Exploding Topics - ET: July 20th 2021

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Hey,

Here’s this week’s list of rapidly trending topics, insights and analysis.

Topic #1

Snail mucin

Snail mucin is essentially the slime from a snail.

The compound is rich in a compound known as hyaluronic acid, believed to moisturize the skin and stimulate collagen production. Which is why a growing number of beauty brands are adding snail mucin to their products.

In some national markets, snail mucin-focused beauty brand COSRX sells a bottle of this serum every 20 seconds.

One industry study estimated that the snail beauty market could grow to as much as $12B by 2029.

What's next:
Snail mucin is part of the K-Beauty meta trend.

Korean cosmetics exports have grown at an average of 26% per year since 2015.

And the global K-Beauty market is expected to triple to $31.6B within the next 8 years.

Meanwhile, cosmetics brands from all over the world are drawing from the Korean influence. Products like acne patches, sheet masks, scalp brushes, and skin serums are all surging in popularity.

Examples of growing K-Beauty brands include Dr Botanicals, Cliganic, Purito, and True Botanicals.

Topic #2

M5Stack

M5Stack is a stackable development board that can be programmed for a range of household and industrial Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

Most other popular microcontroller development boards (like the Raspberry Pi and Arduino) have exposed circuit boards, wires, and components.

M5Stack boards, however, are already built into well-finished enclosures. And these casings include a graphical display, buttons, USB slot, and speaker.

Which means that projects using the board can readily become finished products.

M5stack has raised seed funding from the HAX accelerator for early stage “hard tech” startups.

What's next:
M5Stack is part of the “DIY IoT” meta trend.

There are an estimated 22 billion internet-connected devices. And that’s expected to grow to 50 billion by 2030 (Statista).

One reason behind this is that IoT device development is becoming more and more accessible to DIY developers.

IoT hardware designed for non-commercial use include Teltonika, MicTrack, and Kerlink.

Topic #3

Crello

Crello is a browser-based design platform for creating social media images, like Instagram post images and YouTube thumbnails.

The company reports that they have over 2M (free and paid) users.

Crello’s founder, Dmitry Sergeev, also founded Depositphotos, which has raised $8M in funding to date. Crello itself hasn’t disclosed any funding rounds.

What's next:
Crello is part of the Design Tools for Non-Designers meta trend.

Until recently, most design software (like Adobe InDesign) was geared towards graphic design professionals.

But now that 3 billion people post regularly on social media, there’s growing demand for accessible design tools.

Growing companies in this space include:

Snappa: bootstrapped design tool startup that recently hit $138K MRR.

Canva: the current market leader. Brings in an estimated $234M ARR.

Bannerbear: API-based SaaS tool for creating social media banners. The startup grew from $859 MRR to $17.4K MRR in 12 months.

VEED: Social-focused video editor that’s currently generating $432K MRR.

Topic #4

Podcast camera

Podcast cameras are digital cameras designed for streaming and recording podcast episodes.

According to Podcast Insights, there are now over 1.5 million active podcasts.

And 17% of podcasters now record video as well as audio — that translates to over a quarter of a million video podcasts. Additionally, 10% of podcasters live-stream their episodes.

The podcast camera category is still new. Which is why there aren’t a large number of cameras being marketed specifically for podcasts.

However, we are starting to see dedicated podcast camera equipment hit the market. For example, RØDE’s VideoMicro is a camera attachment designed to enhance video audio recording. RØDE’s annual revenue is $18.84M — most of which comes from podcast equipment.

What's next:
Podcast cameras are part of the podcasting accessories meta trend.

Grand View Research estimates that the podcasting market could rise as high as $64.81B by 2027, at a CAGR of 27.5%.

And there are more listeners than ever. 55% of Americans have listened to at least one podcast, up from just 33% five years ago (Statista).

The most obvious podcasting accessory is a microphone. Brands like Maono and Blue Microphones have developed products for the podcasting niche.

Other peripheral add-ons include physical mixers. While mixer functionality is now mostly fulfilled by SaaS products like Descript and Zencastr, the hardware route is favored by some enthusiasts. Zoom’s PodTrak, for example, can record four microphone inputs at once.

Other products within the meta trend include acoustic panels and podcast headphones.

Topic #5

Skyrocketing Online Marketplace
(Exploding Topics Pro Only)

In this week’s Exploding Topics Pro report we shared an online marketplace with 500% revenue growth.

In this week’s report we also shared a:

1. Underground edtech startup with 100K registered users since launch.

2. Exponential DTC brand that has grown their revenue from $200K to $1M in a year.

3. Rapidly-growing Ecommerce platform in the sustainable fashion niche.

4. New supplement category projected to become a $1.9B market by 2024.

5. Exploding collaboration tool that has acquired 2,000 enterprise customers over the last 12 months.

Lots more.

Try Exploding Topics Pro

We hope you enjoyed this week's Exploding Topics Tuesday. See you next week.

Talk Soon,
Brian and Josh

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Exploding Topics - ET: July 20th 2021

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