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2021-12-16 10:00:02 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙴 𝙳𝙰𝚃𝙰

1) Could a 4-day work week become the norm? It just did for this UK bank, which reduced the weekly hours of its ~400 staff to 34, with most employees expected to take either Friday or Monday off.

2) The US is set to dip into its strategic oil reserve, with 50 million barrels set to be released in a bid to combat high energy prices. That's roughly 8% of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

3) What are the most common passwords? Nordpass is back with its annual list. "123456" reigned supreme, but "iloveyou" was a surprise entry at #22.

4) Nvidia revealed its latest AI effort this week — GauGAN2 — which can translate text into lifelike images of beaches, sky or other landscapes... that don't actually exist.

5) Zoom's revenue growth slowed again in its latest earnings release, confirming that the best days of the "Zoom Boom" are well and truly in the past.

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚛 | 𝙳𝚊𝚝𝚊 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 Open / Comment

2021-12-15 10:00:01 𝚄𝚂 𝙸𝚖𝚖𝚒𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚜 𝙷𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝙰 𝚁𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝙽𝚞𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝙾𝚏 𝙲𝚊𝚜𝚎𝚜 𝙱𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚍 𝚄𝚙

Getting legal entry into the United States has never been an easy or quick process, and it seems to be getting harder, according to the latest data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (via a great article from The Economist).

The data shows there are almost 1.5 million immigration cases currently pending in the US — exactly 5x the number that were pending a decade ago — with the average wait time to get through the system now up to 930 days (roughly 2-and-a-half years).

Some of the more recent backlog can safely be blamed on the pandemic, but policy over the last 10-15 years across multiple administrations and governments has undoubtedly been the longer term driver. Stricter enforcement, a surge in encounters at the borders and only limited increases in resourcing for the courts, have all added up.

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚛 | 𝙳𝚊𝚝𝚊 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 Open / Comment

2021-12-14 10:00:01 𝚃𝚎𝚜𝚕𝚊 𝙸𝚜 𝚃𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚍 𝚆𝚊𝚢 𝙼𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝙰𝚗𝚢 𝙾𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚌𝚔 𝙾𝚗 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚎𝚝

Tesla is truly the stock of the times. Having more than doubled in value in the last year, the company has become a magnet for the full range of investors from retail traders to hedge funds.

Data reveals that ~$40bn of Tesla shares changes hands per day — more than 2x as much as the next most-traded stock, and way more than other mega-cap giants like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. The amount traded in Tesla daily is equivalent to the volume traded in 307 members of the S&P 500 Index (a group of 500 of the largest companies).

We've charted just the vanilla equity volumes, but the trading in options markets is even more off the charts, with more than $240bn every day.

The reason behind that is: Elon Musk. He instills a sense of belief, or strong dislike, in most people — and it's meant Tesla has become the instrument of choice for many to speculate in.

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚛 | 𝙳𝚊𝚝𝚊 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 Open / Comment

2021-12-14 09:00:04 Elon Musk has released a cyber whistle. The Cyberwhistle is made of polished stainless steel and costs $ 50.

The Chinese have invented plastic from salmon semen.

The Japanese are testing safe pedestrian crossings and unmanned aero taxi

You can follow all technological innovations in the TECHNO channel. We look for the best of the best and introduce all significant innovations to you! Open / Comment

2021-12-13 10:00:01 𝙳𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚊𝚛 𝚃𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝙱𝚞𝚒𝚕𝚝 𝙰 𝙷𝚞𝚐𝚎 𝙱𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜, 𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚂𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙵𝚘𝚛 $𝟷 𝙲𝚊𝚗'𝚝 𝙻𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝙵𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛

In 1986 the first five locations opened of a new retail outlet, which had a simple premise for what it would sell, and an even simpler name — "Only $1.00".

Although not the first of its kind, "Only $1.00" would grow into what today is Dollar Tree, which is a $33bn giant with more than 15.9k retail locations in the US.

Recently Dollar Tree announced that its prices will rise from $1 to $1.25 (shared increased 8% as a result) - a change that the company has been putting off for some time, dropping products over the years that it could no longer afford to stock for just $1.

When the company started $1 could get you a fair amount. Today it buys you much less. $1 in 1986 is more like $2.50 in today's money once you account for inflation. And if you would buy $1 worth of Dollar Tree's shares back in 1995, today that would be $125.

