The Water Coolest is a free daily business news and professional advice email newsletter created for weekday warriors that is delivered fresh daily at 7 AM EST. You can subscribe at thewatercoolest.com.

THE HEADLINES

Estimated Read Time: 3 minutes and 16 seconds

FOOL ME ONCE …

Snapchat is leveraging influencers in all the worst ways.

Just a few weeks after Kylie Jenner decided to let her followers know that she no longer uses the app regularly, Snapchat went and offended the only other person that could have made things worse, Rihanna.

Rihanna’s revenge came after Snapchat ran an ad for a game called “Would You Rather” in which contestants had to decide whether they’d slap Rihanna, or punch her ex-BF (and reputed domestic assailant) Chris Brown.

Rihanna did not take kindly to the ad and called for her fans to dump the app. In the hours after Rihanna’s message, Snap lost $800M in market value, and the stock dropped 3.6%.

Water Cooler Talking Point: “Snapchat said that this was all a misunderstanding, but you’d have to imagine that a company on the struggle bus to Bankruptcy-ville would be more vigilant about irking their most important clientele. This is exactly why people want to turn ad buys over to machines.”

NOT YOUR DADDY’S BROKERAGE

Here’s a fun game to play: let’s try to figure out how Robinhood, the commission-free investment app, makes money. Hint: it’s the same way your grandmother makes money.

That’s right, Robinhood accrues incredibly small amounts of interest on unused cash in user accounts … oh, and they’ve raised more VC money ($525M) than the guy who put radio on the internet. And the company is close to finalizing a $350M funding round led by DST, valuing the company at a whopping $5.6B.

To say their growth has been meteoric would be an understatement. Robinhood’s $110M round in April of 2017 valued the company at $1.3B.

The service has attracted more than 4M investors to date, most of whom quote Wolf of Wall Street on Twitter and list “CEO” as their job title on Linkedin (read: 18 to 35-year-old millennials).

Robinhood is redefining the “discount brokerage,” now offering free crypto trades for savvy investors looking to avoid paying for the opportunity to lose all of their money. This is seen as a major threat to Coinbase and other crypto-brokers who charge large commissions for each trade.

Water Cooler Talking Point: “Call me crazy but I kind of like paying a commission on my trades. Not because I dislike change or don’t appreciate the value of a dollar, but because it keeps me from doing really, really irrational sh*t with my money. Like listening to every “insider tidbit” I see in the bowels of the Motley Fool message boards.”

STOP SNITCHIN’

Some might say that Walmart’s e-commerce growth since acquiring Jet.com in 2016 has been a bit … suspicious. One of those people is ex-employee, Tri Huynh.

Huynh filed a wrongful termination suit against Walmart, claiming they were purposefully mislabeling products so third parties would earn fewer commissions, not processing returns, and double counting SKUs to inflate sales figures.

Naturally, the Walton’s claim that Huynh is simply a jilted ex-lover, er, employee. There was a “restructuring” of e-commerce business to incorporate the Jet.com team and Huynh was part of the fat that needed to be trimmed.

Even so, compared to Target and Best Buy, Walmart’s online sales growth of 50% seems a little extraordinary. Especially for a retailer whose shoppers would rather invest in neck tattoos than in highspeed internet.

That’s not to say the home of every day low prices hasn’t stepped up their game significantly. Their online footprint grew from 7M to 75M items in a matter of just 3 years.

Water Cooler Talking Point: “Some of the “facts” sound questionable, but you can’t knock the hustle. Huynh will probably settle out of court for a metric ton of assorted DVDs from that $5 bin. I’d take that.”

IN OTHER NEWS

• iHeartMedia, the country’s largest radio broadcaster is filing for bankruptcy, crippled by more than $20B in debt. Looks like it was actually a burdened capital structure that killed the radio star.
• Blue Apron plans to sell meal kits in-store as sales of their meals on wheels product continues to plummet, further cratering their stock price. It remains to be seen if they will be able to dethrone Hamburger Helper.
• The Skimm raises $12M to further expand their media empire into video and podcast content. So you’re saying there’s a chance?
• Nike has had their fair share of ups and downs over the past year, but the shoemaker appears to have hit rock bottom. The company’s number-two executive will resign amid claims of improper conduct.
• Speaking of improper conduct, the former President of ESPN, John Skipper, has revealed his abrupt exit was linked to an extortion plot by his coke dealer.
• US indices were mixed yesterday:
  • DOW: +0.47%
  • S&P 500: -0.08%
  • NASDAQ: -0.20%

TALKING SHOP

Professional motivation, tips, tricks, hacks & resources carefully-curated by yours truly. Something you’d like to see featured? Shoot me an email at team@thewatercoolest.com

RE: ADAM GRANT’S NEW PODCAST

I’ll admit it, a podcast by a “Wharton psychology professor” doesn’t exactly scream must-listen. But Adam Grant is no ordinary professor. He has co-authored a NYT Best Seller with Sheryl Sandberg. He was named to Forbes 40 Under 40. And his TED talk about original thinkers was nothing short of legendary. So it’s fair to say that as far as professors go he’s pretty much the love-child of Mrs. Frizzle and Mr. Feeney.

