Premium special: Gamification of Chinese consumer tech

Skinner’s three key insights — immediate rewards work better than delayed, unpredictable rewards work better than fixed, and conditioned rewards work better than primary — were found to also apply to humans, and in the 20th Century would be used by businesses to shape consumer behavior. From Frequent Flyer loyalty points to mystery toys in McDonald... See more

A prime example is Fortnite, whose massive 350M+ player base represents nearly the same in-game population as the United States… 85% of whom purchase in-game upgrades, skins, and other downloadable content to the tune of $3.7 Billion /yr in sales.

Unlike going to Substack to catch up on some newsletters (which as you know by reading mine, takes time) — TikTok unlocks rapid dopamine hits. Making it “an ideal app” to open up when you have even a minute of idle time.