When most of us think about markets you think about the mall, or maybe a farmer’s market, an auction, or the informal market at the taxi rank, but in fact, markets are everywhere and they are for everything. The Marginal Revolution Blog loves to list the Markets in Everything. Here are a few interesting examples.

• Selling your phone calls. There is an app that offers to record your phone calls and pay you for the audio, so it can sell the data to AI companies.
• Fake wedding parties. There is a rising trend in Indian cities where people gather to enjoy the wedding party, minus the actual marriage. These ticketed events, organised by hotels, clubs and companies, are designed purely for fun and promise to offer the full experience of a wedding party without any stress, rituals or responsibilities. Simply put, it’s a wedding-themed party night.
• Pretending to work. In China there are companies that allow people to pretend to work. Zonghua is Cantonese and prefers not to give her real name. Tired of traveling and the pressures of the financial world, she resigned from her position in the spring of 2024, she tells this newspaper via a local social media platform. “I was looking for a more stable life,” she writes. But she doesn’t dare tell her family the truth. At first, she went to libraries, but for the past few months, she has been paying a monthly fee of 400 yuan ($55) for a comfortable space to spend the day. The company offer desks, Wi-Fi, coffee, lunch, and an atmosphere that mimics any work environment.
• The lunar economy. Private companies are staking claims to radio spectrum on the Moon with the aim of exploiting an emerging lunar economy, Financial Times research has found. More than 50 applications have been filed with the International Telecommunication Union since 2010 to use spectrum, the invisible highway of electromagnetic waves that enable all wireless technology, on or from the Moon.
• Personal fire hydrants. The latest sought-after home amenity? Personal fire hydrants. The logic is that when there’s a major disaster there may not be enough fire engines to protect every house in an area. If homeowners have their own hydrant ready to go—along with hoses, nozzles and adapters—and are trained to use it all, that could help reduce the number of homes destroyed. Real-estate agents say mentioning a personal fire hydrant in the marketing materials now helps sell homes. “People notice it. It’s definitely a plus,”.
• Low-altitude airspace. This is very interesting, and I think a world first: a local government in China has just sold its sky, literally. This is the government of Pingyin County, Jinan, Shandong Province who sold for 924 million yuan (approximately $130 million) a 30-year concession to operate and maintain its low-altitude economic projects to a company called Shandong Jinyu General Aviation Co., Ltd. The “low-altitude economy” is a big trend in China at the moment. XPeng, one of China’s leading EV manufacturers, recently released a low-altitude flying car for instance. Drone deliveries are becoming increasingly common in Chinese cities, and various regions are actively developing low-altitude transportation networks. Shanghai, for instance, plans to establish 400 low-altitude flight routes by 2027. But this is the first time a local government has monetized its low-altitude airspace…
• Rhino bonds. In 2022 the World Bank priced the world’s first wildlife bond, raising $150 million that will be partially used for the conservation of black rhinos at two reserves in South Africa. Returns on those five-year bonds will be determined by the rate of population growth. It said at the time that it hoped that the structure would be emulated. Under the rhino bond’s structure the issuer makes contributions toward conserving the animals instead of paying coupons and the buyers of the bond receive a payment based on preset targets for population growth.