But enough fanboying.

His new podcast “WorkLife” has one goal: to make work suck less. And that’s something I can get behind. Instead of bringing in management “experts” (read: academics who have never been in the trenches) Grant taps his network to talk professional success, collaboration, and management with the likes of Trevor Noah and Shane Battier.

Getty Image

Rihanna’s words wield the kind of power that could make anyone a star. Her tweets alone garner her presidential nominations and bring in huge money and endorsement deals. But can the songstress sing a tune that could sink an app and a billion dollar company?

Just weeks after Kylie Jenner blasted Snapchat and told her legions of fans she was quitting Snapchat cold turkey, Rihanna went off about the picture-and-video sharing platform after she got wind of an incredibly tasteless ad popped up.

The Snapchat app asked users if “they’d rather slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown,” Rihanna’s ex-boyfriend. The singer pleaded guilty to assault after violently attacking the singer back in 2009. Snapchat removed the ad and released a statement stating that “the advertisement was mistakenly approved and that it had violated its advertising guidelines.”

The apology didn’t work, work, work, work, work, work for the singer. She took to Instagram to continue her Snap bashing.

“Now SNAPCHAT I know you already know you ain’t my fav app out there!” she wrote. “I’d love to call it ignorance, but I know you ain’t that dumb! You spent money to animate something that would intentionally bring shame to [domestic violence] victims and made a joke of it!!!!”

Last Thursday, after news broke of Rihanna’s call for Snapchat ban, shares of Snap, the app’s parent company, tumbled as much as 5% and dropped another 2% Friday. Snap rebounded slightly towards the end of the day for a total two-day loss of 4.7%.

The most significant hit was felt in the pocket of Evan Spiegel, Snap’s co-founder and CEO. Forbes reports that Spiegel’s net worth dropped nearly $150 million over those tumultuous two days. Don’t cry too hard for Spiegel, he’s still worth an estimated $3.8 billion.

Will more celebrities dump the app in favor of other social platforms? With over 187 million daily active users, and Instagram rolling out a ton of new features, they’ll want to keep the “rude boy” antics to a minimum.

[via Forbes]

Shutterstock

How long did you spend contemplating your awesome Snapchat or Twitter handle? A week or did you just take whatever the computer suggested that had your name followed by a string of numbers and hyphens? Darian Lipscomb didn’t just take any old Snapchat handle. He snagged the highly coveted Snapchat handle of “@CarnivalCruise.” Now the teen is getting a free cruise from Carnival in exchange for the Snapchat handle after a campaign featuring Shaq inundated his hometown of Prospect, Virginia.

Six years ago, Lipscomb created his Snapchat with the handle “@CarnivalCruise” to share videos of his vacation with his friends. Darian has gone on three more Carnival cruises since then and has shared zip-lining and beach videos on his social media account. As Snapchat has gotten more popular, companies have seen the potential for marketing on the social media app including Carnival Cruises. The cruise line was interested in securing Darian’s Snapchat account and to persuade Darian into giving up his handle, the cruise line enlisted a big gun to impress the teen: Shaquille O’Neal. Carnival Cruise billboards featuring Shaq starting popping up all around his hometown.

Shaq, who is Carnival’s “Chief Fun Officer,” had an offer that Darian could not refuse. On Monday, Carnival Cruise offered Darian and his family an all-expenses-paid European 14-day cruise on the line’s newest ship, the Carnival Horizon. The offer included flights and hotels. The value of European vacation is valued at $5,000. But in order to get this incredible deal, the 15-year-old would have to forfeit his Snapchat account to Carnival. A no-brainer, the Lipscomb family will begin their European adventure starting in Barcelona on March 31.

“We thought this would be a fun way to claim our handle and reward a ‘superfan’ at the same time,” said Robyn Fink, Carnival Cruise Line’s director of consumer public relations. I knew I should have gone with the handle of @CarnivalCruise instead of @Blockbuster.

[Travel&Leisure]

Hilary Duff, Snapchat

I’ll keep this short and sweet: Hilary Duff is doing some extra strategic bikini pics on Snapchat right now. So maybe you’d be interested in such a thing? Probably! You read this website, after all.

