📍 Pinterest, the “online oasis”

Proof that Chris Matthews had “made it” in the cutthroat basketball world arrived a few years ago, in the form of a late-night text.

Matthews was in Atlanta, helping NBA player Dwight Howard improve his shot, when he got a message from an unknown number.

“I was like, ‘Who the hell is this?’” he recalled in a recent interview with The Hustle. “And it was 21 Savage. I don’t know how he got my number, but he was like, ‘Yo, I want to get some shots up.’ I’m like, ‘Hey, say no more.’”

Even though it was around 1am, Matthews found an open gym and developed a quick workout tailored for the superstar rapper, who often plays in celebrity basketball games.

Those types of thrilling moments are now routine for Matthews, a former overseas professional player who has become a successful entrepreneur in an exclusive niche: helping people get better at shooting a basketball.

Ever click a link in one of our emails, and then marvel at the volume of mumbo-jumbo after the question mark?

Those are UTM tracking parameters — nifty labels for classifying campaigns and analyzing traffic. They let us bundle up the metrics into convenient buckets for easy viewing.

Use this free UTM link generator to create tracking links that pinpoint the sources of your content. This resource defines parameter types, summarizes best practices, and includes a customizable template.

Because a better grasp on traffic leads to stronger connections with customers.

A new social media platform is in town and quickly gaining steam.

Since its buzzy American debut in February, ByteDance’s Lemon8 has seen 1m+ US downloads (17m+ downloads globally), and it has climbed up the lifestyle app chart, a list long topped by Pinterest.

Speaking of Pinterest…

… If Pinterest and Instagram had a baby, it’d be Lemon8 — its feed looks similar to Pinterest, and individual posts are reminiscent of Instagram carousels.

While Lemon8 could work as an alternative to Instagram — whose users have been vocal about frustrations with its unpredictable algorithm — Pinterest users seem happy with the original. (There haven’t been cries for a “new Pinterest.”)

• Pinterest has ~450m active users and most like the platform — 80% say they feel positive when using it, and 90% call it an “online oasis” (whereas only 30% feel similarly about other platforms).
• It also has the ecommerce heft ByteDance craves: Pinterest users spend 80% more per month than people on other platforms.

Lemon8 can certainly continue trying, but Pinterest will be tough to dethrone.

There are reasons to be skeptical

As with any new platform, there are valid concerns about Lemon8’s viability:

• Also owned by ByteDance, Lemon8 could face the same scrutiny as TikTok over security concerns.
• Many social platforms emerge with a splash before the excitement fades. (Clubhouse and BeReal showed promise but failed to capture audiences’ long-term attention.)

Pinterest, which launched in 2010, has the user base and fandom Lemon8 seeks — and a decade’s head start in translating that favorability into sales. Only time will tell if Lemon8 can turn social media lemons into lemonade.

🛤️ On this day: In 1869, the US transcontinental railroad was finished, connecting both coasts and decreasing travel time from months by wagon to a matter of days.

📱 That’s cool: An AI bot you can talk to on the phone.

🎧 Podcast: With Mother’s Day coming up, Another Bite explores the $2.4T buying power of moms.

🙂 How to: Be happy, according to two MIT business experts.

🐶 Aww: And now, move over, Cirque du Soleil.