Who’s making money in Big Tech and beyond? – The Verge

Meta’s future is AI, AI, and more AI

2024-07-31T19:22:04-04:00

Mark Zuckerberg. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

Meta's second quarter earnings continue the same story from the previous quarter: generative AI may be here, but it's going to take a long time to make money.

The good news for Meta is that, unlike pretty much every AI startup, it already makes a lot of money. Last quarter, the company made just over $39 billion in revenue, up 22 percent from a year ago, and about $13.5 billion in profit, up 73 percent. 3.27 billion people use at least one of Meta's apps every day. That kind of scale and money buys the ability to make big bets, which Zuckerberg is famous for doing.

On Meta's Wednesday earnings call, CFO Susan Li reiterated to investors tha …

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Disney will bring Hulu content into Disney Plus and raise its ad-free prices

2023-05-10T16:47:29-04:00

Disney is combining Hulu and Disney Plus into a single streaming app. During Disney's Q2 earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Bob Iger announced that the company is going to create a "one-app experience" within the US and said that it's raising the price of its ad-free plan, which currently costs $10.99 per month.

"While we continue to offer Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus as standalone options, this is a logical progression of our DTC [direct-to-consumer] offerings that will provide greater opportunities for advertisers while giving bundle subscribers access to more robust and streamlined content, resulting in greater audience engagement and u …

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Apple’s latest earnings show the Mac slumping and services soaring

2023-05-04T17:02:53-04:00

Apple surpassed Wall Street expectations and said it had reached an all-time high in services revenue and set a new March quarter record for iPhone revenue in a report on its second quarter earnings on Thursday. The numbers show continued demand for the iPhone 14 lineup even as substantial upgrades (including USB-C connectivity) approach this fall. But Apple's other divisions, including Mac and iPad, were down year over year.

"We are pleased to report an all-time record in services and a March quarter record for iPhone despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, and to have our installed base of active devices reach an all-time high, …

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Peloton would like to remind everyone it’s more than a bike company

2023-05-04T11:01:34-04:00

It’s got a rower and a treadmill, guys. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Peloton isn't keen on the fact people mostly think of it as that bike company, which is why CEO Barry McCarthy says the company will "relaunch its brand" later this month so that more people are aware that it does other things, too. Part of that is relaunching the Peloton app with a new tiered subscription structure.

There's no information on the pricing just yet, but on today's Q3 2023 earnings call, CFO Liz Coddington said the "app tiers will have different amounts of content variances" depending on the price. Only users who have bought Peloton hardware and pay for All-Access membership will get everything Peloton has to offer.

McCarthy …

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Samsung loses billions on chips as overall profits decline 95 percent

2023-04-27T05:33:57-04:00

Samsung's memory chip business just had a terrible quarter, as falling demand and high inventories contributed to a 4.58 trillion won (around $3.4 billion) loss from the division, Bloomberg reports. The loss at the unit, which CNBC reports is typically its largest profit driver, contributed to Samsung's quarterly operating profit plunging 95 percent in the quarter to 640 billion won (roughly $478 million).

A few different factors contributed to Samsung's losses at its memory chip division. Smartphone and PC makers stockpiled chips during the pandemic as a hedge against supply issues as demand boomed, but have since been left with large inve …

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Mark Zuckerberg says Meta wants to ‘introduce AI agents to billions of people’

2023-04-26T18:41:41-04:00

Meta sees "an opportunity to introduce AI agents to billions of people in ways that will be useful and meaningful," CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors today.

While he was vague about how exactly Meta will add generative AI to its apps, Zuckerberg gave the most detailed preview yet during the company's earnings call for the first quarter of this year, when it reported $28.6 billion in revenue and a record 2 billion daily users of the Facebook app, beating Wall Street's estimates. Meta's profit for the quarter was $5.7 billion, a 24 percent decrease from the same time last year.

"We're exploring chat experiences in WhatsApp and Messenger, vi …

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Verizon plans to speed up rural 5G service later this year

2023-04-26T10:01:30-04:00

Rural customers subscribed to Verizon's 5G network could see a jump in their speeds later this year. The telecommunications giant revealed plans during its quarterly earnings call this week to extend its C-band 5G network - which uses a radio spectrum that enables faster speeds on a wide scale - to more rural and suburban areas by December 2023.

We don't know specifically which areas the expansion will cover. During the earnings call, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg mentioned that the company's C-band 5G coverage has so far been deployed to 70 out of the 406 available markets, mostly in urban and suburban areas. "It's 330 markets left, we will ge …

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Google’s search business is feeling the heat

2023-04-25T16:46:53-04:00

Google's search revenues inched upward in the first quarter of 2023 after years of rapid growth, suggesting the tech giant might be facing some difficulties with its golden goose. In an earnings release today, Google reported its "search & other" revenues were up 1.87 percent year over year (jumping from about $39.6B to $40.4B), which is much smaller growth than the 24.28 percent jump the company saw in Q1 2022 and the 30.11 percent bump in Q1 2021.

Right now, search is seeing significant competition from all sides. Microsoft is trying to steal users away from Google with its AI-powered Bing chatbot, which became more widely available last …

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Microsoft Q3 2023: Windows, devices, and Xbox down again

2023-04-25T16:05:13-04:00

Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2023 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $52.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $18.3 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 7 percent, and net income has increased by 9 percent. While Windows, Xbox, and devices revenue have all been hit hard this quarter, Microsoft's cloud, office, and server businesses have made up for weaknesses elsewhere.

Microsoft had a tough quarter for Windows and devices revenue last quarter, and Q3 isn't much different. Windows OEM revenue, the price that PC manufacturers pay Microsoft to put Windows on laptops and PCs, fell by 28 percent in Q3.

Microsoft's devices revenue has dropped again amid the PC industry's struggles. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge" data-portal-copyright="Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge">

The PC m …

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Spotify promises not to ‘overpay’ for podcasts

2023-04-25T15:15:00-04:00

Daniel Ek from Spotify

It's the last week of the cruelest month and sure to be an eventful one for the audio world. Spotify posted its first quarter earnings this morning, reporting that the service in April finally reached over half a billion (or 515 million) monthly users. But first quarter revenue fell short of expectations - even though the platform's podcast ad revenue saw a significant (20 percent) boost from this time last year. Still, the era of big spending by Spotify on podcasts is likely done, CEO Daniel Ek explained during the call. I'll dive into more detail below.

We can expect even more financial news from the podcast industry on Thursday, with bo …

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