Here’s Hilary Duff‘s Snapchat username: Ohheyhilary

Previous moments in Hilary Duff’s cleavage that might be of interest…

Hilary Duff, Snapchat

Hilary Duff, Snapchat

Hilary Duff, Snapchat

iStockphoto

A new study found that teens are ditching Facebook in droves probably because their parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents are on Facebook sharing Fry squinty eye memes from 2010 and embarrassing photos from their childhood on their walls. Pew released the results from their “Teens, Social Media & Technology” survey and it shows a noteworthy departure from Facebook by teens.

The survey demonstrates a massive departure from Facebook by teens since their last social media survey back in 2015 when Facebook dominated. In 2018, 51% of teens ages 13 to 17 say they use Facebook, much lower than three years ago when the social network took the top spot with 71% usage. Facebook dropped from the most-used social media platform to the fourth spot in only three years.

The social media platforms teens say they use the most in 2018:
YouTube: 85%
Instagram: 72%
Snapchat: 69%
Facebook: 51%
Twitter: 32%
Reddit: 7%
None of the above: 3%

The social media platforms teens say they use the most in 2015:
Facebook: 71%
Instagram: 52%
Snapchat: 41%
Twitter: 33%
Google +: 33%
Vine: 24%
Tumblr: 14%

RIP Google+, Vine, and Tumblr. Despite losing major ground in the coveted battle for future users, Mark Zuckerberg might not be as worried as one would think. That is because Facebook owns Instagram. So while Facebook slipped in teen users, Instagram picked up the slack. Almost like a Facebook Jr.

Another reason why Zuckerberg isn’t losing much sleep is that Facebook owns three of the top 10 U.S. iOS apps: #4 Instagram, #6 Messenger, and #8 Facebook according to App Annie. Plus, Facebook is growing its Watch video platform to take on YouTube and has already has deals with news corporations, entertainment shows, and video personalities.

Another takeaway from the Pew survey is that 95% of teens now report they have a smartphone or access to one. With all this internet access at the tips of their fingers, it has fueled an addiction-level of online activity with 45% of teens saying they are online on a near-constant basis.

Of the teens surveyed, 31% said social media was a mostly positive experience, 45% said it was neutral, and 24% said it was mostly negative. Gaming was a given for boys where 97% played video games versus 83% for girls. Once parents start using Instagram and Snapchat more and more, teens will flock to a new social media network that might not even exist yet.

[FastCompany]

Via Instagram

It’s probably super fun to be friends with Kaley Cuoco. She seems to be down to Earth and up for a good time. She’s famous. She’s rich so she can probably afford to pay for all the rounds when you go out for a drink. Oh, and then there’s the whole part where she agrees to take a pic with you on your Snapchat. And she yanks out her titty.

The Big Bang Theory star Kaley Cuoco showed she’s the breast friend with this sexy pic. She posed nude for her friend and stylist Brad Goreski’s Snapchat. Meanwhile, her stylist chose that Snapchat grandpa filter for the risque photo, because nothing makes a naked woman feel more comfortable than a creepy old man.

My friends suck. No titty pics or round of drinks.

NeONBRAND / Unsplash

It seems that Instagram is intent on squashing Snapchat with every feature they release.

When Instagram first rolled out ‘Stories’ the initial thought was ‘why should I use this when I’ve already got Snapchat?’ but it didn’t take long at all for daily interaction on Instagram Stories to surpass Snapchat‘s user numbers.

As of June, there were 400 million daily users on Instagram Stories compared to only 191 million daily Snapchat users.

Instagram also rolled out GIFs, emojis, and filters. All features that were central to Snapchat’s product.

Now it appears as if Instagram’s rolling out another one of Snapchat’s features: notifications when you screenshot somebody’s story.

This was always a huge feature on Snapchat for many reasons. With the direct messages disappearing shortly after opening, someone could screenshot it to save. Snapchat would send a notification to that user. In theory, this would prevent people from saving Snapchat messages that the original sender didn’t want to remain permanent (*cough* nudes *cough*).

According to these tweets, Instagram users have already been receiving notifications that people are screenshotting their Stories:

Soon, Instagram will alert users when someone takes a screenshot of their story according to a report by the Daily Dot. They say you can already see if someone screenshots your Story by following these steps:

If you want to see who screenshots your Instagram story, visit the Stories main page—where you can see a list of public posts—and look for the pinwheel-shaped camera shutter icon next to the name of an account. This appears to be the only way to determine who is capturing your public photos and videos. You won’t receive a notification or direct message—you’ll have to check it manually every time. Of course, the best way to prevent people from snatching your content is to stop posting anything you don’t want them to see. (via)

TechCrunch reached out to Instagram for a comment on this and they received this vague response back: “We are always testing ways to improve the experience on Instagram and make it easier to share any moment with the people who matter to you.” So they didn’t really confirm if this will be rolled out to all users or if it’s something they’re testing for a specific subset of users.

