Clubhouse, an audio-only social network, is electrifying the creator/tastemaker crowd. Unlike other social networks, Clubhouse allows participants to interact and meet in realtime without the intrusiveness of video. Launched in May 2020, Clubhouse is an invitation-only network that has seen its membership soar among iPhone owners since it’s not available to Android users yet.

NFTs, non-fungible tokens, is a new crypto asset representing digital assets like art, trading cards, or any scarce digital content issued using the Ethereum blockchain. As a result, they are unique and easily traded. Artists, gaming companies, and content creators are using NFTs have grabbed most of the NFT headlines. How about a collectible cartoon character for $18,000?

Consumers are becoming more privacy-focused. Apple has become the white knight of the privacy world. In December, the company began requiring “Privacy Labels” for all apps, thereby giving customers a way to determine what data an app collects about them before choosing to install it. Not surprisingly, some developers have failed to add the Privacy Label feature or fudged its content.

MrBeast, a 22-year-old YouTube star with 54 million subscribers, opened 300 restaurants virtually overnight and sold more than a million sandwiches in the first two months by using such new services as Virtual Dining Concepts. The parent company of Nextbite, another pioneer of the virtual franchise model, received $120 million in venture-capital funding for its 13 virtual brands.