Digits: A viral boating app, virtual influencers, and more

Plus: Solar retailers, washboard sales, and low-budget horror surprises.

1) Skinamarink, a Canadian analog horror film, has grossed $1.8m+ at the box office despite a production budget of just $15k. The plot: “Two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished.”

Digits: A viral boating app, virtual influencers, and more

2) The Columbus Washboard Co., America’s last, now sells ~11k washboards annually, down from millions in the 1940s. Apparently, sales jumped 57% in 2020 during peak pandemic mayhem, and percussionists make up 40% of sales.

3) This neat visual report argues we should focus our solar efforts on the roofs of big-box retailers, of which there are ~21.4k in the Western US. If solar panels were installed on their rooftops, they’d generate 31m+ megawatt-hours of energy output — enough to power 3m homes.

4) On Jan. 14, Megan Foulk shared her 62-year-old dad Jeff’s boating app on TikTok in a bid to attract downloads. The clip blew up, garnering ~24.4m views, and the app, Argo Navigation, has since topped the app store.

5) One of the hottest areas of metaverse content in development is that of virtual influencers, ~70% of whom are Korean. Tech firms there are pouring resources into things like virtual K-pop bands.

Topics: Digits

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