I don’t know why people feel the need to creep so hard and screenshot someone’s story when you can just as easily text that person ‘go look at XYZ’s story’ if you want someone to see it but this is apparently a very real concern for the creepers of the ‘gram.

As pointed out on the Daily Dot, regardless of taking screenshots it’s still INSANELY EASY to save someone’s Instagram story by using a feature on your iPhone’s home screen. So while this feature will out a few creepers it still won’t stop people from creepin’ hard.

The Water Coolest is a free daily business news and professional advice email newsletter created for weekday warriors that is delivered fresh daily at 7 AM EST. Signup for the blue-chip daily business news, professional advice, and personal finance email newsletter …

THE HEADLINES

Don’t have 3 minutes and 58 seconds to read The Water Coolest? Listen on all of your favorite podcast outlets in 2 minutes or less.

SNAP BACK TO REALITY

They say imitation is the best form of flattery, right? If so, Facebook has been doing a bang-up job of showering Snapchat in admiration. Following Evan Spiegel’s rejection of Zuck’s $3B buyout in 2013, Facebook (and Instagram in particular) has gone tit for tat with Snap’s latest features.

And now Snap is facing subpoenas from both the SEC and DOJ over whether or not it misled investors prior to its IPO regarding how Instagram’s copy-cat features would adversely affect the firm’s stock price. The action stems from a lawsuit set forth by investors.

For what it’s worth, Snap’s pre-IPO filing had this to say: “Instagram, a subsidiary of Facebook, recently introduced a “stories” feature that largely mimics our Stories feature and may be directly competitive.” However, salty “traders” who probably got Snap as their free Robinhood stock claim the company didn’t go far enough.

You can’t blame the angry horde of investors for shooting their shot … Snap has had nothing short of a pathetic run as a public company.

Water Cooler Talking Point: “Remember: past performance is no guarantee of future results.”

SWEETENING THE DELL

Earlier this year, Dell Technologies Inc. declared its eagerness to become a public company (again). The game plan is a $22B buyback of an affiliate tracking stock, DVMT, in order to streamline its structure and ultimately re-enter the public markets without an IPO. The tracking unit could cost Dell up to $109 per share at this point, and the company is said to be upping the cash portion of the deal to close to $13B.

Confused? A tracking stock is when a company splits off a (typically highly profitable) division of its business to allow investors an opportunity to invest in the high growth area. In this case, DVMT is the stock that tracks Dell’s VMWare division. VMWare Inc. is 80% owned by Dell but reports financial separately, so Dell must buy it back and effectively buy out any investors. Got it? Good.

Unfortunately for Dell, one of those investors is the world-renowned curmudgeon, Carl Icahn. The activist investor who owns 8.3% in the tracking stock is claiming that the buyout deal is undervaluing the DVMT stock and robbing shareholders of $11B in value. The finalized deal should be announced this week.

Water Cooler Talking Point: *Avril Lavigne ‘Complicated’ plays* “So let me get this straight … Dell owns the majority of a stock that tracks the performance of a division it has a majority ownership in but is not part of the company? This is going to be more of a clusterf*ck than who gets what in the inevitable breakup of the Kardashian-Jenner-West estate.”

MONEY IN THE BAIN-K

“You ain’t sh*t, Masayoshi.” – Mitt Romney, probably.

Bain Capital Ventures the Boston-based investment firm announced that it has closed a new $1B fund which will invest in early-stage startups. The money is to be spread across three funds within the Bain Capital Venture’s ecosystem.

$650M will be earmarked for Bain’s eighth flagship vehicle, $250M will go towards co-investment in growth stage startups, and $100M, which came straight from Bain’s partners, will be invested with everything else. BVC, which has been around since 2001, has invested in such household names as Rent the Runway, SurveyMonkey, and LinkedIn. Ever heard of them?

Those aren’t the only investments the company has made, however. In the past year alone, BVC has funded more than 14 seed and Series A rounds. The company typically invests in anywhere from 12 to 14 companies per year.

Water Cooler Talking Point: “Real talk: who do I need to sell my soul to for a partner job at Bain?”

IN OTHER NEWS

iStockphoto

• Despite a 38% increase in revenue, Uber’s loss hit almost $1B, an increase quarter-over-quarter. The self-reported financials were released ahead of a (slightly less highly) anticipated 2019 IPO.

