Tech earnings 💰
Slack vs. MSFT, Marketplaces, and the US sticks it to China.
Hi 👋, Tanvi here.
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Let’s go ahead and get started:
Stock market summary:
US - S&P 500 - up 0.57%
India - Sensex - down 0.16%
B2B marketplace raises funds 😎
Bijnis, a B2B wholesale marketplace, has raised $10 Million from Matrix Partners, Sequoia and existing investors, despite the hardships faced by India’s retail sector.
The company basically connects manufacturers and retailers in the fashion sector on its platform, and provides simplified solutions for payments and logistics. The company originally started as ShoeKonnect with an exclusive focus on the footwear vertical and after successfully testing their model is now expanding widely.
Per latest reports, the company is currently servicing 400 manufacturers to serve 60,000 retailers across India and competes with the likes of Udaan.
Key takeaway: India’s wholesale market is a $550 Billion giant, large part of which remains unorganized. Startups bringing some efficiency to the segment with technology will continue to rise and shine. Read more.
Payday for Billionaires 🤙
Jeff Bezos added $13 Billion to his net worth in a single day on the back of Amazon stock hitting new highs. This is a record for the largest single-day jump for an individual since the Bloomberg Billionaires Index was created in 2012.
By market close Monday, Bloomberg put Bezos’ net worth north of $190 Billion, despite having divested considerable holdings to his ex-wife in the recent past. To put that in context, Bezos is valued more than Exxon Mobil Corp., Nike Inc. and McDonald’s Corp.
Technology billionaires have seen their net worth soar, even as the world is still reeling from the pandemic induced shocks. Bezos himself has added more than $74 billion to his net worth since the start of 2020. Other notable feats so far have been Musk overtaking Buffet, and Mukesh bhai entering the top 10 list, thanks to Jio. Read more.
Snapchat posts a great quarter 👍
Snapchat yesterday posted its quarterly earnings numbers, growing its revenue by 17% YoY to $454 Million in the second quarter. The company reported nearly 238 Million daily users on its platform, with users opening the app nearly 30 times a day on an average.
However, stock was dumped by the markets because losses widened and investors were expecting users to grow up to 245 Million. Too bad.
In other key earnings on wall street,
Coca Cola came out with second quarter earnings which saw profits drop 33% and revenue down 28%. Global unit sales dropped 16%, painting a picture of how grim business reality is across the world. However, the company is optimistic of demand returning as lockdowns ease worldwide.
Also, Microsoft posted a much better quarter than expected, showing just how well technology companies are positioned to win in this environment. Most notably, the company reported Azure cloud revenue up 47% year-on-year.
Finally, Tesla surprised wall street with better than expected car deliveries, revenues as well as profits. The company will invest $1 Billion to build a gigafactory in Austin Texas.
Takeaway: the world is watching these numbers to get a measure of how terribly business is impacted worldwide. So far, the damage appears to be well under control, and the technology sector is only thriving.
Slack vs. Microsoft took an ugly turn 🤯
The two companies’ battle for leadership in the internal chat and communications space had turned sour long ago, but Slack finally decided to take the legal route.
In a complaint filed in front of the EU alleging anti competitive behaviour, Slack is accusing Microsoft of misappropriately using its market dominant position to eliminate competition by tying Teams to Microsoft’s Office suite.
In simpler terms, Microsoft sold Teams bundled with Excel, Word and other offerings. And Slack is saying that’s illegal as it kills the competition. Slack also claims because of this, millions of users were forced to install the app with no way to remove it.
Bottomline: antitrust laws in the EU are much stricter than the US or elsewhere and Slack could do some real damage to Microsoft if this goes to court. Read more.
US closes Chinese consulate 🔐
In a sudden escalation of diplomatic tensions between the two countries, the US government yesterday ordered the Chinese to close their Houston, Texas consulate immediately.
Pundits call the move unprecedented and it goes to show how tense the situation under the surface is between the two governments. Asking China to “cease all ops and events”, the US claimed the move was “in order to protect American intellectual property and Americans' private information”. Little further information was provided.
Many Senators in individual capacity claimed China was using the consulate for spying on the US. China called the move a “political provocation unilaterally launched by the US side”.
The US’ anti-China crusade so far has targeted Chinese businesses, key personnel in the government as well as companies including TikTok, Huawei etc - mostly for allegedly supporting state sponsored surveillance in some way or another.
Why does it matter: it is certainly alarming that the decision was so abrupt. If China was caught spying, there definitely will be further whiplash effects down the line. Feels a lot like the Cold War days. Read more.
Tweet of the day -
This tweet might come handy if you are a budding no-code builder. Good luck!
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
🙌 Instagram tests its own fundraiser feature - Instagram has started testing a feature by which users will directly be linked to the fundraiser from their profile page. The feature is in its trial stages and once complete will be rolled out in US, UK and Ireland.
☠️ Pak now warns TikTok - The video making app has received a final warning from Pakistan’s telecom regulator for immoral content posted on its platform. The country has also banned live streaming app Bigo for the same reasons.
💉 China’s answer to its own problems - a Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine has entered the final stage of testing in Brazil, where volunteers received the first doses. The vaccine, developed by private Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech, became the third in the world to enter Phase 3 clinical trials
😷 Mumbai fighting hard - as infections increase in Mumbai, authorities are turning to high-tech "smart helmets" to speed up screenings and identify suspected cases. The portable thermal-scanners, previously deployed in Dubai, Italy and China which enable health workers to record the temperatures of dozens of residents per minute.
📱 Peacock beats Quibi - NBC’s latest streaming service Peacock that made a debut in the US has been doing quite well. Peacock app has seen around 1.5 million downloads within the first 6 days of launch.
✈️ Indigo slashes 10% workforce - IndiGo will cut 10% of its workforce to cut costs as the pandemic drags on. The cuts could axe 2,700 jobs based on the airline’s total payroll, though it didn’t provide an accurate number.
Hope you took a thing or two away from today’s edition. 😀
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