<ul class="summary-list"><li>The "<keyword id="1990795" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="doge">Doge</keyword>" meme, which emerged online in 2013, sold as a nonfungible token (<keyword id="4668945" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="nft">NFT</keyword>) on Friday.</li><li>The $4 million sale marks the highest bid for an NFT meme thus far. </li><li>"Doge" joins the ranks of other viral videos and <keyword id="1605152" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Memes">memes</keyword> to earn their creators money via NFT sales.</li></ul>The iconic "Doge" meme smashed the record for the most expensive meme nonfungible token (NFT), selling at <keyword id="1639" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Auction">auction</keyword> on Friday for more than $4 million.The sale of the famed image of an excited Shiba Inu was <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/iconic-doge-meme-nft-breaks-records-selling-roughly-4-million-n1270161">first reported by NBC News.</a> Friday's sale made "Doge" the highest-earning NFT meme of all time, NBC <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news">News</keyword> reported. The meme was put up for <a href="https://zora.co/0x337071a7e907f5a599747a2c9baf6efdf7eb4bcc/3366">auction on Tuesday on the auction site Zora</a>, and the winner, @pleasrdao, was named on Friday with a bid of 1,696.9 Ethereum cryptocurrency, which is worth about $4 million.The meme was sold by Atsuko Sato, the owner of the eponymous "Doge.""Doge" emerged online in 2013 as a meme using overlaid Comic Sans text to describe the dog's fictional inner monologue. It quickly became one of the internet's most ubiquitous images, with others sharing the meme with their own spins on the dog's internal monologue.Text used over the "Doge" meme typically <a href="https://the-toast.net/2014/02/06/linguist-explains-grammar-doge-wow/">uses an improper modification structure,</a> crafting phrases like "much hungry" or "very NFT."After the meme became popular in 2013, two software engineers created a cryptocurrency called Dogecoin as a joke in the meme's honor. But, <a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/dogecoin-started-as-a-joke-now-its-too-important-to-laugh-off-51620229273">as Barron's reported in May</a> of this year, the crypto is "too important to laugh off." "Doge" joins the ranks of several other memes and viral videos whose creators have cashed in on fame through NFT sales.In April, the <a href="https://www.insider.com/disaster-girl-made-half-million-selling-her-meme-as-nft-2021-4">"Disaster Girl" meme</a>, a 2005 photo that became one of the most famous memes on the early internet, was sold as an NFT for nearly half a million dollars. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ethereum-nft-meme-art-nyan-cat-sells-for-300-eth-2021-2">The Nyan cat gif was sold as an NFT</a> for close to $600,000 in February. Other viral images like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bad-luck-brian-meme-nft-crypto-art-blockchain-ethereum-foundation-2021-3">"Bad Luck Brian"</a> have sold for tens of thousands of dollars. NFT sales are helping some online creators finally earn additional money off of their famous content. The creator of the "David After Dentist" YouTube video from 2009, which depicts a boy experiencing the side effects of medication after a dental procedure, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nft-david-after-dentist-viral-youtube-video-sold-2021-5">told Insider he would use the money</a> from that video's NFT sale to help finish paying off his two sons' college tuitions. Chris Crocker, an entertainer whose famous 2007 "Leave Britney Alone" video sold for over $41,000 in April to an anonymous buyer, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chris-crocker-leave-britney-alone-video-youtube-nft-free-britney-2021-4">told Insider in a previous interview</a> that the video, which defined his online persona, made him no money at all. "I didn't really get anything from [the video] other than to be put in a box for the next 14 years," Crocker told Insider.

Famed 'Doge' meme NFT sells for record-breaking $4 million at auction

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The original "<keyword id="199966" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Charlie-Bit-My-Finger">Charlie Bit My Finger</keyword>" video was uploaded in 2007 and was seen over 882 million times.</li><li>The family auctioned the original video as an <keyword id="4668945" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="nft">NFT</keyword> and it sold for over $760,000.</li><li>The original video will be taken down from <keyword id="10879" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="YouTube">YouTube</keyword> after the sale was final, as promised.</li></ul>The family behind the early viral hit, "Charlie Bit My Finger," auctioned the original video as a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/non-fungible-tokens-nfts-have-taken-over-heres-why-theyre-important-2021-4">non-fungible token</a> (NFT) and it sold for over $760,000.In the video, the two brothers are seen playing together on the couch when Harry Davies-Carr, who was three years old, playfully puts his finger in the mouth of one-year-old Charlie Davies-Carr. Harry laughed and said the famous line, "Charlie bit me!"The 2007 video had been viewed over 882 million times on YouTube, and the family vowed to delete the video from the social platform after the sale was final. The auction started on Saturday - which marked the 14th anniversary of when the video was uploaded - and ended on Sunday.The sale of the video marks yet another early content creator breaking into the NFT space and profiting off the early viral videos. The people behind viral videos and memes including the "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chris-crocker-leave-britney-alone-video-youtube-nft-free-britney-2021-4?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">Leave Britney Alone,</a>" "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nft-david-after-dentist-viral-youtube-video-sold-2021-5">David After Dentist</a>," the <a href="https://www.insider.com/disaster-girl-made-half-million-selling-her-meme-as-nft-2021-4">"Disaster Girl" meme</a>, and the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ethereum-nft-meme-art-nyan-cat-sells-for-300-eth-2021-2">Nyan Cat meme</a> have all sold the original files of their viral content as NFTs - with some making as much as half a million dollars.Harry, now 17, told Insider through email on Friday that the family is working with Original Protocol - a digital marketplace for NFTs because they offered them a "personalized auction" that is dedicated to the sale of their one NFT which was hosted on <a href="https://www.charliebitme.com/?utm_content=a%20statement&amp;utm_campaign=Legendary%20%27Charlie%20Bit%20My%20Finger%27%20Video%20to%20Be%20Deleted%20From%20YouTube%20...%20Forever&amp;utm_source=ocn_story&amp;utm_medium=website#/um=website#/">CharlieBitMe.com</a>. This is a change from the popular websites like <a href="https://rarible.com/">Rarible</a> and <a href="https://foundation.app/">Foundation</a> that other viral creators have used.On the website, the family wrote that the winner of the auction will get to film their own version of the parody with Harry and Charlie, who is now 15.Harry told Insider that the family did so because they "wanted to commit to the whole evolving ethos of NFT" and "give it a new life."The boys' father, Howard, who recorded the viral video, told Insider they did benefit from the YouTube Partner Program after it launched in 2008. The program, which allows content creators to monetize their videos using ads, is still in use today by many content creators. "Our family did benefit financially and this really allowed us to provide the boys with a great start to their lives," he told Insider.However, they went into this auction with no expectations except with a commitment to meeting up with the winner and offsetting the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/15/22328203/nft-cryptoart-ethereum-blockchain-climate-change">environmental costs</a> that have worried many cryptocurrency critics. According to the Verge, "Individual pieces of crypto art, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), are at least partially responsible for the millions of tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions generated by the cryptocurrencies used to buy and sell them."To help, the family said they will be donating to "carbon offset costs of mining bitcoins before we even worry about having anything left over." Whatever is left will be put towards the boys' education, "which will hopefully include universities," Harry told Insider.The boys' father said they understood that the future of content sharing is changing and wanted to change the way they engaged with their audience. He told Insider, "NFTs allow us to engage with the fans in a different way."Charlie added that they wanted to "be at the beginning of this new platform just like we were with YouTube."