• WWJD? Craig Wright, who claims to be the Satoshi Nakamoto (the inventor of bitcoin) plans to launch another version of bitcoin cash today following a software upgrade. But not everyone in the crypto-community is on board. On the other side of the coin, Roger Ver aka “Bitcoin Jesus” leads a faction who disagrees on how to best split the digital tokens. Prices of bitcoin fell below $6k to its lowest level in over a year.

• Levi Strauss is planning to raise upwards of $800M at a $5B valuation in an initial public offering. ICYMI, the jean-maker was born in San Francisco in the 1870’s in the aftermath of the gold rush.

• Victoria’s Secret hasn’t exactly been at the forefront of the women’s empowerment movement. Exhibit A: scantily clad “Angels” leaving little to the imagination in primetime (and in 3D!). As a result, sales have slumped at the L Brand owned lingerie peddler. And now, CEO Jan Singer is on her way out as the brand struggles to find its way in 2018.

You can subscribe now …

Via Instagram

It’s probably super fun to be friends with Kaley Cuoco. She seems to be down to Earth and up for a good time. She’s famous. She’s rich so she can probably afford to pay for all the rounds when you go out for a drink. Oh, and then there’s the whole part where she agrees to take a pic with you on your Snapchat. And she yanks out her titty.

The Big Bang Theory star Kaley Cuoco showed she’s the breast friend with this sexy pic. She posed nude for her friend and stylist Brad Goreski’s Snapchat. Meanwhile, her stylist chose that Snapchat grandpa filter for the risque photo, because nothing makes a naked woman feel more comfortable than a creepy old man.

My friends suck. No titty pics or round of drinks.

iStockphoto

Last week, Snapchat unveiled a new gender swap feature for some reason. The feature quickly became proof that humans can’t have nice things, as people immediately began using their opposite sex doppelgänger to catfish people on dating apps.

A dude named Jake from Norwich, UK had a particularly ratchet experience as Jess, an account he set up solely for the female version of himself, who hand up, I’d probably have intercourse with. Jake claims he set up the account because he thought he looked ‘unreal’ as a woman and before long, he was one of the most popular women in his area, proving just how thirsty dudes can be. Jess amassed over 1,650 profile likes and received between 300-400 matches.

Jess also received some outrageous messages from guys who undoubtedly had boners when sending messages.

Speaking with LADbible, the 20-year-old said: “One chap asked ‘Are you a piece of art because I want to nail you up against the wall’. Another talked to me about his ‘pork sword’ and one bloke simply asked me to ‘sit on his face’.

Buckle up…

I’m getting Sarah Hyland vibes from Jess, and I dig it.

Twitter/J_Askew

Twitter/J_Askew

Here’s where it gets good.

Twitter/J_Askew

Twitter/LADbible

Twitter/LADbible

WHO SAID CHIVALRY WAS DEAD?!

Andy, that last guy who was looking for a face sitting, found out he got played and was an excellent sport about it.

Twitter/J_Askew

Congrats to Jess and her 1,510 new friends.

Best of luck to Andy on finding someone willing to squat on his face.

[h/t LADbible, J_Askew]

Snapchat

Snapchat’s new “baby” filter has to go down as one of the greatest technological innovations of 2019. (I know, that doesn’t say much for 2019, but bear with me.)

Because while you were busy gender-swapping yourself and all of your friends using that new Snapchat filter, people all over the internet were using the “baby” filter to make famous sports figures and celebrities age in reverse. (Christie Brinkley, however, as we saw earlier today, is just doing it without any help from Snapchat.)

From sports TV personalities and athletes like Stephen A. Smith, Shannon Sharpe, Charles Barkley, LeBron James and Steph Curry to the stars of Friends, Parks and Recreation and The Office to your favorite Marvel superheroes, Snapchat’s “baby” filter is taking over the internet.

This last one might be the one that haunts my dreams the most…

If anyone needs me I will over here putting the Snapchat “baby” filter on the casts of Arrested Development, Seinfeld, Justice League, and entire NBA, NFL, and MLB. See you in a few days.

Getty Image

On Monday night a video of a woman in Idaho repeatedly punching her black German shepherd while wearing boxing gloves sparked outrage on social media as Twitter users angrily tried to find who she was.

In the video the woman could be heard saying “I hit him so hard I felt that through…”.

The woman was eventually identified by Twitter users and then began sending complaints to the Idaho Humane Society.

A spokesperson for the IHS says they spoke to the woman and sent the complaints to the local prosecutor’s office so they she could be charged for “beating and harassing” animals.

We started an official investigation as a result of this video. This morning the individual was identified and we sent a Humane Officer to discuss the situation. The investigation is currently pending review at the local prosecutor’s office for a charging decision.

