Signals

US – Brianne Kimmel, the founder of Worklife, has created the virtual shared environment Stay at Home Valley in collaboration with online design tool Figma.

Designed as a virtual reflection of Silicon Valley’s real-world haunts, Stay at Home Valley was created to digitally reproduce the serendipitous connections that more commonly occur in physical situations. Allowing users to engage in collaborative, real-time working, dining and recreation opportunities, this virtual world enables interaction and creative cross-pollination.

‘The vision for Stay at Home Valley in particular was essentially to add a few points – create a few offices – and then hand it over to the Twitter design community to actually build on top of it,’ explains Kimmel, who recalls her own programming experience beginning with computer-aided design software. ‘I really wanted to create a space for more serendipitous interaction.’

As we explore in our Pleasure Revolution macrotrend, a push for more serendipitous living is becoming a key driver for consumers as many employees continue to work independently and remotely.

A recent study by McKinsey & Co has revealed that between 20% and 30% of Chinese shoppers are continuing to be cautious post-Covid-19.

As lockdown restrictions begin to ease in China, many individuals noted that they would either consume slightly less than before or, in some cases, choose to consume drastically less. A significant majority of respondents lack confidence in the future, suggesting that brands will need to work hard to regain consumer trust. Meanwhile, in higher tier cities, some 55% of respondents feel optimistic about the economy, while only 40% feel this way in lower tier cities.

While Chinese consumers are gradually regaining their confidence as the Covid-19 crisis subsides, many are still holding back on their spending power and displaying behaviours discussed in our macrotrend Uneasy Affluence.