The family behind 'Charlie Bit My Finger' sold the original viral video as an NFT for over $760,000

<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/bitcoin-price-all-time-high-btc-stimulus-institutional-coinbase-cryptocurrencies-2021-4-1030297319"></a>Good morning and welcome to <keyword id="9070519" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="10-things-in-tech">10 Things in Tech</keyword>. If this was forwarded to you, <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/10-things-in-tech">sign up here</a>.Don't miss our special event: Today at 2 p.m. ET, our real estate and prop<keyword id="6358815" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="tech">tech</keyword> reporter Alex Nicoll will moderate a panel on the massive tech changes in real estate, and what's coming next. For more information and to sign up, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/whats-next-for-proptech-real-estate-in-2021-webinar-2021-3">click here.</a>Now, let's get started.1. Coinbase is set to go public today, and analysts say excitement is driving bitcoin's surge. The cryptocurrency climbed to an all-time high above $63,000 yesterday <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/coinbase-ipo-predictions-expert-analysis-direct-listing-bitcoin-crypto-2021-4-1030290743">ahead of the hotly anticipated IPO</a>. Here's how the anticipation of the <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/bitcoin-price-all-time-high-btc-stimulus-institutional-coinbase-cryptocurrencies-2021-4-1030297319">largest-ever listing of a crypto company is pushing bitcoin's rally.</a> 2. For $3 million, you can be a VIP guest on this nuclear-powered superyacht. The ship, known as Earth 300, is scheduled to set sail in 2025 with 160 of the world's "brightest and smartest" scientists and 40 VIPs. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/yacht-tickets-cost-nuclear-emission-free-climate-change-earth-300-2021-4">Check out the Earth 300.</a>3. America's top work-from-home expert is bracing for turmoil. Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford, said employees will be unhappy with the arrangements their companies offer as they try to balance remote and in-office work. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wfh-expert-economist-nick-bloom-says-future-of-work-messy-2021-4">His warning of the turbulence to come - and how to navigate it all.</a>4. Remember the "Leave Britney Alone" viral video from 2007? Well, now it's a NFT. Chris Crocker, the creator of the iconic video, just sold it for more than $41,000. In an exclusive interview with Insider, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chris-crocker-leave-britney-alone-video-youtube-nft-free-britney-2021-4">Crocker told us about the sale.</a>5. Spotify quietly removed more than 40 episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. The music-streaming platform appears to be removing controversial episodes, including those that featured far-right activists Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Gavin Mcinnes. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-rogan-experience-podcast-episodes-removed-spotify-2021-4">More on that here.</a>6. Mark your calendars: Apple's first major event of the year will take place on April 20. The company sent out invitations for its virtual event after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/siri-reveals-apple-next-launch-event-april-2021-4">Siri revealed the date</a> earlier on Tuesday. Apple is expected to unveil new iPad Pro models - <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-event-april-20-new-ipad-pro-expected-2021-4">here are some of the specs.</a>7. Facebook is testing a video speed-dating service. The new app, Sparked, will offer "video speed dating for kind people," where users must pledge to create a safe space, be kind - and not ghost. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-testing-sparked-video-speed-dating-service-2021-4">Here's how it works.</a>8. Deepfakes are on the rise. But the more we learn about them, the more dangerous they become. Experts say the public needs to know the threat, but as people get used to them, it'll be easier for bad actors to dismiss the truth as AI forgery. That paradox is called the "liar's dividend." <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/deepfakes-liars-dividend-explained-future-misinformation-social-media-fake-news-2021-4">Here's how it works - and why it's so dangerous</a>.9. Microsoft's $16 billion purchase of Nuance is an attempt to beat Google and Amazon to the ground floor of healthcare. As healthcare workers struggle with outdated technology, big tech companies have sensed an opportunity - and have for years been competing for healthcare business. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-spending-16-billion-beat-google-amazon-healthcare-2021-4">The acquisition could place Microsoft at the forefront of care delivery data.</a>10. Here's how Grab's cofounders turned it into a $40 billion "super app." After they won a $10,000 business school prize, the cofounders transformed the Singapore-based startup into a $40 billion company that's expected to be the largest SPAC deal in history. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/grab-valued-at-nearly-40-billion-in-blockbuster-spac-deal-2021-4">Our exclusive report shows how they did it.</a>Have an Amazon Alexa device? Listen to this update by searching "Business Insider" in your flash briefing settings.Compiled by Jordan Erb. Tips/comments? Email <a href="mailto:jerb@insider.com">jerb@insider.com</a> or tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/jordanparkererb">@JordanParkerErb</a>.Sign up for <a href="https://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/free">more Insider newsletters here.</a>

10 things in tech you need to know today

<ul class="summary-list"><li>"<keyword id="5156608" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="David-After-Dentist">David After Dentist</keyword>," the viral video from 2009, was auctioned off as an <keyword id="4668945" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="nft">NFT</keyword> on Thursday.</li><li>The auction closed on Friday afternoon and the NFT sold for over $11,000.</li><li>Several other creators have cashed in on viral digital content through NFT sales.</li></ul>"David After Dentist," one of the most memorable viral YouTube videos of the 2000s, was <a href="https://foundation.app/davidafterdentist/david-after-dentist-33172">sold as a non-fungible token (NFT)</a> for 3.30 ETH, an amount of cryptocurrency valued at roughly $11,500 on Friday. <keyword id="11219800" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="david-devore-sr-">David DeVore Sr.</keyword> and his son - the titular star of the video - became internet sensations in 2009 when <keyword id="11219798" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="david-devore-jr-">David DeVore Jr.</keyword> was seven years old. In the video, a young DeVore Jr. experiences the effects of medication after a tooth extraction. He asks his father numerous questions, including the now-iconic line, "Is this real life?" shortly before letting out a primal scream.The video has since garnered over 140 million views on YouTube and is known as one of the first major viral videos on the website.The DeVore family joins a group of other internet creators who have cashed in on viral digital content through the sales of NFTs, unique digital assets purchased with cryptocurrency.The DeVores told Insider in an interview Thursday that they were working with Views, an NFT-creator program founded by Jukin <keyword id="6354777" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Media">Media</keyword>, a video licensing company, and Night Media, a talent management company, to complete the sale.The creator program has also begun working with other digital content creators to help them release their viral videos as NFTs in the subsequent weeks, but "David After Dentist" is its first sale. The auction for the NFT began on Thursday and closed Friday. DeVore Sr. told Insider in an interview that when he saw headlines listing how much money was made from selling viral content NFTs, the large sale prices piqued his interest. He said he is also looking to bring more exposure to the NFT market and what it can do for digital content creators.Zoe Roth, known to the internet as "Disaster Girl," <a href="https://www.insider.com/disaster-girl-made-half-million-selling-her-meme-as-nft-2021-4">sold her famous meme</a> as an NFT for around $450,000. The creator of the "Leave Britney Alone" viral video, Chris Crocker, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chris-crocker-leave-britney-alone-video-youtube-nft-free-britney-2021-4">made over $41,000 on an NFT sale</a>. Even the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ethereum-nft-meme-art-nyan-cat-sells-for-300-eth-2021-2">original Nyan Cat GIF was sold</a> by its creator, Chris Torres, for $600,000.The "David After Dentist" YouTube video did generate some income for the family at the time it was published, DeVore Sr. said. "We were actually one of the first viral videos to be part of the YouTube Partner Program when they had just rolled that out," he told Insider. The program, still a staple for creators on the platform, launched in 2008, enabling creators to monetize their videos using ads. DeVore said the program "really saved" his family in the early aughts. "We were grateful for the revenue that it produced," he told Insider. "Then the economy took a big nosedive and my real estate business dried up - fortunately, my wife was working, but it really saved us."With the money from the sale, DeVore hopes to finish paying for his two sons' college degrees - DeVore Jr. is now a 20-year-old University of Florida student - among other things. "My wife and I will probably put some for retirement. Boring stuff, but it is fun entertaining the possibility of taking some of those financial pressures off," he told Insider. They have both been able to appreciate the opportunity to experiment with new technology. "It's really cool that we're able to turn David's video into a piece of art," David Sr. told Insider. "It's like 12 years old and it's part of the early internet culture. It feels like 2009 all over again."