The IHS released an official statement and asked people to stop sending in complaints.

iStockphoto

A new study found that teens are ditching Facebook in droves probably because their parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents are on Facebook sharing Fry squinty eye memes from 2010 and embarrassing photos from their childhood on their walls. Pew released the results from their “Teens, Social Media & Technology” survey and it shows a noteworthy departure from Facebook by teens.

The survey demonstrates a massive departure from Facebook by teens since their last social media survey back in 2015 when Facebook dominated. In 2018, 51% of teens ages 13 to 17 say they use Facebook, much lower than three years ago when the social network took the top spot with 71% usage. Facebook dropped from the most-used social media platform to the fourth spot in only three years.

The social media platforms teens say they use the most in 2018:
YouTube: 85%
Instagram: 72%
Snapchat: 69%
Facebook: 51%
Twitter: 32%
Reddit: 7%
None of the above: 3%

The social media platforms teens say they use the most in 2015:
Facebook: 71%
Instagram: 52%
Snapchat: 41%
Twitter: 33%
Google +: 33%
Vine: 24%
Tumblr: 14%

RIP Google+, Vine, and Tumblr. Despite losing major ground in the coveted battle for future users, Mark Zuckerberg might not be as worried as one would think. That is because Facebook owns Instagram. So while Facebook slipped in teen users, Instagram picked up the slack. Almost like a Facebook Jr.

Another reason why Zuckerberg isn’t losing much sleep is that Facebook owns three of the top 10 U.S. iOS apps: #4 Instagram, #6 Messenger, and #8 Facebook according to App Annie. Plus, Facebook is growing its Watch video platform to take on YouTube and has already has deals with news corporations, entertainment shows, and video personalities.

Another takeaway from the Pew survey is that 95% of teens now report they have a smartphone or access to one. With all this internet access at the tips of their fingers, it has fueled an addiction-level of online activity with 45% of teens saying they are online on a near-constant basis.

Of the teens surveyed, 31% said social media was a mostly positive experience, 45% said it was neutral, and 24% said it was mostly negative. Gaming was a given for boys where 97% played video games versus 83% for girls. Once parents start using Instagram and Snapchat more and more, teens will flock to a new social media network that might not even exist yet.

[FastCompany]

NeONBRAND / Unsplash

It seems that Instagram is intent on squashing Snapchat with every feature they release.

When Instagram first rolled out ‘Stories’ the initial thought was ‘why should I use this when I’ve already got Snapchat?’ but it didn’t take long at all for daily interaction on Instagram Stories to surpass Snapchat‘s user numbers.

As of June, there were 400 million daily users on Instagram Stories compared to only 191 million daily Snapchat users.

Instagram also rolled out GIFs, emojis, and filters. All features that were central to Snapchat’s product.

Now it appears as if Instagram’s rolling out another one of Snapchat’s features: notifications when you screenshot somebody’s story.

This was always a huge feature on Snapchat for many reasons. With the direct messages disappearing shortly after opening, someone could screenshot it to save. Snapchat would send a notification to that user. In theory, this would prevent people from saving Snapchat messages that the original sender didn’t want to remain permanent (*cough* nudes *cough*).

According to these tweets, Instagram users have already been receiving notifications that people are screenshotting their Stories:

Soon, Instagram will alert users when someone takes a screenshot of their story according to a report by the Daily Dot. They say you can already see if someone screenshots your Story by following these steps:

If you want to see who screenshots your Instagram story, visit the Stories main page—where you can see a list of public posts—and look for the pinwheel-shaped camera shutter icon next to the name of an account. This appears to be the only way to determine who is capturing your public photos and videos. You won’t receive a notification or direct message—you’ll have to check it manually every time. Of course, the best way to prevent people from snatching your content is to stop posting anything you don’t want them to see. (via)

TechCrunch reached out to Instagram for a comment on this and they received this vague response back: “We are always testing ways to improve the experience on Instagram and make it easier to share any moment with the people who matter to you.” So they didn’t really confirm if this will be rolled out to all users or if it’s something they’re testing for a specific subset of users.

I don’t know why people feel the need to creep so hard and screenshot someone’s story when you can just as easily text that person ‘go look at XYZ’s story’ if you want someone to see it but this is apparently a very real concern for the creepers of the ‘gram.

As pointed out on the Daily Dot, regardless of taking screenshots it’s still INSANELY EASY to save someone’s Instagram story by using a feature on your iPhone’s home screen. So while this feature will out a few creepers it still won’t stop people from creepin’ hard.

The Water Coolest is a free daily business news and professional advice email newsletter created for weekday warriors that is delivered fresh daily at 7 AM EST. Signup for the blue-chip daily business news, professional advice, and personal finance email newsletter …

THE HEADLINES

Don’t have 3 minutes and 58 seconds to read The Water Coolest? Listen on all of your favorite podcast outlets in 2 minutes or less.

