Latest / The Curve / TCW41: Meta’s getting sued, Hong Kong’s lost its mojo and Microsoft’s doing it for the ladies.

Transcript

TCW41: Meta’s getting sued, Hong Kong’s lost its mojo and Microsoft’s doing it for the ladies. · The Curve

• 0:00
  Hi and welcome to the Curve Weekly. The podcast that keeps you up to date with all the money,
• 0:06
  business and stock market tea. Everyone should experience for us at least once in their lives
• 0:10
  and Annie shouldn't miss out just because she can't afford it. Help me, I'm poor.
• 0:15
  So I am a ghost. Look, it's happy Halloween. Happy Halloween, everyone. I mean,
• 0:21
  if you've listened to us for a while, even if you knew, we're desperately trying to make
• 0:25
  finance fun and interesting, right? Which is very difficult to do sometimes. So we thought,
• 0:30
  this was your idea. I know. So hey, we're going to be releasing a podcast on Halloween,
• 0:34
  so you may as well dress up. I kind of didn't really think about the mechanics to be honest.
• 0:38
  Also, pass poor effort from you. I'm a ghost. She's got a sheet and she's just poked holes in the
• 0:44
  eyes in the mouth. I know. I've gone a little bit all out. So I've suffered arts and crafts,
• 0:50
  very on brand. I've currently got a giant gold triangle on my head. Yes. So I'm actually,
• 0:56
  I've come as a pyramids game. We'll post some photos to our socials. Oh my god, it's so uncomfortable.
• 1:01
  Okay. So in this week, I can't even see my notes, law. Okay. You look so, I'm just
• 1:09
  called a picture of the video. Oh, fuck, you look funny. Okay. So, the kid, weekly, happy Halloween.
• 1:16
  Yeah, we're going to be doing this again. No, yes. This is a once in a Halloween special.
• 1:22
  But what's happening in the markets, Wiki? Well, we've got lots going on. It's reporting season again.
• 1:28
  Again, I know it comes around a lot, doesn't it? But it's great because it gives me stuff to talk
• 1:32
  about. So I'm like, thank you. Yes. But firstly, let's talk about Snapchat. Okay. So they haven't done
• 1:40
  too well. And then now they are doing well. And then now they're going back to not probably doing
• 1:44
  too well. Right. So they've had their result. And they have come out saying that they had a really
• 1:49
  good result for the three months ended September. But they're saying the outlook might not be as good
• 1:54
  because they're seeing a slowdown in advertising revenue, which is what a lot of the other big tech
• 1:59
  companies are seeing as well. So things like Alphabet, which is Google and Mesa. And there's a lot of
• 2:08
  big companies that are seeing a slowdown in ads spend as well due to the war in Israel and Palestine.
• 2:14
  Yes. So it IPOed in 2017. So six years ago. And it IPOed on the New York Stock Exchange about
• 2:22
  $17. It's then we had a fantastic run. Anyway, we went up to $83. And there's now at $9. So
• 2:30
  it's had. Yes. So if you had invested IPO investment, wouldn't have done too well now,
• 2:35
  because it's $9. So you just have to check me recording. I don't want to do this again.
• 2:40
  Yes. I was like, oh my god, this is a bad tool. Oh yeah. I just do that. You can kind of
• 2:47
  see my mouth through my eye. Okay. Yes. So it had a really good result, which was quite surprising.
• 2:56
  Really? Yeah. So it's finally had some revenue growth. It makes revenue from ads. So ads spend.
• 3:03
  So advertisers will put ads on it's on Snapchat. Oh, like in Instagram stories? Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
• 3:08
  exactly. But the thing is that a lot of advertisers were saying lately, and it's interesting,
• 3:14
  because someone asked me this a while ago, what impact are we going to see from the Israel
• 3:18
  Palestine war? And I was like, look, to be honest, if it's contained to the Middle East,
• 3:23
  then there won't be too much of an impact on US companies. But obviously that's unfolding.
• 3:30
  Now I'm getting bigger and getting more countries involved. But one thing we are seeing is a slow
• 3:34
  down and ad revenue, because everyone's on their phone consuming the news or on the TV watching
• 3:40
  the news unfold, their advertisers are like, you know what? Let's just pull back on our advertising
• 3:46
  spin because we're not going to get the cuts through that we would normally get if it wasn't a big
• 3:50
  news day. So it had a really good three months up to September 30th. And then it's saying, but you
• 3:56
  know what? Now what we're saying is that advertisers are slowing down their spends because of the war,
• 4:01
  the news, TV platforms, social media platforms is consumed with what's unfolding over there.