The 2009 viral video 'David After Dentist' sold for over $10,000 as an NFT

<ul><li>Semi-fungible tokens (SFTs) are the underdogs of the crypto world.</li><li>They start out as fungible tokens and then provide value as a non-fungible token (NFT).</li><li>Minted on the <keyword id="2810876" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ethereum" source="Orion">Ethereum</keyword> blockchain, SFTs are only just beginning to break onto the crypto scene with limited use cases.</li><li>Proponents argue that the flexibility SFTs provide could make them ideal for concert tickets or in-game purchases.</li></ul>There are normal tokens like Bitcoin, which are fungible. This means that one is exactly the same as the other. And, then there are non-fungible tokens (<a href="http://coindcx.com">NFTs</a>) like the Bored Ape collection or Beeple’s digital artwork that was sold for a massive $69 million, that can’t just be switched out for each other. And, then come <a href="https://nonfungible.com/blog/enjin-erc1155-what-have-become-of-you">semi-fungible tokens</a> (SFTs), which traverse between these two worlds. As compared to cryptocurrencies and NFTs, the concept of SFTs is still very nascent. What makes it unique is that the token starts off as a fungible asset and then transforms into an NFT. Imagine this. You bought a pen and put it in your pocket. At this time, it’s fungible. One pen of the same brand can be exchanged for another. However, an hour later you can command it to turn into a feather quill that remembers that used to be a pen and where the pen had originally been bought. That is close to how a semi-fungible token (SFT) behaves today, especially in the blockchain gaming universe. The flexibility in how an SFT behaves has opened new options in how cryptocurrencies can be used. SFTs have limited use cases as of right now but have begun to receive more attention in a world where NFTs are<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/we-talked-to-crypto-art-investors-to-figure-out-whats-driving-people-to-spend-millions-on-nfts-despite-no-guarantee-their-value-will-increase/articleshow/81605087.cms"> earning millions of dollars</a> for creators. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="What is fungibility — fungibles vs NFTs?" comment="subhead" text="What is fungibility — fungibles vs NFTs?">What is fungibility — fungibles vs NFTs?</cmsannotation> A fungible item is one that can be replaced by another identical item with no practical difference. For example, a couple of ₹10 notes in your wallet, three copies of the same computer file, or ten identical milk packets are all fungible. At the other end are<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/what-is-non-fungible-token-nft-everything-you-need-to-know/articleshow/84754933.cms"> non-fungibles</a>, such as your vehicle or pet dog. They have specific identifiers that allow these items to be one-of-a-kind — memory or behaviour traits that mark them out as unique. In the context of crypto, Bitcoin or Ether currency is fungible, while a token of the<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/news/leave-britney-alone-the-creator-behind-the-2007-viral-video-reflects-on-why-people-ignored-them/articleshow/82119826.cms"> “Leave Britney alone,”</a> video is non-fungible. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="What makes an SFT possible?" comment="subhead" text="What makes an SFT possible?">What makes an SFT possible?</cmsannotation> Standards make it possible to communicate effectively. In the real world, examples include the definition of ‘what is a meter’ or how your browser displays text on this website. In the world of blockchain, each platform has a set of standards for how the tokens that live within the ecosystem will behave. Simply put, it’s the set of rules that define the nature of tokens. When it comes to SFTs, they are currently minted on the Ethereum blockchain and function as per the <a href="https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1155">EIP-1155</a> standardisation. In comparison, the <a href="https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-20">EIP-20</a> standard is used for fungible ETH tokens and <a href="https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-721">EIP-721</a> for non-fungible tokens. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="What is an SFT?" comment="subhead" text="What is an SFT?">What is an SFT?</cmsannotation> SFTs are uniquely positioned, in that they begin circulation as a fungible item, and then become non-fungible. To understand this, consider a ticket to the final match of the IPL T20 cricket season. The ticket would be valued at a certain amount, and is interchangeable for any other ticket of the same match, of the same seating class. After the match is over, the ticket can no longer be used for entry to the stadium – but becomes a collector’s item instead, memorable for fans with a different value assigned to it. In other words, using the ticket turns it from being fungible to a<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-nfts-the-collectible-digital-tokens-that-are-selling-for-up-to-millions-online/articleshow/81199814.cms"> non-fungible token</a>. That is how <a href="https://enjin.io/blog/erc-1155-token-standard-ethereum">semi-fungible tokens</a> get their name. However, SFTs do not ‘expire’ in the same manner and switch fungibility based on ‘smart contracts’ pre-programmed into them by the SFT’s developer. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="How are SFTs created?" comment="subhead" text="How are SFTs created?">How are SFTs created?</cmsannotation> SFTs are created by developers by purchasing Ethereum tokens and transacted by paying ‘gas’ fees, albeit at lower transaction costs than normal Ethereum tokens,<a href="https://docs.openzeppelin.com/contracts/3.x/erc1155"> according to</a> SFT proponents. SFTs are currently being <a href="https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1026193/Blockchain-Game-Development-and-ERC">tried out</a> in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/the-metaverse-may-change-the-way-you-earn-money-shop-or-even-chill-with-friends-in-the-future/slidelist/86677906.cms">metaverse</a> game environments. Some game environments developed by<a href="https://blog.enjincoin.io/erc-1155-the-final-token-standard-on-ethereum-a83fce9f5714"> Enjin</a>, Horizon Games and<a href="https://sandboxgame.gitbook.io/the-sandbox/assets/what-are-assets/about-erc-1155"> The Sandbox</a> support the use of SFTs.<a href="https://nonfungible.com/blog/enjin-erc1155-what-have-become-of-you"> Games may have both</a>, fungible items like in-game currency — gold bars or game-dollars — as well as non-fungible objects like collectibles and weapons. This way, the SFTs underlying the game let players trade for example, game-dollars for weapons, or vice versa. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="How SFT usage helps game experience, players and developers" comment="subhead" text="How SFT usage helps game experience, players and developers">How SFT usage helps game experience, players and developers</cmsannotation> As an in-game example, you may see a token that begins life as an NFT that can be harvested to obtain ten game dollars that function as fungible currency. The player may then trade that currency to others or buy a flintlock musket, turning it back into an NFT. As the player advances to level 45, the musket could turn into an assault rifle. These changes aren’t due to external instructions, but dictated by the SFT’s inbuilt ‘smart contract’ as created by the developer. The way a token can morph, lends itself to ‘converting’ old games for an online multiplayer world, with assets/currency trackable by the game developer allowing for more control - as against the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W39TtF14i8I">unbridled inflation seen in older MMO games</a>. Depending on game mechanics, the same token might have a different value to users when traded in currency form or when in rifle form. The SFT mechanics described above lead to a lower cost for both developers and users/players, compared to using the older EIP-721 NFTs type. Consider the free <a href="https://metaversal.banklesshq.com/p/bored-ape-mutation-madness-">‘mutant serum’</a> that was given to some paid holders of the ‘Bored Ape’ NFT. That action worked like a stock buyback - it was an additional cost for the developer, <a href="https://blockonomist.com/article/mutant-ape-yacht-club-a-reward-to-the-ape-holders-with-an-entirely-new-nft-took-bayc-on-the-success-board/470">pushed up the price</a> of the ‘free’ serum and its base NFT, and inflated prices all around. By contrast, SFTs being used for the same purpose could allow for a more stable in-game economy. &lt;does this para help illustrate? Is it too much maybe?&gt; <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="SFT versus NFT" comment="subhead" text="SFT versus NFT">SFT versus NFT</cmsannotation> The biggest positive in favour of semi-fungible tokens, is that they are able to retain their ‘fungibility’, until transition to NFT and vice versa, as explained above. When in NFT form, it can ‘remember’ history or attributes. In a game for example, it could remember that the DJ console you purchased must work as a level 89 item, and used to belong to these three other players. An SFT in NFT form could still provide<a href="https://www.expensivity.com/how-non-fungible-tokens-work/"> advantages of NFTs</a>, of being verifiable, indivisible and indestructible. For<a href="https://docs.mocktailswap.finance/"> app developers</a>, the advantage of bundling tokens, using a single smart contract for a token that is both fungible and NFT, as well as faster transaction times, serve as an argument to give the technology a chance. The flexibility of semi-fungible tokens currently offers a lot of<a href="https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/76793/how-many-projects-are-there-which-implement-erc1155-standard"> opportunities to developers</a>, <a href="https://medium.com/opensea/now-open-erc-1155-marketplace-816257ab0da7">content creators</a> and sponsors of projects. There is a waiting period for regular users and investors however, since publicly accessible marketplaces, DApps and metaverse environments are yet to open the SFT floodgates. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/crypto-fans-can-now-own-land-on-mars-even-though-international-space-laws-would-disagree/articleshow/87188733.cms">This Ethereum-based metaverse is letting crypto fans own land on the Red Planet, even though international space laws would disagree</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/most-expensive-bored-ape-nft-sells-for-2-7-million/articleshow/87162740.cms">Bored Ape NFT sells for $2.7 million, making it the most expensive in Yacht Club collection</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/mariah-carey-backs-bitcoin-in-a-new-partnership-with-the-winklevoss-twins-gemini-crypto-exchange/articleshow/87158641.cms">Mariah Carey backs Bitcoin in a new partnership with the Winklevoss twins’ Gemini crypto exchange</a>

