in 6 months - and we love to see it

Background: Canva is an Aussie-born software design startup, that has essentially revolutionised visual communications. Bye-bye Photoshop - you're a nightmare. We said catchya to Microsoft Paint in year 3. Now, it's hello Canva.

What happened: Canva helps rookies like you and me actually make legit looking social media posts or presentations. It launched back in 2013, and 8 years on, it has 60 million users globally.

What else: Canva's just raised another US$200 million, taking its valuation to a whopping US$40 billion (or AU$55 billion). That's double the company's valuation from April 2021. Now, founders Mel Perkins and Cliff Obrecht have shares worth a lazy US$12 billion...But they've committed to donate the majority of it to charities through a new Canva Foundation.

So what's the key learning?

💡More and more, founders and business leaders are using their wealth as a force for good.

💡This really kicked off in 2010 when Bill Gates and Warren Buffett started the Giving Pledge, which aimed to inspire wealthy people around the world to give at least half of their money to charities.

💡Since then, we've seen a number of younger entrepreneurs commit as well - like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Sara Blakeley (founder of Spanx) and now Canva founders Mel and Cliff.

Zip Co is about to hop on the Bitcoin train - destination cryptoville

Background: Aussie buy now, pay later company Zip Co competes head on with the big A(fterpay). The company is worth $4 billion, and it's been growing pretty rapidly.

What happened: It's set to continue expanding as the US BNPL market grows, but there are tonnes of players out there. And let's be honest, Square's purchase of Afterpay would have Zip more scared than Kim K's Met Gala outfit (we all had nightmares).

What else: To stand out from the crowd, Zip's decided to add crypto trading to their toolkit. And, they'll allow merchants to accept bitcoin as a form of payment. This'll help Zip step out of the saturated BNPL market...and into financial services.

So what's the key learning?

💡Market saturation is when the amount of products or services in a particular industry has hit its limit. Aka, there are too many chefs in the kitchen.

💡At the point of market saturation, a company can only achieve further growth by:

• taking existing market share from competitors, OR
• increasing the number of consumers who use their product.
  

💡But one other way to do this is through product expansion, which kinda kills two birds with one stone. By adding bitcoin payments, Zip might be doing just that.

LinkedIn is looking for content creators to join their platform - and they'll pay $$

Background: We all know LinkedIn as the social media site targeted at professionals. And there are around 775 million users who shamelessly promote their achievements and work updates on the site.

What happened: But alongside professional development and networking, LinkedIn also provides some decent content. And it's been trying to build this part of its biz for a while. Remember the Stories feature? RIP.  

What else: It's expanded tools for creators, and now it's going one step further by launching a US$25 million creator's fund. They're hoping the cash will attract top creators, which will help them build out a platform for more content.

So what's the key learning?

💡It's a simple equation. Quality content on a platform = more engagement and more users.

💡LinkedIn wants to encourage more engaging voices on its platform. Because if more people are engaged and spending more time on LinkedIn, then they can sell more ad space and other premium features.

💡But you can't just ask creators to create. Competition amongst platforms to attract good content creators is fierce. TikTok, Facebook and Instagram and YouTube have all created funds to pay content creators. So while US$25 million is nice...it's a far cry from the big players.