Happy Sunday! It’s been a big week for dealmakers: Wall Street is still mulling over the Nvidia-Intel alliance; an investor group including Oracle is reportedly snapping up TikTok's US entity; and America just signed a ~$200 billion “Technology Prosperity Deal” with the UK. Even black hole mergers are making headlines.
Today we’re talking gadgets — exploring how SharkNinja is using TikTok to sell viral household gadgets before diving into watchmaker Casio’s unprecedented (and somewhat unsettling) move into AI-powered wellness. |
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Do you really, truly need a $350 ice cream machine sitting on your kitchen counter?
Earlier this year, on the release day of the Ninja Swirl by CREAMi — a machine whose sole purpose is to make traditional and soft-serve ice cream — many Americans felt they really did need that device. In fact, the company behind it, SharkNinja, sold one of the machines every eight seconds that day.
The release was just the latest success for SharkNinja, which has managed to become a social media behemoth by doing what shopping channels like QVC would have done 20 years ago — making their way into consumers’ homes thanks to the power of TikTok. |
The company hasn’t stopped there: it releases 25 new products every year, one every two weeks, produced by a team of more than 1,000 engineers around the world. Today, four in every 10 vacuum cleaners sold in the US are made by SharkNinja, per Nielsen, while a new line of air cleaners has gone from nothing in 2020 to commanding nearly a third of the market.
“SharkNinja figured out how to market function as lifestyle, which is exactly what resonates with Gen Z,” e-commerce marketing expert Josh Neuman said. These customers helped propel SharkNinja to record sales of $5.5 billion last year, up from $3.7 billion in 2022 — and the momentum shows no sign of slowing, having just notched its best second quarter results ever. |
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A Day in the Life of the Nasdaq-100® |
The companies that make up the Nasdaq-100 Index® are all around you — from the coffee you drink and the clothes you wear to the technology that powers your everyday life.
The Nasdaq-100 is a large-cap index that represents the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market®. The index is home to some of the world's most innovative companies across the technology, consumer goods, and healthcare sectors. |
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Other great stories from the week |
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A cuddly, emotionally-responsive artificial intelligence pet. If that’s a list of words that makes you feel unsettled, you wouldn’t be alone.
But that’s exactly what Japanese watchmaker Casio is betting on to brighten its financial future, as the company’s consumer tech business continues to shrink. Less than a year since launching in its home country, Casio announced this week that its tech-powered companion, “Moflin,” will be coming to the US as of October 1, with a $429 price tag.
Advertisements for the toy show users cuddling it while working, nuzzling the toy, and eating with it — like something straight out of an episode of Black Mirror.
The G-Shock-maker sold some 10,000 of the pet robots in the Japanese market as of the end of May — now Casio is eyeing the rest of the world. The company is hoping to sell a total of 7,000 units in the UK and US by the end of March 2026, and is targeting ~$34 million in sales for the stress-relieving toy globally over the next three to five years.
Casio's growing ambition in wellness tech is a big move for the company, which has been peddling consumer electronics since the 1950s. But the company’s revenue has long been ticking down. |
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