Semi-fungible tokens — coins that travel between the worlds of cryptocurrency and NFTs

35 of the most influential hip-hop songs in music history

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The venture-capital space isn't the most welcoming environment for <keyword id="11940579" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="black" source="Orion">Black</keyword> women. </li><li>As of 2020, only <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/black-female-founders-raised-millions-in-vc-this-year-2021-9#9-fave-22-million-9">93 Black women</a> had raised $1 million or more in venture funds. </li></ul><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanyavancourt">Tanya van Court</a> noticed immediately that white male investors weren't backing her business.Van Court, who is Black, launched the app <a href="https://www.goalsetter.co/about">Goalsetter</a> in 2016 to teach children how to invest and save money. After raising her first $1 million in venture capital in 2018, she noticed almost 90% of her investors were from marginalized communities. Today, Goalsetter, which uses gamification to teach children healthy financial habits, has 367,000 users and received a <a href="https://news.nike.com/news/nike-x-goalsetter-partnership-black-community-commitment-february-2021">$1 million investment</a> from Nike in February.She recalled white investors telling her Goalsetter was "uninvestable" and kids' fintech "wasn't a thing."Then, she'd see those same investors fund a similar startup created by a white founder, she said.This cycle continued until the murder of <a href="https://www.insider.com/derek-chauvin-verdict-george-floyd-death-2021-4">George Floyd</a>. Then, people started paying attention to Black-owned businesses, she said. In January, her company closed a $3.9 million seed round that included the basketball stars Chris Paul and Kevin Durant as investors, and to date, her company has raised $6 million in venture capital.The number of Black women like van Court who are raising $1 million or more in venture capital is increasing but still small - <a href="https://fortune.com/2020/12/02/black-women-female-founders-venture-capital-funding-vc-2020-project-diane/">93 as of December</a>, up from <a href="https://fortune.com/2020/12/02/black-women-female-founders-venture-capital-funding-vc-2020-project-diane/">34 in 2018, according to the demographic study</a> <a href="https://www.projectdiane.com/">ProjectDiane</a>. One founder said investors tended to fund people who look like them, and 70% of venture capitalists are white - according to <a href="https://medium.com/@kerby/where-did-you-go-to-school-bde54d846188">2019 data</a> from <a href="https://www.equal.vc/team/richard-kerby/">Richard Kerby</a>, a cofounder of the venture fund Equal Ventures, only 2% of venture capitalists identified as Black men in 2018 and 1% as Black women.Recall the question of who gets to be an entrepreneur in the first place. <a href="https://qz.com/455109/entrepreneurs-dont-have-a-special-gene-for-risk-they-come-from-families-with-money/">Research</a> has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/31/small-business-entrepreneurs-success-parents">found</a> it's those born into wealth.<div type="image" title="a woman with curly hair stands in a red jacket" height="3744" width="5616" msid="87569872" hostid="261"></div>To be a Black female founder is to be doubly minoritized in a highly homogenous space. And - like in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-stop-dismantle-systemic-racism-in-american-office-life-2020-6">corporate America</a> - these Black women must navigate structural barriers, closed networks of contacts, code-switching, racialized expectations, and the norms of the majority group to succeed and receive investment.Insider spoke with van Court and six other Black female <keyword id="11964073" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="founders" source="Orion">founders</keyword> who've raised more than $1 million in venture capital to find out how that feat could be accomplished. The resulting guide contains their insight on choosing the right investors, pitching prospective funders, and building positive relationships with other entrepreneurs.As the responsibility for change doesn't lie solely <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html?.?mc=aud_dev&amp;ad-keywords=auddevgate&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwq9mLBhB2EiwAuYdMtSh7K1KbHtxHl6bLQkJ4KGSlx-H3x6oYbNvQfhxewmzIXTAo-QSrUBoCTUwQAvD_BwE&amp;gclsrc=aw.dsgclsrc=aw.ds">on the shoulders of the marginalized</a>, the women also shared their thoughts on what venture-capital firms could do to bring more equity to the world of venture.Here are the best practices, according to them.<h2>Come ready with numbers</h2>As of 2020, according to ProjectDiane data, the median seed round for Black female entrepreneurs was $125,000, compared with the national median of $2.5 million. And alongside Latina female founders, the two groups received just 0.43% - or $715 million - of the $166 billion in venture-capital funding raised in 2020, <a href="https://www.projectdiane.com/">ProjectDiane</a> found. This not only leaves Black female founders with less money to scale their businesses but also forces them to raise smaller amounts in shorter intervals. Being in a constant state of fundraising is stressful and steals time from other vital duties, like the product development of their companies, van Court said.When it's time to pitch your business - whether for a pre-seed or Series D round - it's essential to have a presentation filled with numbers that showcase details like revenue growth and overall market potential of the brand, van Court said.Britney Winters, the founder of the custom-wig shop <a href="https://upgradeboutique.com/">Upgrade Boutique</a> said one of her biggest mistakes early on was not spending enough time educating white investors on the Black beauty industry, which was worth more than <a href="https://www.mintel.com/press-centre/beauty-and-personal-care/naturally-confident-more-than-half-of-black-women-say-their-hair-makes-them-feel-beautiful">$2.5 billion in 2018</a>, according to the research firm Mintel. Adding more data to her pitch deck helped show where Upgrade Boutique could fit within the multibillion-dollar market, which helped convince more investors as her journey continued, she said. Her company closed a $1.7 million seed round in May led by Mercury Fund and the Artemis Fund, which brought her total amount raised to $2 million since she launched the business in 2019. Rachael Twumasi-Corson and Joycelyn Mate, the cofounders of the hair-care line <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/afrocenchixs-pitch-deck-that-raised-12-million-from-google-2021-8">Afrocenchix</a>, also used numbers to educate their white investors. While they highlighted important factors like strong customer-retention rates, they also used data when investors questioned the accuracy of their growth. But that didn't shield them from racist questions, they said. <div type="image" title="A Black woman wearing red comes out of a pink window" height="755" width="478" msid="87569874" hostid="261"></div>"We had someone ask, 'Why are you talking about Africa?' and make jokes about Africans being poor," Twumasi-Corson, who raised $1.2 million in June in a round backed by Google, said. "When you're talking about white investors, they might not care about Black stories, so you have to give them this data."