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Tim Cook: Active install base of iPhones is now over 1 billion
There are over 1 billion active iPhones.
Netflix grows to over 200 million subscribers globally
Netflix now has over 200 million subscribers worldwide.
Uber's delivery business was a saving grace in a tough quarter
It’s fair to say that Uber’s business was challenged in a huge way by the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Unsurprisingly, gross revenue from its “mobility” group dropped significantly compared to a year ago — $2.9 billion in mobility revenue represented a 53 percent year-over-year decline. Total revenue for the company across all its segments declined 18 percent year-over-year — a significant drop, but it’s undeniable that Uber Eats kept that loss from being much more significant.
Spotify is adding users faster than it thought it would
After a short COVID-19 related slump in Q1 2020 and a rebound in Q2, Spotify saw big growth in subscriber numbers for its latest earnings period.
Samsung's mobile sales are up 51 percent over last year's numbers
According to Samsung, despite the pandemic profits in its mobile business are up sharply from the dip it experienced in 2019. Samsung already told investors to expect higher profits for Q3 of 2020, but now the detailed results are out, revealing operating profit in its mobile division that’s up 51 percent over the same period last year (PDF). Samsung also saw growth in its display business (which accounts for screens sold to others, like the OLED displays in Apple’s iPhone 12 lineup), and memory chips, which go in phones, servers and help power the graphics cards for new GPUs and game consoles.
Netflix predicts it will hit 200 million subscribers this year
Netflix has just released the results for its most recent quarter (PDF), revealing that it slightly missed its own projections, adding 2.2 million customers worldwide over the last three months instead of the 2.5 million it predicted.
Samsung's quarterly profit is up 58 percent from last year
Samsung's guidance for its Q3 earnings is in, and the company expects an operating profit of $10.6 billion. That's up 58 percent from the year before. A detailed breakdown will come later, but Reuters reports analysts who suspect that higher mobile phone sales — probably more from midrange handsets than its just-launched high end devices like the Galaxy Note 20 — and graphics chips for new gaming consoles contributed to the results.
Nintendo Switch hardware and software sales exploded over spring
The first quarter of Nintendo's financial year is usually a quiet one. Switch sales dip to their lowest point and tentpole releases are scarce. The company sold 5.68 million Switch consoles in the three-month window leading up to June 30th, 2020, which is more than double what it managed in the same period last year.
PS4 game sales almost doubled during the pandemic
In its latest financial earnings, Sony reported that 91 million PS4 games were sold during the three-month period leading up to June 30th, 2020. In addition, PS Plus -- a subscription service that's required to play PS4 games online -- now stands at 44.9 million members, up from 41.5 million at the end of the last quarter. The company sold 1.9 million PS4 consoles during the three-month period, which is up from the previous quarter (1.4 million) but down 41 percent on the same quarter last year (3.2 million).
Qualcomm results suggest the 5G iPhone will be slightly delayed
Qualcomm is warning investors a major phone launch will occur a little later in the year than usual, and all signs point to Apple's first 5G-equipped iPhones.
Netflix plans to have even more originals in 2021
Netflix is fighting off competition HBO Max, Peacock and Disney+, adding more than 10 million subscribers in Q2 and racking up 99 million households viewing its big action release 'Extraction.'
PlayStation 4 sales pass 110 million
Sales and revenue for the fourth quarter slipped to 1.7 billion yen (roughly $16.3 billion), down billion yen (roughly $3.6 billion) year-over-year.
Twitter sees record user growth, thanks to COVID-19
Twitter's growth has increased thanks to COVID-19, but it lost money in the process.
Spotify users are flocking to ‘chill’ playlists during COVID-19
Nobody's accessing Spotify through their cars and watches now, but game consoles.
Twitter doesn’t want to call its users ‘users’ anymore
Twitter has announced that, at least in its public documents, it's going to stop calling the people who use its platform "users." It's "an effort to demonstrate more empathy for the people who use Twitter," explains the company's most recent financial results covering the fourth quarter of 2019. Instead, it's reframing the talk to be about Monetizable Daily Active Usage, Twitter's shorthand for users people it can sell ads against.
Spotify reports 124 million paying users and 'exponential' podcast growth
"This was the highest net add quarter we've ever experienced," said Spotify in its fourth-quarter earnings report, adding that the service had added 10 million subscribers. The company is riding high after seeing the number of paying customers surge to 124 million and its overall user base grow to 271 million. It says that the source of (some) of this blockbuster success is the same as it has been for the last few quarters: Podcasts.
Netflix changes how it counts viewing popularity, pumps up 'The Witcher'
Netflix's final earnings results for 2019 are out (PDF), and in a year where it suddenly started to face more competition than ever before, the company says its service and content is only becoming more popular. The letter to investors claims that its new series The Witcher "is tracking to be our biggest season one TV series ever," and explains a new method for measuring those statistics. The new phrasing it's using is "choosing to watch," and as such, 76 million households clicked play and let The Witcher stream for more than a couple of minutes in the first four weeks since it was released.
Spotify's podcast strategy is starting to pay off
Spotify's strategy of owning a chunk of the podcast game appears to be paying off, at least according to its latest financial report. In the third quarter of 2019, Spotify says it saw "exponential growth" in podcasts, with a 39 percent increase in listens in just three months. The US is the biggest consumer of the format, but Spotify is also seeing bumps in a number of European countries. And those people who come to Spotify for podcasts are, according to the company, more likely to sign up for premium than others.
Twitter adds more users, but finds it hard to make money from them
In the last three months, Twitter added six million more users, but couldn't manage to sell any more ads to those eyeballs. At least, not in quantities enough to boost its bottom line, with net profit remaining the same as it was in the previous quarter. Then, as now, Twitter made $37 million in profit which, while nothing to sniff at, hints that the company may have a stasis problem.
Uber's next business idea: Lending money to drivers
Uber is reportedly looking into offering loans directly to drivers, according to a report from Recode. The ride sharing company recently sent out an in-app survey to some drivers that indicated the company is starting to build a "new financial product" designed to help Uber drivers "in a time of need." The survey contained a number of questions regarding the driver's previous use and future interest in loans.
