What happens to entertainment in a gamified US economy?

Key takeaways from this blog:

• President Trump's import taxes have shaken the stock market, with trust int he US economy weakening
• Unpredictable policies, including the US TikTok ban, are making conditions difficult for businesses that operate across multiple countries
• With this uncertainty in the US, the world is looking towards rising markets for stability, growth, and new opportunities

News in the second week of April 2025 (not three months after Trump took the Presidential office) has been dominated by tariffs and the impacted US stock market. Whopping percentages on imports from every country – from industrial powerhouses like China and Vietnam, to rocky islands populated only by penguins (per BBC) – set off a stock rollercoaster. One day’s historic losses were followed by the next’s historic highs, followed again by dives back down a steep red line. 

With most tariffs now postponed, stocks have recovered, but beneath this guise of stability lies something more concerning: a sell-off of US government bonds (via The Guardian), which indicates a broader loss of faith in the US dollar. 

One can be forgiven for shaken faith. After all, the TikTok ban is a good case study for such unpredictable decisions being postponed but constantly overhead, leading to no immediate change but long-term gradual disruption – only the stakes are much higher. No one knows what will happen in the US tomorrow, much less next week, or six months from now. Currency devaluation and economic depression are not out of the question, which could lead to things like inflation and consumer spending disruption. In the meantime, the implicit antagonism will have its own impacts. A sale of TikTok to a US company now seems less likely than ever, and the EU is considering its own retaliatory options, which include putting pressure on big tech companies like Meta (per CNBC). 

For industries like music and games, the problems become manifold. US consumers are some of the highest spending in the world; production is largely outsourced elsewhere to account for higher costs. From imports of game consoles to putting bands on tour, a tariff-bound US market becomes prohibitive for any organisation that has roots in more than one territory. Which, in the digitally-defined entertainment world, is most of them. 

The US’ anti-globalisation political rhetoric is, ultimately, very harmful to global businesses. The tariffs are postponed today, but could return tomorrow. There is no way around it: chaos is here, and it will continue. Uncertainty becomes its own certainty, benefitting some while others lose out. 

The interesting upside: emerging markets start to look like safer bets. Their growth trajectories are set to continue through the 2030’s (look no further than India, which is taking on an ever bigger role in the global market). As circumstances develop domestically, so will revenues. Culture is following: K-Pop and Afrohouse are growing genres worldwide, and the likes of Netflix have made local-language TV shows globally accessible, normalising subtitles. Some of the most successful TV shows on the service in recent years have been non-English, like Squid Game and Dark. Others have blended cultures and languages, like Emily in Paris and White Lotus, which has been praised for its local casting and cultural depictions. 

Attention is shifting from legacy economies now facing uncertainty and fluctuation, and towards growing ones, with opportunity an inherent part of that growth. Be it new music scenes like Amapiano, games fanaticism on Twitch in the Spanish-speaking world, or burgeoning business centres like the UAE taking an ever-bigger intermediary role in business, the future is being built in new ways, and led by new markets. US stock market disruption is perhaps just the nudge out of the nest.