<h2>Connect with other founders </h2>Every Black female founder needs a support group to help her navigate the venture-capital landscape, <a href="http://tiffanydufu.com/">Tiffany Dufu</a>, the founder of the networking app <a href="https://www.thecru.com/?utm_term=thecru&amp;utm_campaign=tcm_g_s_brand-terms_us&amp;utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_content=the-cru-is&amp;hsa_acc=5890096544&amp;hsa_cam=11801264615&amp;hsa_grp=120258737648&amp;hsa_ad=484940807017&amp;hsa_src=g&amp;hsa_tgt=kwd-994654884380&amp;hsa_kw=thecru&amp;hsa_mt=p&amp;hsa_net=adwords&amp;hsa_ver=3&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjw5JSLBhCxARIsAHgO2SeOmLXSbVJv52nUOJs-FzaGQMo3ksoJLw4i50ShMRF60T6NJXdgZLEaAmIeEALw_wcBbVJv52nUOJs-FzaGQMo3ksoJLw4i50ShMRF60T6NJXdgZLEaAmIeEALw_wcB">The Cru</a>, said. Her company raised a $2 million seed round in July 2020, led by Bloomberg Beta and Alpine Meridian."One of the most important things you can do is collaborate, communicate, ask for help, and be vulnerable with a group of women who are going through the same thing," Dufu said. These women "can help hold you accountable but also remind you that you're not going crazy," she added.Joanna Smith, the founder of the educational company <a href="https://www.allhere.com/">AllHere</a>, echoed Dufu's advice. She joined a support network for Black women in tech, <a href="https://onezero.medium.com/an-exclusive-club-of-black-women-is-disrupting-silicon-valley-6cb0f871b2c8">Visible Figures</a>, to discuss topics such as hiring and fundraising. "Never go it alone," said Smith, who's raised a total of $12 million in venture capital since she launched AllHere in 2017. "There's a community of women who have raised and who are eager to share what worked for them and what didn't." <h2>Research and link with prospective investors early</h2>When seeking investors, be sure to research the venture-capital firm, its founder, and the ethos of the company, Smith said. This ensures more than just capital is exchanged in the relationship."Capital is the least of what you get from a great partnership with a <keyword id="11905391" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="vc" source="Orion">VC</keyword> or institutional investor," she said. "They're going to be the people you turn to when things are going great and when they are not."Edna Martinson follows a similar philosophy. She looks at a firm's portfolio, the industries it invests in, and how it typically works with founders before pitching them. So far, she's raised $2.07 million for her learning platform, <a href="https://www.boddlelearning.com/">Boddle</a>.<div type="image" title="A woman stands wearing a suit, smiling to the camera" height="2680" width="3573" msid="87569875" hostid="261"></div>Meanwhile, Yelitsa Jean-Charles, who's raised a total of $1.5 million in funds, works only with investors who understand her perspective as an entrepreneur and respect her as a business owner. In 2015, she founded <a href="https://healthyrootsdolls.com/">Healthy Root Dolls</a>, a company that hopes to use dolls to teach natural-hair care to young children of color. "Be mindful of how much time you have," she said, "and the most valuable way to use it."<h2>Incubator and accelerator programs can provide funding, but proceed with caution </h2>Tiffany Kelly, the founder of the video-creation platform <a href="https://www.curastory.co/">Curastory</a> said programs such as the 2021 Techstars Sports Accelerator helped her explore fundraising methods and expand her network. What's more, it helped her raise a $2.1 million pre-seed round in September.But certain accelerators she attended were led by white men who gave fundraising techniques she had already tried as a Black female founder to no success.While Martinson gained traction through pitch competitions and accelerator programs, she found it disappointing that women had to constantly use these methods to prove themselves. <div type="image" title="Hand giving money" height="4003" width="2899" msid="87569876" hostid="261"></div>"It's almost like you need that to validate yourself before venture capitalists start looking at you," she said, "whereas some of your other counterparts are able to go in with an idea and they are able to raise venture-capital funds all of a sudden." <h2>But remember, the responsibility isn't all on you </h2>While these women provided advice for maneuvering the venture-capital scene, they stressed that the systemic hindrances and institutional structures within Silicon Valley had to change for any equitable progress to be made."You would have to undo a lot of bias," Jean-Charles said. "Until those people are willing to put themselves in different spaces and look outside what they know, it's not going to happen." Smith said it was imperative for funds to mentor and invest in historically underrepresented founders, as it's a key way to remain competitive. And within that, Twumasi-Corson, the cofounder of Afrocenchix, wants to see more transparency among backers."Investors could make this fairer and increase their returns if they set out clear, transparent success metrics and stuck to them," she said, "even when the founder doesn't look like Mark Zuckerberg." Van Court, meanwhile, said venture-capital firms should meet specific diversity standards if they planned on receiving <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2017/10/19/how-venture-capital-gets-funding/">public and corporation pension funds</a>. Some venture-capital firms get funding from government grants, as well as private entities such as university endowments and pension funds.Van Court would also like to see firms implement a policy similar to the NFL's <a href="https://nflcommunications.com/Pages/NFL-EXPANDS-ROONEY-RULE-REQUIREMENTS-TO-STRENGTHEN-DIVERSITY.aspx#:~:text=Adopted%20in%202003%2C%20the%20Rooney,one%20or%20more%20diverse%20candidates.&amp;text=The%20Rooney%20Rule%20is%20named,league's%20diversity%20committee%2C%20Dan%20Rooney.0Rooney.">Rooney Rule</a>, which requires teams with head-coach vacancies to interview people of color for the open position. But even after the murder of Floyd, she said she and many of her peers were still experiencing the same roadblocks many in the sector promised to abandon. "The proof in the pudding is going to take more than six months or a year to see," she said. "It's going to be what happens over the next five years, then what happens over the next 10."<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/miranda-perez">Miranda Perez</a> contributing reporting.

Fewer than 200 Black female founders have ever received $1 million in VC funding. 7 women who did it share their best fundraising advice.

16 of the most controversial celebrity interviews of all time

All 51 of Jennifer Lopez's music videos, ranked from worst to best

<div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image"><keyword id="10879" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="YouTube">YouTube</keyword>"Charlie Bit My Finger", from 2007, has over 625 million views on YouTube.</div></div>With the advent of amazing technology comes a seemingly infinite opportunity to create something <keyword id="54320" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Viral">viral</keyword> that could set the Internet on its axis at any time. 
In 2013 alone we experienced <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x18vwcz_the-50-best-viral-videos-of-2013_fun">at least 50 viral videos contending to be the best</a>, according to Daily Motion. Fifty! Not to mention videos that set memes into motion like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f7wj_RcqYk">The Harlem Shake</a> and the girl who caught fire while twerking. (Which ended up being a hoax).
But remember the good old days? In 2005, the launch of YouTube was also the beginning of the golden era for some of the first and best viral videos to ever hit the Internet.
There was very little way to share the videos we found - you couldn't post videos on your Facebook wall (and not everyone had Facebook yet), there was no Twitter, there was no BuzzFeed. Most importantly, people weren't employed yet solely to scour the Internet looking for these things.
By chance, videos like "OMG Shoes" and "The Laughing Baby" ended up being shared in AOL Instant Message conversations or at dorm room parties in college. And they could stay funny for what seemed like forever.
Here are some of our old favorites:
<h2>OMG, Shoes (2007)</h2>