SNAP BACK TO REALITY

They say imitation is the best form of flattery, right? If so, Facebook has been doing a bang-up job of showering Snapchat in admiration. Following Evan Spiegel’s rejection of Zuck’s $3B buyout in 2013, Facebook (and Instagram in particular) has gone tit for tat with Snap’s latest features.

And now Snap is facing subpoenas from both the SEC and DOJ over whether or not it misled investors prior to its IPO regarding how Instagram’s copy-cat features would adversely affect the firm’s stock price. The action stems from a lawsuit set forth by investors.

For what it’s worth, Snap’s pre-IPO filing had this to say: “Instagram, a subsidiary of Facebook, recently introduced a “stories” feature that largely mimics our Stories feature and may be directly competitive.” However, salty “traders” who probably got Snap as their free Robinhood stock claim the company didn’t go far enough.

You can’t blame the angry horde of investors for shooting their shot … Snap has had nothing short of a pathetic run as a public company.

Water Cooler Talking Point: “Remember: past performance is no guarantee of future results.”

SWEETENING THE DELL

Earlier this year, Dell Technologies Inc. declared its eagerness to become a public company (again). The game plan is a $22B buyback of an affiliate tracking stock, DVMT, in order to streamline its structure and ultimately re-enter the public markets without an IPO. The tracking unit could cost Dell up to $109 per share at this point, and the company is said to be upping the cash portion of the deal to close to $13B.

Confused? A tracking stock is when a company splits off a (typically highly profitable) division of its business to allow investors an opportunity to invest in the high growth area. In this case, DVMT is the stock that tracks Dell’s VMWare division. VMWare Inc. is 80% owned by Dell but reports financial separately, so Dell must buy it back and effectively buy out any investors. Got it? Good.

Unfortunately for Dell, one of those investors is the world-renowned curmudgeon, Carl Icahn. The activist investor who owns 8.3% in the tracking stock is claiming that the buyout deal is undervaluing the DVMT stock and robbing shareholders of $11B in value. The finalized deal should be announced this week.

Water Cooler Talking Point: *Avril Lavigne ‘Complicated’ plays* “So let me get this straight … Dell owns the majority of a stock that tracks the performance of a division it has a majority ownership in but is not part of the company? This is going to be more of a clusterf*ck than who gets what in the inevitable breakup of the Kardashian-Jenner-West estate.”

MONEY IN THE BAIN-K

“You ain’t sh*t, Masayoshi.” – Mitt Romney, probably.

Bain Capital Ventures the Boston-based investment firm announced that it has closed a new $1B fund which will invest in early-stage startups. The money is to be spread across three funds within the Bain Capital Venture’s ecosystem.

$650M will be earmarked for Bain’s eighth flagship vehicle, $250M will go towards co-investment in growth stage startups, and $100M, which came straight from Bain’s partners, will be invested with everything else. BVC, which has been around since 2001, has invested in such household names as Rent the Runway, SurveyMonkey, and LinkedIn. Ever heard of them?

Those aren’t the only investments the company has made, however. In the past year alone, BVC has funded more than 14 seed and Series A rounds. The company typically invests in anywhere from 12 to 14 companies per year.

Water Cooler Talking Point: “Real talk: who do I need to sell my soul to for a partner job at Bain?”

IN OTHER NEWS

iStockphoto

• Despite a 38% increase in revenue, Uber’s loss hit almost $1B, an increase quarter-over-quarter. The self-reported financials were released ahead of a (slightly less highly) anticipated 2019 IPO.

• WWJD? Craig Wright, who claims to be the Satoshi Nakamoto (the inventor of bitcoin) plans to launch another version of bitcoin cash today following a software upgrade. But not everyone in the crypto-community is on board. On the other side of the coin, Roger Ver aka “Bitcoin Jesus” leads a faction who disagrees on how to best split the digital tokens. Prices of bitcoin fell below $6k to its lowest level in over a year.

• Levi Strauss is planning to raise upwards of $800M at a $5B valuation in an initial public offering. ICYMI, the jean-maker was born in San Francisco in the 1870’s in the aftermath of the gold rush.

• Victoria’s Secret hasn’t exactly been at the forefront of the women’s empowerment movement. Exhibit A: scantily clad “Angels” leaving little to the imagination in primetime (and in 3D!). As a result, sales have slumped at the L Brand owned lingerie peddler. And now, CEO Jan Singer is on her way out as the brand struggles to find its way in 2018.

You can subscribe now …

iStockphoto

Last week, Snapchat unveiled a new gender swap feature for some reason. The feature quickly became proof that humans can’t have nice things, as people immediately began using their opposite sex doppelgänger to catfish people on dating apps.