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚛 | 𝙳𝚊𝚝𝚊 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 Open / Comment

2021-12-12 10:00:01 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙴 𝙳𝙰𝚃𝙰

1) Why did Cambodian users account for 50% of global traffic for Facebook's Messenger voice function? Good story from Rest of World here.

2) The top 25% most-active Twitter users are responsible for 97% of all tweets, according to data from Pew Research Center.

3) Ever wondered what gets you through that first filter when applying for jobs? A software engineer experimented with how many buzzwords they could fit on their resume.

4) Visa and Amazon are clashing over transaction fees, with Amazon banning Visa credit cards issued in the UK last week. If this spills over into the rest of retail it'll be a big deal — Visa accounts for 58% of the European payment network.

5) IBM has announced the development of a 127-qubit quantum processor, almost doubling the previous record (64). Good explanation here of why that might mean massive leaps forward in computer processing power in the future.

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚛 | 𝙳𝚊𝚝𝚊 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 Open / Comment

2021-12-11 10:00:02 𝟷𝟼𝟹-𝚈𝚎𝚊𝚛-𝙾𝚕𝚍 𝚄𝚂 𝙳𝚎𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝙼𝚊𝚌𝚢'𝚜 𝙱𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚜 𝙱𝚊𝚌𝚔

The department store, first founded back in 1858, is channeling the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mantra, recently announcing it was launching a "curated digital marketplace" for "carefully selected third-party merchants".

20 years ago if you needed to buy some jeans, a toaster, clothes for kids and some new bed sheets you had to hit a few different stores... or one big department store. The internet changed all that, threatening the fundamental draw of the department store model — and many department stores didn't make it.

But as the biggest in the country, Macy's had scale to lean on in its fight against the online giants. The closed stores, got leaner and launched own online offering, which now represents 33% of all sales. With this new platform , they will presumably only take a slice of each sale, meaning it doesn't have to hold inventory (à la Amazon).

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚛 | 𝙳𝚊𝚝𝚊 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 Open / Comment

2021-12-10 10:00:03 𝚂𝚘𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚕 𝙰𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚘 𝙰𝚙𝚙 𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚋𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝙷𝚊𝚜 𝚂𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝙳𝚘𝚠𝚗𝚕𝚘𝚊𝚍𝚜 𝚂𝚕𝚘𝚠 𝙰𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗

Earlier this year Clubhouse, had a lot to celebrate. The app was about to hit the one-year anniversary of its launch, downloads were soaring and it was fending off investment interest from just about every venture fund in Silicon Valley, in the end raising an undisclosed amount at an eye-watering $4bn valuation.

Clubhouse's overnight success prompted a lot of big tech, and small tech, to explore the audio room feature. Twitter launched Twitter Spaces. Facebook launched audio rooms. So did LinkedIn. Slack made Huddles.

Whether it was those copycats, the timeline of the pandemic, or just a natural occurrence, Clubhouse got what it wanted — things are slowing down a bit as was noted by the co-founder Paul Davison in an interview.

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚛 | 𝙳𝚊𝚝𝚊 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 Open / Comment

2021-12-10 09:00:02 CoinDesk is on Telegram now!

A project broadcasting information from a legendary crypto outlet — @CoinDesk_HQ Open / Comment

2021-12-09 10:00:13 𝙿𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚌 𝚆𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝙻𝚘𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚜: 𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝙰𝚛𝚎 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝙽𝚘𝚠?

Some stocks boomed, and then kept booming. Examples are Etsy and DocuSign who saw their share price rise 555% and 257%, during the early days of the pandemic — and they haven't looked back since. However, nobody benefited more than Zoom, - the clearest “winner in pandemic”.

Expedia’s shares shed almost 60%, but they've since made a roaring comeback. Airbnb too, who went through a brutal restructuring, before they managed to get IPO done (shares up 38%). Live Nation Entertainment (parent of Ticketmaster), also weathered the storm, gaining 57% since the start of 2020.

Airlines, like American Airlines and Delta, still aren't back to where they started, with many taking on debt. Then there's Peloton. Technically, shares are up 60% on where they were at the start of 2020, but with everything moving in the wrong direction, and them still burning cash, that might not last.

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚛 | 𝙳𝚊𝚝𝚊 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 Open / Comment