<h2 class="float_right">Charlie Bit My Finger (2007)</h2>

<h2>Bunny the Tap Dancer (2007)</h2>

<h2>Salad Fingers (2007)</h2>

<h2>Evolution of Dance (2006)</h2>

<h2>Leave Britney Alone! (2007)</h2>

<h2>The Laughing Baby (2006)</h2>

<h2>Kittens Inspired By Kittens (2008)</h2>

<h2>Go Turn On My Tree! (2006)</h2>

<h2>Muffins (2007)</h2>

<h2>Hey Jude (2008)</h2>

<h2>Daft Hands (2007)</h2>

<h2>Numa Numa (2006)</h2>

<h2>Aicha (2006)</h2>

<h2>Hello My Future Girlfriend (2007)</h2>

Forget The Twerking Girl - The Best Viral YouTube Videos Are From 2007

In 2014, Wall Street's stock market forecasts <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/strategists-2014-sp-500-targets-2014-1">proved too conservative</a>.&#xa0;
The S&amp;P 500 closed the year at 2,058, above the year-end forecast of all but one strategist - FundStrat's Tom Lee.&#xa0;
For 2015, Wall Street sees stocks gaining some ground, but few strategists are calling for the fourth straight year of double-digit gains from stocks.&#xa0;
The average year-end target on the S&amp;P 500 is 2,225 on earnings of $125.35, with the median forecast for the S&amp;P 500 to rise to 2,213 on earnings of $126.
Tom Lee is a big bull again, as is Oppenheimer's John Stoltzfus and RBC's Jonathan Golub, while David Kostin at Goldman Sachs is a bit more cautious.
Here are the outlooks, ranked from lowest to highest:
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-2015-sp-500-target-2100-2014-11">Goldman Sachs' David Kostin: S&amp;P 500: 2,100, EPS: $122.00</a>
"We forecast US stocks will deliver a modest total return of 5% in 2015, in line with profit growth.&#xa0;The US economy will expand at a brisk pace. Corporations will boost sales and keep margins elevated allowing managements to both invest for growth and return cash to shareholders via buybacks and dividends. Investors will cheer these positive fundamental developments." 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/barclays-2015-global-equity-outlook-2014-11">Barclays' Jonathan Gilonna: S&amp;P 500: 2,100, EPS $127.00</a>
"We believe US equities are transitioning out of a recovery rally and into a period of lower returns as the benefits of margin expansion and share repurchases prove to be already priced in and a return of faster revenue growth becomes a prerequisite for another re-rating higher. We forecast the S&amp;P 500 to reach 2100 by the end of 2015. We expect faster earnings growth outside the US in 2015 and, with lower valuations and a looser policy stance, we prefer 'international' stocks over US stocks. One of the reasons this strategy did not work in 2014 was the heavy positioning toward overseas markets established during 2013 and early 2014. This appears much less extreme now and therefore likely to be less of a constraint on our view in 2015.
Credit Suisse's Andrew Garthwaite: S&amp;P 500&#xa0;2,100, EPS: $123.70
"We remain optimistic on equities for the first half of 2015 but fear a significant&#xa0;market correction in the second half. Consequently, our year-end forecast for the&#xa0;S&amp;P 500 is 2,100, below our mid-year target of 2,200.&#xa0;In 2015, central bank balance sheets are likely to expand at a more rapid rate than&#xa0;in 2014. This helps to support excess liquidity and equity valuations.&#xa0;We expect profit margins to peak toward the end of 2015 as labor regains pricing&#xa0;power and borrowing costs move higher. We are 4% below consensus for US EPS&#xa0;growth in 2015."
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/deutsch-bank-raises-sp-500-target-2014-9">Deutsche Bank's David Bianco: S&amp;P 500: 2,150, EPS: $123.00</a>
"We still expect a long lasting economic expansion of moderate growth, which should rival the US record of 10 years with S&amp;P EPS growth averaging 6% until the next recession, on 5% sales growth, flat margins, 1% share shrink," Bianco wrote. "Despite entering the latter years of a typical expansion and high margins vs. history, we now think the trailing S&amp;P PE should average 17 vs. 16 until elevated recession risk returns."<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/deutsch-bank-raises-sp-500-target-2014-9"></a>
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/btigs-2015-sp-500-forecast-2200-2014-12">BTIG's Dan Greenhaus: S&amp;P 500: 2,200, EPS: $126.00</a>
"We believe the bias for stock prices in general remains to the upside, underpinned by a growing economy, low interest rates and increasingly, cheaper oil ...&#xa0;With operating margins at elevated levels, top line growth is poised to more quickly bleed through to the bottom line, thus supporting earnings." Recall that Greenhaus channeled Britney Spears' 2001 song "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" to express his thoughts on the market: "Not a bull, not yet a bear."
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/citi-asia-clients-bullish-on-us-stocks-2014-11">Citi's Tobias Levkovich: S&amp;P 500: 2,200, EPS: $127.50</a>
After heading to Asia for year-end client meetings, Levkovich wrote: "A 10% total return in the next 13-14 months was perceived as being too conservative by many even as our year-end target is in line with mean and median top-down forecasts ...&#xa0;Interestingly, several clients suggested that our outlook was far below the bullishness expressed by other even when our numbers are pretty much well within the Street's consensus."
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bank-of-america-2015-sp-500-forecast-2200-2014-11">Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Savita Subramanian: S&amp;P 500: 2,200, EPS: $126.00</a>
"Stocks certainly look more attractive than bonds, but the case for stocks versus other asset classes is less clear ...&#xa0;"So while returns may compress from the outsized gains we have seen over the last several years, we remain constructive on equities.&#xa0;The bull market in stocks is not over, in our view." Subramanian also said that "big, old and ugly" stocks could be leaders in 2015 while investors might be better served leaving the "new, shiny, exciting IPOs alone." 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ubs-2015-sp-500-forecast-2014-11">UBS' Julian Emmanuel: S&amp;P 500: 2,225, EPS: $126.00</a>
"The S&amp;P 500 has risen 200% since the bull market began in March 2009 - not unprecedented by historical standards. Buoyed by strong corporate balance sheets positioned to drive further M&amp;A, the prospect of solid GDP anchoring steady earnings growth, and a Fed set to raise interest rates while mindful of incoming data, we expect the advancing tide to continue rolling. We forecast a 2015 year-end S&amp;P 500 price of 2,225 on the back of earnings growth and modest multiple expansion, typical in a maturing rally."
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bmo-belskis-2015-sp-500-outlook-2014-12">BMO's Brian Belski: S&amp;P 500: 2,250, EPS: $126.00</a>
"Given the combination of improving economic conditions and rebounding earnings growth, we believe 2015 will represent another year of solid gains for US stocks. Our models suggest a year-end S&amp;P 500 price target of 2,250 on EPS of $126. ...&#xa0;[T]he average age of plant and equipment is at its highest levels in 50 and 15 years, respectively. The way we see it is that there is a tremendous amount of pent-up investment spending demand and ... we believe the next logical step for companies to improve growth prospects is to invest in their businesses."
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-stanley-2015-sp-500-target-2014-11">Morgan Stanley's Adam Parker: S&amp;P 500: 2,275, EPS: $126.10</a>
"We head into 2015 bullish for the 3rd straight year. Our 12-month forward target for year-end 2015 is 2275, offering about 10% upside to today's price, based on 7% earnings growth in 2015 and 2016 and modest further multiple expansion to near 17x forward earnings ...&#xa0;Multiple higher? The core of our thesis is that we are in the middle of a long US expansion, one that may last until 2020. Economic factors like consumer confidence, financial obligations, and delinquencies are all improving and the consumer may be more insulated than investors think from a back-up in yields, given 75% of their financial obligations are in the form of a mortgage, close to 90% of all mortgages are 30-year fixed, and the average mortgage is termed out at the lowest rate ever ... Taking these factors into account, we generally think it pays to remain sanguine."
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/oppenheimer-2015-sp-500-outllook-2014-11">Oppenheimer's John Stoltzfus: S&amp;P 500: 2,311, EPS: $126.00</a>
"We expect the market to reach our target level on a combination of: sustained economic growth, corporate revenue and earnings growth (on the back of US expansion and process of international recovery), as well as further multiple expansion justified by the continued relative attractiveness of US equities on valuation, dividends and buybacks." Stoltzfus added that investors in the current bull market are more worried about what can go wrong than at any point in the last 30 years. "It's no secret that 'animal spirits' and 'irrational exuberance' have been in measured if not short supply this bull market. We think that's really a good thing and likely to carry stocks higher toward our target in 2015."
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rbc-golub-2015-sp-500-target-2014-12">RBC's Jonathan Golub: S&amp;P 500: 2,325, EPS: $130.00</a>
As Business Insider's Sam Ro wrote: "Golub believes 2015, as in 2014, will be highlighted by healthy US GDP growth, lackluster global growth with China and Japan getting worse, elevated profit margins, low volatility, and most multiple expansion, that is higher price/earnings (P/E) multiples.&#xa0;Golub believes corporate revenues will track GDP higher. But earnings growth will pick up as companies clamp down on selling, general, and administrative (SG&amp;A expenses)." Golub added, "Going forward, we believe that SG&amp;A will be the most important driver of margins as compensation grows at a slower pace than revenues. In our view, this should provide 1- 2% of upside per year."
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/fundstrat-tom-lee-2015-forecast-2014-12">FundStrat's Tom Lee: S&amp;P 500: 2,325, EPS: $129.00</a>
"The current bull market is not going to end simply because 'stocks have gone up too much' ...&#xa0;The buyside is fairly cautious, seeing downside stemming from: (i) deflationary pressures of the 40% year-over-year oil decline, deceleration in China, Eurozone weakness, and the&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/inflation-expectations-are-still-falling-2014-11">fall in 5-year inflation breakevens</a>; and (ii) Fed&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/janet-yellen-press-conference-december-17-2014-12">monetary tightening</a>&#xa0;...&#xa0;Capital stock is again showing signs of pent-up demand, and as a consequence, companies and households will have to invest. In other words,&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-pent-up-demand-charts-2013-7">obsolescence is playing a role here</a>. Equipment needs to be replaced as it reaches the end of its useful life."

