Read this Thursday’s edition of the FolhaMercado newsletter (18) – 05/18/2023 – Market

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The 1st state to try to ban TikTok

The governor of the US state of Montana signed a law on Wednesday to ban TikTok from operating in his territory, the first of its kind to be sanctioned in the US.

• The norm is expected to come into effect from next year, but should be the subject of a series of legal battles until then.

Understand: the law prohibiting the Chinese platform from operating in Montana imposes a fine of $10k per day to TikTok and app stores that do not exclude the social network from their catalogs as of January 1st.

• It is not clear how the state would block the operation on the devices of those who had downloaded the app before the start of the punishment.

TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, said in a statement that the bill “violates the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana.”

Worth seeing again. Other American authorities have already tried to ban the popular social network from the country, without success.

The offensive of US politicians against TikTok rose again in March of this year, when current president Joe Biden threatened to ban the app from the country if the Chinese people from Byte Dance did not sell their stake in the platform.

• Additionally, dozens of states have already passed laws to prevent the app from being downloaded to government devices.

The fear of the authorities is the same: that TikTok is required to hand over data from US consumers if there is an order from the Chinese government, as mandated by local national security law.

• The Chinese social network says it has never shared data with the Chinese government and would not do so if asked.
• It still reaffirms its billionaire cost plan that involves paying the American Oracle to store the data of the country’s users in the national territory.

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Who is the new CEO of Twitter

After scaring away dozens of Twitter advertisers with his arrival at the helm of the social network, Elon Musk chose Linda Yaccarino, a titan of advertising, to take over as CEO of the platform.

• The billionaire says he will remain chairman of the board and will be the company’s chief technology officer.

Who is Yaccarino: To take over Twitter, she stepped down as chief publicity officer at NBCUniversal, where she oversaw annual revenue of more than $10 billion and also led the launch of streaming Peacock.

She has long-term relationships with virtually every major American advertising executive and is also a chairperson of the World Economic Forum, where she connects closely with business leaders.

the biggest obstacle for Yaccarino to recoup Twitter’s ad revenue, industry executives say, is the social network’s own owner.

• The network’s ad revenues dropped 50% shortly after Musk arrived.

He ended up scaring away many advertisers from the platform with his speech of unrestricted freedom of expression, which lasted until page two after the network suspended accounts of journalists who had done critical reporting on the billionaire and took down a profile that tracked his jet.

Musk, who has a centralized management style and little tolerance for confrontations, will continue with an important role in the company as chairman of the board – responsible for defining the company’s strategies.

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Plant-based industry now targets price

The companies that operate in Brazil with the sale of plant-based foods claim to be in a third stage of development.

• In the first, the objective was to achieve the closest possible sensory experience to products of animal origin.

• Serving healthier foods in terms of nutrition was the concern of the second stage.

• The current phase three seeks to deliver affordable prices.

Worry meets from a survey by the Good Food Institute (GFI), an entity that promotes alternatives to animal proteins.

• 85% of Brazilians interviewed say that the main barrier to the consumption of this food is the price.

The pocket turns out to be an obstacle to the evolution of the industry in Brazil, where vegetarians and vegans represent only 4% of the population, but flexitarians, those who intend to reduce meat consumption, are 28%.

In the countrytwo startups dominate the plant-based sector:

Future Farm: offers vegetable products that simulate the original taste of proteins, mainly beef.

• She was evaluated in $2.2 billion (R$ 10.9 billion) after a round of investments announced at the end of 2021.

NotCo: Founded in Santiago, Chile, it uses AI (artificial intelligence) and a plant database to create recipes that simulate foods of animal origin, such as hamburgers, milk, ice cream and mayonnaise.

• The company announced late last year a $70 million extension to its series D round, which valued it at $1.5 billion (R$7.42 billion).

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The BC minutes, according to the GPT

Bradesco trained ChatGPT to analyze the tone of the BC (Central Bank) minutes. The result on the document of the last Copom meeting was this:

• The Central Bank showed a still rigid stance by the monetary authority in combating inflation, with no signs of a drop in interest rates.

The comment was similar to the analysis of market economists on the document.

Bradesco analysts say that AI can help streamline and eliminate the bias of those who read the document, but it has to be complemented by human vision, which can understand all the variables in the scenario.

Understand how it was done: to train the model, the bank’s researchers made a historical series with the last 55 minutes and 55 announcements from the BC.

The AI ​​gave each paragraph a score between -100 to +100. The closer to -100, the tougher the stance of the monetary authority, and the closer to the opposite, the less concerned about inflation the committee is. Zero would be a neutral tone.

The sum of the paragraph scores is used to indicate the score for the minutes.