Latest / What the Flux / CommBank in hot water over redundancies | Netflix revenue jumps 12% | AI startup Lovable rides the unicorn

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CommBank in hot water over redundancies | Netflix revenue jumps 12% | AI startup Lovable rides the unicorn · What the Flux

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This is what the Flux.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I'm Brett and I'm Justin and Monday, the twenty first
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: of July.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Jesse boy. We've spoken about the downfall of Australian retail
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: a fair bit over the last few years, and the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: pain still keeps coming. And this time it's for Country Road.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Country Road warned that its flagship stores in Sydney will
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: be closed once the lease is up, and on top
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: of that, it will look to downsize a whole lot
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: of other stores as well. Not exactly a vote of
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: confidence for Country Road and even the retail sector.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Not at all.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: I'll give you a little good news story though I
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: saved one hundred and fifty bucks last week? Did you
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: actually thanks to the subscription tracker in the Flux app Now,
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Fox Sam, if you want to save money every single
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: month and identify subscriptions you're paying for but forgotten about,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: make sure to download the Flux app and check out
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: the subscription tracker.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Three insightful stories today, Juzzy boy, Let's do it for
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: our first. Australia's biggest bank is in hot water with
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the Finance Sector Union for allegedly using quote redundancy as
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: cover to send local jobs offshore.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Boiling water alert, bman, So tell me what's going on
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: with the big yellow well.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Combank is not just Australia's biggest bank, Juzzy boy, it's
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Australia's biggest listed company.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're talking more than seventeen million Australian customers.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: It has a valuation of three hundred and five billion dollars.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: And to put that into perspective, Febman, because I know
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: you love your perspective. Its market value is nearly as
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: big as Westpac, an said and NAB combined.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: But late last week, the Finance Sector Union, or the FSU,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: they launched legal action against CBA in the Fair Work Commission.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: They alleged that Combank breach its enterprise agreement yep. Last
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: month it made three hundred and four roles in Australia redundant.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: But the FSU claim that Combank is now hiring for
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: near identical jobs in India, same job titles, same roles,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: different continent.
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  Speaker 1: The union reckons this was a cost cutting exercise masked
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: as redundancy and.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: This violates the union agreement.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: But this one ain't over because Combank is refuting all
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: of those allegations.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: But nothing like a bit of a labor arbitrage for
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: one of Australia's most profitable companies be Man.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so what is the key learning here?
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  Speaker 2: Labor arbitrage is the practice of capitalizing on wage differences
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: between different regions.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, hiring workers in lower cost countries to
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: perform the same tasks for less money.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: And while this can make financial sense for a company's
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: bottom line, it's not a great look, especially when the
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: company is public, and especially when the company is highly profitable.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Might I remind you, Juzzy boy that Kombank announced a
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: six percent rising cash profits to two point six billion
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: dollars for the March quarter alone. Huge, But b Man,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: this is part of a broader plan for combak yeap
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Coombank's Indian employee count has almost doubled in the last
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: two years to over five six hundred hours. So in
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: CBA's case, moving drops to India will likely save them
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: tens of millions of dollars, but it also opens them
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: up to a bit of a legal risk and reputational
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: risks as well.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: For our second story, Netflix just posted record quarterly revenue,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: but investors still sold off the stock because of its
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: pricey content strategy.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Grab that popcorn, juzzy boy, and I know you like
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: popcorn because this one is due see break it down
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: for me.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: We know the sorry of Netflix started as a DVD
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: rental service back in ninety seven.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Grown into the world's biggest subscription video streaming service.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: And now blocking you from sharing your account with friends
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: and family and foes as well.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Does wait? Netflix just announced its revenue for the most
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: recent quarter reached eleven point eight billion US dollary.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Due we're talking to casual sixteen percent jump in their
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: quarterly revenue.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: And while Netflix doesn't report on specific subscriber numbers anymore,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: its subscribers streamed ninety five billion hours in the first
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: half of this year.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: That is enough time to watch suits from start to
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: finish all of the seasons about eighteen million times over.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: But despite these impressive results, Netflix's share price got a
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: bit of a whack.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: And why is that?
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Well, the Flix warned that their margin is expected to
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: drop in the second half of this year, and why
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: is that. The reason for that is because they're spending
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: big dollars on original content, and despite.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Them raising their full year revenue forecast, the big budget
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: series are going to hit their bottom line.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: But Netflix's CFO reckons bilding assets rather than buying them
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: is the only way forward.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Interesting, so tell me what is the key Lenie here.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: When you own the show, you don't have to keep
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: paying to rent someone else's content.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: And that is the big shift that Netflix is making.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Most streaming platforms start by buying or licensing content.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: They pay big bucks to license popular shows or movies
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: so they can quickly build a catalog.
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  Speaker 1: Like when Netflix paid one hundred million dollars to license
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Friends for just a year.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: But over time, b Man, that gets really expensive.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: And these licensing deals often come with an expiring day.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: So you're constantly forking out money without building any long
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: term value, just as foxtell now with all the HBO
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: shows like Euphoria and House of Dragon waltzing out the
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: door really got to hurt, but be man. By creating
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: its own hit shows, Netflix is building a library that
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: it fully owns.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Like squid Game, which wracked up one hundred and twenty
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: two million views in just a few weeks. For our
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: third and final story, Lovable, the startup helping people build
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: apps without writing code, has cracked Unicorn status just eight
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: months after launch, development teams going into survival mode. Tell
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: me what's going on here? Juzy boy okay?
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: So, Lovable is a Swedish AI startup that let's uses
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: build websites and apps using natural language.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: In other words, you can tell it in plain English
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: or French or Swedish what kind of app or website
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: you want?
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Make me a hair salon booking app with blush pink
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: tones and gentle millennial.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Energy and boomerooney, It's done.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: The website designed.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: The color palette has been chosen, even the beautiful logo
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: been made for you, Josie Boy. Lovable only launched in
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: November last year, but already has two point three million
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: active users and one hundred and eighty thousand paying subscribers
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: and probably most excitingly, seventy five million dollars in annual
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: recurring revenues.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Not bad for a company with just forty five employees.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Now, Lovable just raised a whopping two hundred million US
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: dollars at evaluation of just under two billion US dollars
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Unicorn Alert all part of an up and coming group
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: of vibe coding companies.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here?
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Vibe coding is the idea that you don't need to
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: know how to code, You just need to know what
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: you want.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: In other words, need to be able to describe your
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: idea clearly in natural language. But AI can handle the
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: rest and b man, this shift means way more people
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: can test ideas and build products and launch.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Apps as well, and that means AI is shifting the
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: balance of power from software engineers to entrepreneurs. And clearly, jesyboy,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: democratizing software development is a very big business.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Just last month, AI coding assistant Cursor raised five hundred
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: million US dollars on a near ten billion US dollar valuation.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: So jaesiboy, the next wave of AI companies are all
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: about making software more accessible and lovable.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Is clearly cash here, speaking of aiv man, did you
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: know our subscription tracker used a little sprinkle of AI
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: to identify all of your recurring payment black subscriptions here
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Netflix to Spotify and shows you how much is spending
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: each and every month. It can save you hundreds of dollars.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: To make sure you've downloaded the flux app and you
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: connect to your accounts to find all the ways you
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: can save money.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and we'll see you on Wednesday,