Here's What 13 Top Wall Street Pros Are Predicting For Stocks In 2015 

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Ashton Kutcher owns one of the most important media companies in America, and almost no-one even knows it exists.It's called <a href="aplus.com">A+</a>, and in a little over a year, it's gone from <a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2014/8/5/Screen_Shot_2014-08-05_at_20.37.13.png">irrelevancy</a> to being one of the top 50 most popular websites in the United States. It has grown off the back of "stories that make a difference and create positive change" - and by leveraging Ashton Kutcher's massive following on social media.Remarkably, it's achieved this in almost total silence, in terms of the site's public profile.Before its official <a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-aplus-ashton-kutcher-media-platform-20150123-story.html">"launch" in the LA Times just under a month ago</a>, one of A+'s only appearances in the media was in the summer of 2014 - <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/business/a-plus-ashton-kutcher-stolen-content/">when I broke the news that the site was plagiarising dozens of its articles</a> from BuzzFeed, the Huffington Post and elsewhere.There have been other, less public, teething problems along the way too. At times, writers have expressed frustration at the site's relentless viral focus. And sources say that Kutcher's vision for A+ is far more radical than the reality of the site. But this hasn't slowed it down.According to traffic data from Quantcast, A+ is now considerably bigger than viral news site Upworthy. It's bigger than TMZ. It's bigger than Fox News. And thanks to a series of soon-to-be-announced partnerships with other high-profile celebrities, A+ is about to get far, far bigger.It's journey so far, however, has not been smooth.<h3>Ashton Kutcher's living room launchpad</h3>So where did A+ come from?A+ had its official "launch" at the end of January 2015, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-aplus-ashton-kutcher-media-platform-20150123-story.html">with an interview in the LA Times</a>. <a href="http://www.sys-con.com/node/3287142">A press release at the time says</a> the site's "soft launch" began 9 months ago, the concept starting "in [Kutcher's] living room as an experiment of combining technology with the power of social media to drive additional views of impactful, socially relevant, and sometimes just light-hearted stories throughout the world."But the site was publishing even before a "soft," unofficial start in April 2014, and has its origins in a product discovery service that launched late 2013. That service pivoted into its current iteration in the new year. Initially established in Los Angeles, A+ moved to New York in the summer of 2014. The name "A+" is a riff on Ashton Kutcher's initial, and the online branding of the movie star and the site are closely aligned.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div>Alongside Kutcher there are two other co-founders: Evan Beard and Kendall Debaghi. Kutcher and Beard first met at the tech startup accelerator Y Combinator in 2010 in California, and subsequently stayed in touch. Beard is a technology entrepreneur and software developer, and Debaghi is a former business analyst from McKinsey &amp; Company, as well as a Fulbright scholar. The pair met while studying at Duke University, and neither had any experience in the media before launching A+.Beard works as CEO, Debaghi is President, and Kutcher is chair of the board. Ownership of the site is split equally between the three founders, in addition to funding from a third-party (we don't know who) in the form of a $300,000 convertible note, the founders told Business Insider. The site has grown from revenue alone since that initial investment. (Debaghi and Beard had no involvement in A.plus, <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/23/ashton-kutcher-twitter-app/">a previous custom Twitter client startup backed by Kutcher</a>.)<h3>Rapid growth and word-for-word rip-offs</h3>The first iteration of A+ as a product discovery service never saw much traction, but after its pivot into editorial content, it grew - fast. At one point, the site claimed on <a href="https://angel.co/a-42">its AngelList profile</a> to be the "fastest-growing site in the history of the Internet." (That claim has since been deleted from the site.) It had shot from irrelevance to being the 3,000th most popular website in the world in just half a year.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div>In those early days it eschewed all the trappings of a traditional media outlet. There was no "About" page on the website, no masthead, no bylines or author pages. The site's meteoric growth was on the back of immensely sharable, feel-good articles, supercharged by the Ashton Kutcher's extreme reach on social media. With 18 million Facebook likes and 16.7 million Twitter followers, he provided a pre-built audience of tens of millions ready for A+'s content, without needing to lift a finger to build the brand.There was a problem, however: The site was awash with heavily plagiarised articles, often ripped word-for-word from other sites."This Girl Was Sent Home In Tears Because Her Dress Was Too Short" was an exact copy of <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/mom-wears-too-short-dress-code-graduation#.sreG4q824">a post by BuzzFeed's Ryan Broderick</a>. "12 Times The Women Of 'Game Of Thrones' Were Super Fierce" <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/12/game-of-thrones-women-fierce_n_5488040.html">ripped off Huffington Post</a>. "The 30 Funniest Movie Mistakes Ever. I Can't Believe I Missed #28," meanwhile, lifted heavily from Cracked. There were numerous more just like this.I broke the news <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/business/a-plus-ashton-kutcher-stolen-content/">in a report for the Daily Dot on Aug. 7</a>, 2014, and the story was subsequently picked by<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/08/ashton-kutchers-viral-content-site-accused-plagiarism"> the Guardian</a>, <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ashton-kutchers-a-site-accused-724414">the Hollywood Reporter</a>, <a href="http://pagesix.com/2014/08/11/ashton-kutchers-website-accused-of-plagiarism/">the New York Post</a> and elsewhere. After a virtually silent rise, A+ suddenly found itself making headlines for all the wrong reasons.At the time, Debaghi and Beard were already taking some steps to sort out the site. They brought on multiple editorial staffers from Huffington Post and BuzzFeed, to clean up and create new edit guidelines. In an interview with Business Insider, they've now explained how the plagiarism occurred.<h3>"Experiments" and "accidents"</h3>When they started out, the company was in a "heavily experimental stage," Debaghi says. The company prides itself on combining "technology and social reach" - today, it tests dozens of headlines and photos for every story to optimise them for virality. (Debaghi frequently referred back to the idea of "efficiency" while speaking.)Back in August, one of these "experiments" was a piece of technology "that would identify content that was going viral from around the web." It would then automatically rip the article's content and put it in a queue to be rewritten by a team of freelancers, before being added to the site.Plenty of news sites aggregate content from across the web. A popular viral news story may <a href="http://www.tmz.com/2014/06/19/mugshot-eyes-felon-sexy/">see</a> <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/crime/jeremy-meeks-mugshot-goes-viral/">dozens</a> <a href="http://uproxx.com/webculture/2014/06/women-collectively-lost-their-sht-after-stockton-police-posted-this-sexy-mugshot-on-facebook/">of</a> <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/saeedjones/time-for-an-oz-marathon#.yk4LE3RZE">rewrites</a> in the week it breaks. What A+ tried to do was automate this process - with disastrous results. Dozens of articles were posted to A+ with little or no changes made to them.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div>The infringing content was added to the site "inadvertently," Beard says - but somehow nobody noticed (or bothered to remove) the plagiarised articles for several weeks (possibly even months). They went on to be promoted via Kutcher's social media accounts.