Gen Z Survey from Morgan Stanley 👻
Morgan Stanley does a survey with all of their ~20 year old interns at the end of the summer, and it’s a super interesting view into the world of Gen Z (under age 24). Here are my key takeaways:
- 📸 Instagram remains the most popular app, but usage is focused on Stories and DMs, not posting in the feed. Snap is popular for group chats, Twitter is good for sports, and TikTok is for younger siblings
- 📺 Netflix is #1, but HBO, Hulu, and Amazon are catching up. Password sharing and trading are universal. Top shows are Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Big Little Lies, the Office, and Billions
- 🎧 Spotify is twice as popular as Apple Music because of the UI/UX, playlists, and social features. Top artists are Drake, Future and Kanye; top podcasts are NYT The Daily, WSJ What’s News, and Joe Rogan
- 📱 iPhones have nearly 100% market share, and almost everyone mentioned iMessage lock-in (don’t want to be left out of group texts). No one cares about 5G
- ❤️ Three relevant dating apps are Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge. Bumble and Hinge are better for ‘serious relationships.’ The League was relevant last year, but now the 'fad is over’
- 🔫 Fortnite is losing traction. NBA 2K and FIFA are the dominant games on college campuses, followed by Call of Duty and GTA. Most anticipated games are Cyberpunk 2077 and Borderlands 3
- 💸 Venmo is still the “must download” app for college students, and Apple Pay is becoming more popular at point-of-sale. No one uses Venmo for merchant transactions except for linking Venmo to Uber
- ☝️ Other stuff: Uber and Lyft are interchangeable; everyone has Amazon Prime; Uber Eats vs. Grubhub vs. DoorDash depends on geography; Google flights is most popular travel site; Twitter and Reddit are most popular news sites; vast majority of interns say phone addiction is a problem; Juul is ubiquitous
- ✨ New apps: VSCO is huge, Hopper is good for cheap flights, and Picolo is a fun drinking game app
Speaking of summer interns… 150+ Microsoft interns put together an epic end of summer music video. It’s really good!