Does Instagram or YouTube make more money from ads?
Sunak's trainers and internship discussed plus some gold stuff.
Hey there,
As I sipped my flat white from Caffè Nero on Wednesday morning I found myself pondering the nature of appropriation. Here I was drinking an Antipodean variation of an Italian drink, made using an Ethiopian bean bought from an English company (pretending to be from Milan). Was this layer on layer of one group capitalising on the hard work of another or just a team effort to make a delicious breakfast beverage? I guess it depends where you’re standing.
It didn’t help that I was listening to Thank You by Dido which was turned from a melancholic but ultimately uplifting song into the gut-wrenching Stan by Eminem. Both incredible pieces of art but fundamentally different propositions. At least we can all agree Thank You (Not So Bad) by Mssrs Dimitri Vegas, Like Mike and Tiesto is an absolute disgrace.
Thank you,
Hugo
Coffee Ponderer
The Business of Stuff
The Stuff
Gold smugglers busted with 146kgs gold disguised as machine parts 🪙 - it was on its way to Japan from Hong Kong when customs officials became suspicious of the contraption’s weight. It was being smuggled to avoid taxes which on $10million of gold would be about $1million. Hong Kong is one of the largest gold trading hubs in the world.
Nestle asked its employees what products to make and their ideas worked 💡 - in 2019 the food giant decided that maybe executives and consultants don’t know everything (blasphemy) and launched a programme to capitlise on the product ideas of its employees. Whilst the products produced sounded abominable (Mac n Cheese bites anyone?), the program has resulted in $200m of incremental revenue.
Rishi Sunak apologises to the Samba community for wearing them 👟 - when Boris was the bumbling PM and Rishi was the quirky chancellor he was lauded for his sartorial choices, often sporting a bit of Stone Island or a hoodie whilst smashing through his red box. Now he is in the top job himself everything he touches turns to ash so wearing something fashionable spells their downfall.
The PM has also been making friends with Blackstone 🚶 - when not wearing trainers or even possibly whilst wearing trainers, Mr Sunak has been palling up to everyone’s favourite private equity group. This has fuelled speculation that he is lining up a summer internship, given the very likely possibility he might be looking for a job towards the end of the year.
Meta and OpenAI preparing to release models capable of reasoning 🤖 - both companies are on the brink of taking us one step closer to the singularity. Currently generative AI does a good impression of knowing what’s going on but it doesn’t really, it’s just guessing what to say. That may all be about to change with GPT-5 and Meta’s equivalent.
Start-ups are trying to move insurance away from Excel 🧮 - given the vast swathes of data underwriters now have access to, trying to lob it all into a spreadsheet is pretty impractical. Companies like Hyperexponential are trying to automate data input and analysis.
AstraZeneca chief’s pay of £18.7m approved despite shareholder rebellion 💰 - he’ll be the highest paid FTSE 100 CEO despite 26% of shareholders voting against the pay package. The drama has raised questions about the UK as a base for the world’s biggest companies as that pay package in the US would place him well outside the top 100.
Car customisation is getting out of control 🚗 - Ferrari chief Benedetto Vigna joked this week that his dream was to sell a $10bn car. In recent years, customising luxury cars has got to the point where Rolls-Royce has set up a separate division to manage personalised features. A popular request is a night sky scene created using fibre-optic lights on the roof of the car.
Instagram makes more ad money than YouTube 📺 - filings by Meta confirmed that the platform made $31 billion in ads in 2021 compared with $28.2 billion made by YouTube. YouTube gives up 55% of each advertising dollar to content creators which is far more than Meta.
The sad decline of Little Chef 🥚 - I don’t know about you but I was absolutely pumped when that sign appeared and the left indicator went on, signalling brekkie was here. The restaurant chain was acquired by Granada in 1996 which if Alan Partridge is anything to by absolutely dominated the 90s. At its peak there were by 439 restaurants but the chain steadily declined as competition increased and the massive footprint lead to underinvestment.
Quote of the week
“My tea’s gone cold, I’m wondering why” - Dido