The Inner Loop | n. 147

Up acquired / PayPal fees / Tesla Bot

Australian Fintech and Startups

Neobank ‘Up’ was acquired by Bendigo. Bendigo will keep the brand and merge teams. Link

CBA launched ‘StepPay’ to all of its users. When you sign up, you have the option to join Klarna too #awkward. Link

NAB launched a ‘Global Finance’ challenge with three other global banks. Link

Stake rebranded and it looks fresh as a daisy. Link

Big Tech

Tesla announced a ‘Tesla Bot’ - a ‘humanoid robot’ (tautology?) that does mundane tasks for you. Will they dream though? Link

PayPal scrapped their BNPL late fees. Race to the bottom incoming (CBA last week scrapped their merchant fees for taking up Klarna). Link

Jimmy’s Notes

Short and sweet this week, so I’ll add some more content:

I downloaded TikTok last week. Amazing app that’s not just about dancing to music. Three takeaways (a) It’s a high engaging smorgasbord of content (b) It’s riddled with disinformation (especially around COVID) (c) It nurtures microcommunities - “Oh, so you like Cricket, comedy and golden retrievers? Here’s what other people that like that also enjoy”. I wrote about it some more here. If you want some Friday tunes - I’m blaring Jamiroquai at the moment. Link

Also, one of my favourite British comedians unfortunately passed this week - Sean Lock. If you want to see the peak of British humour, check out his ‘carrot in a box’ skit from 8/10 cats does countdown. Aboslute magic. Link

Trust you’re all surviving lock down okay.

Trivia

(a) What is the colour on the font of the following red rock deli chips: sea salt, lime and cracked black pepper, sweet chilli and sour cream, honey soy chicken, sea salt and balsamic vinegar?

(b) What are the two most commonly used words in the English language beginning with NAT _ _ _? Both are six letters. (answer is defined by frequency of the word appearing, not because people like it the most)

(c) Name a five letter word that is pronounced the same as its first letter.

(d) Name the scientific terms beginning with the letter B: A disease involving the inflammation of tubes that carry air into the lungs, a monkey from the genus Papio, a muscle in your arm that flexes the elbow joint, a snake that kills by squeezing, and a yellowish digestive fluid formed in the liver.

(e) Who is the main character of the 1992 film Aladdin? (That is, which character says the most words?) Is it Aladdin, the Genie, Jafar, or Iago the parrot?

(f) In 1698, Russian Tsar Peter the Great imposed taxes to discourage what?

Trivia Answers

(a) Blue, green, red, yellow/gold/orange (yes, i’ll accept any of the three), purple

(b) N A T U R E / N A T I O N

(c) Queue.

(d) Bronchitis, Baboon, brachialis, boa constrictor, bile

(e) The genie. RIP Robin Williams.

(f) Beards.