A dude named Jake from Norwich, UK had a particularly ratchet experience as Jess, an account he set up solely for the female version of himself, who hand up, I’d probably have intercourse with. Jake claims he set up the account because he thought he looked ‘unreal’ as a woman and before long, he was one of the most popular women in his area, proving just how thirsty dudes can be. Jess amassed over 1,650 profile likes and received between 300-400 matches.

Jess also received some outrageous messages from guys who undoubtedly had boners when sending messages.

Speaking with LADbible, the 20-year-old said: “One chap asked ‘Are you a piece of art because I want to nail you up against the wall’. Another talked to me about his ‘pork sword’ and one bloke simply asked me to ‘sit on his face’.

Buckle up…

I’m getting Sarah Hyland vibes from Jess, and I dig it.

Twitter/J_Askew

Twitter/J_Askew

Here’s where it gets good.

Twitter/J_Askew

Twitter/LADbible

Twitter/LADbible

WHO SAID CHIVALRY WAS DEAD?!

Andy, that last guy who was looking for a face sitting, found out he got played and was an excellent sport about it.

Twitter/J_Askew

Congrats to Jess and her 1,510 new friends.

Best of luck to Andy on finding someone willing to squat on his face.

[h/t LADbible, J_Askew]

Snapchat

Snapchat’s new “baby” filter has to go down as one of the greatest technological innovations of 2019. (I know, that doesn’t say much for 2019, but bear with me.)

Because while you were busy gender-swapping yourself and all of your friends using that new Snapchat filter, people all over the internet were using the “baby” filter to make famous sports figures and celebrities age in reverse. (Christie Brinkley, however, as we saw earlier today, is just doing it without any help from Snapchat.)

From sports TV personalities and athletes like Stephen A. Smith, Shannon Sharpe, Charles Barkley, LeBron James and Steph Curry to the stars of Friends, Parks and Recreation and The Office to your favorite Marvel superheroes, Snapchat’s “baby” filter is taking over the internet.

This last one might be the one that haunts my dreams the most…

If anyone needs me I will over here putting the Snapchat “baby” filter on the casts of Arrested Development, Seinfeld, Justice League, and entire NBA, NFL, and MLB. See you in a few days.

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On Monday night a video of a woman in Idaho repeatedly punching her black German shepherd while wearing boxing gloves sparked outrage on social media as Twitter users angrily tried to find who she was.

In the video the woman could be heard saying “I hit him so hard I felt that through…”.

The woman was eventually identified by Twitter users and then began sending complaints to the Idaho Humane Society.

A spokesperson for the IHS says they spoke to the woman and sent the complaints to the local prosecutor’s office so they she could be charged for “beating and harassing” animals.

We started an official investigation as a result of this video. This morning the individual was identified and we sent a Humane Officer to discuss the situation. The investigation is currently pending review at the local prosecutor’s office for a charging decision.

The IHS released an official statement and asked people to stop sending in complaints.

Hilary Duff, Snapchat

I’ll keep this short and sweet: Hilary Duff is doing some extra strategic bikini pics on Snapchat right now. So maybe you’d be interested in such a thing? Probably! You read this website, after all.

Here’s Hilary Duff‘s Snapchat username: Ohheyhilary

Previous moments in Hilary Duff’s cleavage that might be of interest…

Hilary Duff, Snapchat

Hilary Duff, Snapchat

Hilary Duff, Snapchat

Azam College

We all deal with heartbreak in our own ways. Some Facebook stalk their ex and photoshop their faces over the pictures of her with her new boyfriend, print it out, frame it, and sleep with it under their pillows. Hey Paige, Chad looks like a first-class fuckboy. Have fun with that micropenis. If you’re reading this, I have a Tinder date tonight with a girl who said I look like Ben Affleck’s slow cousin. Heard of Ben Affleck? Ya, pretty successful dude. Am I boning my babysitter too? Yes, no. I’ll let you think on that for a few years.

ANYHOO!

This dude named Azam decided that the best plan of action to deal with losing a lover was to document his struggles in the form of puns and post them to Snapchat. Is he really dealing with heartache or is he just fishing for likes? Well he better really be depressed because I didn’t open up about my personal healing process for a gimmick. Either way, these snaps are tremendous.

Azam College

Azam College

Azam College

Azam College

Azam College

Azam College

Azam College

Azam College

Azam College

Azam College

Azam College

Azam College

Azam College

Hopefully this newfound publicity will get Azam some rebound tail. Don’t say I’ve never done nothing for ya, pal.

P.S. Eat a dick, Chad.

[h/t LADbible]