Netflix Misses Subscriber Target
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Netflix Misses Subscriber Target | |
| Number | 547 |
| Broadcast Date | JULY 17, 2018 |
| Episode Length | 4:43 |
| Hosts | Sarah Lane |
Netflix misses subscriber growth targets, Walmart and Microsoft team up against Amazon, IBM sues Groupon.
Headlines
- In Netflix's second quarter earnings report, the company says it missed its own growth numbers by more than a million subscribers due to faulty internal forecasting, not business reasons. Netflix has missed forecasts three times in the past 10 quarters, and in a video call to discuss earnings, CEO Reed Hastings said “we’ve seen this movie” before" but it doesn't affect his optimism for the business. Netflix added 4.47 million international customers, short of its target of 5 million, and 670,000 streaming customers in the U.S., below its estimate of 1.2 million subscribers.
- IBM is seeking $167 million in a lawsuit against Groupon, which IBM accuses of using patented technology without IBM's authorization. An attorney representing IBM told a jury in federal court in Delaware that Groupon infringed patents describing foundational e-commerce technology that had already been licensed to Amazon, Facebook, and Google for between $20 million and $50 million per company. Groupon argues that IBM was overreading the scope of its patents and claiming ownership of building blocks of the internet.
- Walmart will use Microsoft's cloud technology for purchase and sales-data sharing with vendors in a five-year deal. Walmart plans to deploy Microsoft’s machine-learning, artificial-intelligence and other services to help employees while also cutting costs as it invests in growing sales online and better competing with Amazon.
- Booking Holdings, formerly known as Priceline, invested $500 million Didi Chuxing, China’s largest ride-hailing company. Booking Holdings plans to work closely with Didi to offer its on-demand car services through its Booking.com apps, and Didi customers will have the option to book hotels through Booking.com and its sister site Agoda. Booking also operates Kayak, Priceline.com, Rentacars.com and OpenTable.
- Uber wants to make pickup times easier to rely on, with "Guaranteed" pickup windows including $10 credits if your driver is late... and pre-written messages drvers can send such as “Be right there” or “I’ve arrived”. Uber's also introducing Spotlight... your ride gets assigned a color so you can hold up your phone and help your driver find you in dense areas, such as an airport.
- European regulators are expected to hit Google with a multibillion dollar fine this week, which the EU could also use to force changes in the way Google does business. At issue is Google’s policy of requiring Android device makers to use Google's search and web browsers as default apps. In a blog post, the company defended its position, saying distributing products like Google Search together with its Google Play app store “permits us to offer our entire suite for free — as opposed to, for example, charging upfront licensing fees. This free distribution is an efficient solution for everyone — it lowers prices for phone makers and consumers, while still letting us sustain our substantial investment in Android and Play.”
- Samsung announced it completed fabrication, functional testing, and validation of a prototype 8Gbit LPDDR5 module, capable of data rates up to 6.4Gbps-per-pin. The LPDDR5 standard itself has yet to be completed, and the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association only first announced work on DDR5 last year, with the specification due at some point this year.
- US Representative Mike Coffman of Colorado has introduced the 21st Century Internet Act which would ban blocking, throttling, paid prioritization and places Internet regulation under the jurisdiction of the FCC. The bill would modify the Communications Act of 1934 with a new Title VIII for the Internet. The rules are similar to the 2015 Open Internet Guidelines that were recently removed by the FCC, including handling cases of zero rating on a case by case basis. It also specifically bars the FCC from rate regulation and does not classify ISPs as common carriers.
- According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index Jeff Bezos is now the richest man who ever lived. Bezos is estimated to be worth $150 billion, about $55 billion more than Bill Gates. That $150 billion is also worth more than Gates 1999 amount which was the top mark in inflation-adjusted worth until now.
Links
| Preceded by: "New Wireless Roku TV Speakers" |
Netflix Misses Subscriber Target |
Followed by: "EU fines Google €4.3 billion" |