<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/business/a-plus-ashton-kutcher-stolen-content/">After I first reached out in August 2014</a>, they scrubbed the site's archive, and circulated new edit guidelines to staff, obliquely warning that some of the articles on the site "are potentially in violating [sic] of copyright infringement." Following the media firestorm, the tool is no longer used, the founders say, and A+ has implemented an automatic plagiarism detector that scans all new articles for infringing content.Some - but not all - of the writers responsible for using the tool have since left the company. Beard says these writers are not to blame, claiming the viral tool accidentally swapped out rewritten articles with the original pieces. But this doesn't seem to be quite accurate. <a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2014/8/6/aplus_buzzfeed_comparison_1.jpg">Many of the plagiarising articles showed minor changes, or photos rearranged</a>, indicating they had been edited slightly before being added to A+.<h3>Adult supervision arrives</h3>In the months that followed the plagiarism, A+ took steps to professionalise itself. The Wall Street Journal's chief digital sales officer Brad Westbrook was <a href="http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/ashton-kutcher-aplus-brad-westwbrook-wall-street-journal/225968">brought on at the end of August 2014 as chief revenue officer</a>. And Brendan Cleary, another former Wall Street Journal employee, joined in September as programmatic sales director. Author bylines have also been added, and the site has undergone a redesign.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>But despite this, there have been other growing pains. One former writer I spoke to, Joshua Patton, said there was a "disconnect" between "what the site was supposed to be and what it is." Patton wrote for A+ in the latter part of 2014 as a freelancer, ultimately leaving amicably because he wasn't "getting the numbers" and didn't, in his words, "have what it takes to do viral horse shit."This drive for traffic at the expense of "telling stories that are important" was in contrast with Kutcher's own vision. "Ashton wanted people to tell edgier stories," Patton said, "almost in direct contradiction with some of what Kendall [Debaghi] was telling us to do."(Of the multiple sources interviewed for this story, only Patton, Debaghi and Beard were willing to be quoted by name.)<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Patton says Debaghi was "singularly focused on performance" and hits for articles, and this filtered into the content. The writers "all wanted to stick with the mission statement … but at the same time, we recognised the need to get numbers." At one point multiple writers were planning to leave in frustration, another source says.Multiple other sources I spoke to agreed that Kutcher is far more radical in the stories that he wanted published and promoted than Debaghi and Beard. "Lets put the wild stuff on the wall, let's do it all, let's deal with the backlash as we go!" was Kutcher's attitude, according to one.But they also dispute that the site is still as relentlessly focused on hits as it once was. The tone has apparently changed markedly in the last few months - and this may well be down to the incredible success the site is currently enjoying.<h3>A top 15 site with just 10 staffers</h3>So where does A+ stand today? Quite simply, it's huge. According to Quantcast data, it's one of the fifty biggest websites in the US. When it comes to mobile browsing, it's top 15.And it's achieved it with an editorial team of just 10. The full-time staffers are supplemented with freelancers: Anyone can submit an article to a site for review, and if it's selected for publication the writer is paid a fee of between $150 and $500, depending on subsequent traffic.Its numbers (27.5 million US monthly uniques) outstrip those of far better known sites, including gossip site TMZ (21.3 million), Fox News (19.9 million), and viral news site Upworthy (15.3 million), according to Quantcast figures provided to me by A+. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>It was Upworthy that pioneered the particular streak of socially-conscious clickbait that A+ has since refined - but Debaghi and Beard draw a clear distinction between the two sites. <a href="http://www.upworthy.com/about">Whereas Upworthy aims to</a> "draw massive attention to things that matter," to help "tell the stories most important to our world," A+ doesn't limit itself to social and political issues.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div>"The exemplary A+ story will make readers feel better about themselves or the world around after they've read it," <a href="http://aplus.com/about">says the site's about page</a>. It's an ultra-positive outlook, with the driving question of "does this make the reader a better person?" One former writer I spoke to described having all trace of snark edited out of their work, for example, and another recounted being told to stay away from any negative stories. This highly-sharable optimism is key to A+'s growth - but it's not the whole story. Its rapid ascent has been amplified by leveraging Ashton Kutcher's vast social media reach.And it's just going to get bigger. A+ is now planning a series of partnerships with celebrity "influencers," who will promote articles on their own social media pages. Debaghi and Beard confirmed that contracts have been signed, but are yet to disclose names, with an official announcement due in the coming weeks.<h3>Coming on board: Lil Wayne, T.I., Nicki Minaj...</h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>A source has told me that Rihanna, Britney Spears, Melissa Joan Hart, Lena Dunham, James Franco, Nicki Minaj have all been in talks at some stage with A+ about partnering - though none are confirmed. Rapper Lil Wayne has apparently signed, and is already actively posting content from A+ to his Facebook page.It's going to provide a major boost: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LilWayne">With more than 56 million likes</a>, Lil Wayne's Facebook page is more than twice as popular as Kutcher's, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Ashton?ref=br_tf">which sits at 18 million</a>. T.I., another rapper, is also plugging A+ to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TI">his 22 million fans</a>&lt;. Nicki Minaj, who we understand is the third signed influencer, has another 45 million likes. These "influencers" are paid for their involvement.While some of the readers that follow Kutcher will also be following the other influencers, its likely that A+'s social reach could quadruple almost overnight as a result of these partnerships. (Interestingly, the influencers appear to be hiding most older posts so they don't show up on their timelines a day or so after posting. At press time, there were no A+ posts visible on T.I.'s Facebook page.)It's a totally new distribution model. Previously, media properties have had to carefully build their own brand and online followings, in an increasingly crowded market. A+ has managed to sidestep the entire process by piggybacking on the established followings of others - and it's extremely successful.<h3>New distribution models - and new risks</h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>There's a drawback to this: When you're reliant on the capricious whims of celebrities, there's the risk that they withdraw their support - and with it, your audience. A+'s readership isn't earned, it's borrowed. Exacerbating this, the company has a comparatively tiny social media following of its own. A+ has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/aplusapp?ref=br_rs">a little under 160,000 likes on Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/aplusapp/">just 5,000 followers on Twitter</a>.But despite this risk, and previous problems, there's no suggestion things are anything other than positive for the company's future. It's hiring across all area of the company, traffic is booming, and it has ad partnerships with big-name brands including Bacardi and Lenovo (with more in the works).After all: In a single year, with no media experience, its founders have built one of the most popular websites in the world. And with friends like Ashton Kutcher's, that's just the beginning.

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