• 4:06
  So a lot of companies and advertising agencies are like, you know what? Let's just park some
• 4:11
  spending until there's enough room on platforms for us to advertise again effectively. But the
• 4:17
  company's still actually making a $300 million loss Snapchat. So they don't even make money yet,
• 4:22
  which is quite wild, I thought. Well, I just I didn't I honestly just don't even think anyone.
• 4:27
  Yeah, I mean, if you look at the users, so there's 1.4 billion users on Instagram in terms of
• 4:32
  active users per month, there's one billion on tech talk and there's 500 million on Snapchat,
• 4:38
  which I'm still surprised is 500 million people that use Snapchat. I think the good thing about
• 4:42
  Snapchat is it's not very, I mean, I could be wrong here, but I feel like it's not particularly
• 4:46
  moderated. So maybe even with things that are happening in Palestine and Israel, people can put
• 4:54
  stuff up without so much moderation. I mean, a lot, I've seen a lot of people on Instagram saying
• 5:00
  that they're being shadow banned and that their content's not being seen and that the algorithm
• 5:06
  and mainstream media are really trying to control the narrative. So I wonder if maybe Snapchat,
• 5:12
  because it's a bit more the Wild West, like you just take a video and send it. I don't know,
• 5:16
  maybe there's something in that. Funny you should say that about Snapchat around, I guess,
• 5:21
  but more free reign because there is now, I think it's 33 states in America that are suing
• 5:28
  meter due to the fact that they're saying that it is harmful to young people's mental health.
• 5:34
  So that's really, let's have a half the states in America is suing the company, like that's big,
• 5:39
  that's big. So in Instagram. Yeah. So in Instagram saying that your app is harming young people,
• 5:46
  which I don't know, like I'm kind of like, of course it is, but at what point is it the
• 5:52
  parent's job to be like, don't have screen time? It's so many bad things on the news and
• 5:58
  and inappropriate programs and stuff that you don't at your kids watch. Like it's kind, you don't,
• 6:03
  you don't blame, you don't go suing the TV. I know. It's interesting though, because like for
• 6:07
  example, today and yesterday, the first two mornings that I've got now to bed without just lying
• 6:13
  literally in bed on my phone, mostly on Instagram for an entire hour. Like literally I've
• 6:19
  been in this horrendous pattern as a 32 year old adult, where I cannot get myself out of bed and
• 6:25
  I get sucked into the stupid hole. And it's really, it is really nice for me to have that.
• 6:30
  This is me with like full control over who I am or what I do with my day and yet I still can't
• 6:34
  seem to fight it. So I actually have started plugging my phone away from my bed and this morning
• 6:41
  I said yesterday, I said to myself, you are not looking at your phone until you've got yourself
• 6:46
  up and out of the house. So I went for like a walk, did a tiny bit of exercise both mornings and
• 6:51
  the difference that it made to my men 12 was huge. But you know, that's me who I'm an adult.
• 6:56
  If I can't resist the app, I don't even know what 15 year olds would be doing. But yeah,
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  I know what you mean. It's like whose responsibility is that? Totally. Is it the parents? Is it the
• 7:05
  government? Is it meters? It's so hard. So in America, half of the country is basically
• 7:12
  sewing meter. Yeah, 33 states are sewing meter saying that it's like addictive and it's like
• 7:20
  concealing danger and it's just like it's quite crazy. That's a huge amount of
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  states. And then I looked and I was like, okay, so what if they get sued and they have to pay
• 7:29
  like a huge fine? I was like, meter made $12 billion in profit in three months. I was like,
• 7:35
  even if you sued them $12 billion, that's three months of their profit. It's not going to touch the
• 7:41
  sides. And that profits, you know, it's up 160% on that three months last year, which is just like
• 7:48
  wild. So I don't know what will happen, but I think this will probably be a long drawn out process
• 7:54
  and maybe they have to put more processes in place so that kids don't or young people don't spend
• 8:00
  so much time on the app. Like in China, they have literal restrictions on when you can and can't use
• 8:05
  your phone and certain apps, which maybe that would be bought in. But then it's like you're telling
• 8:09
  people what they can spend their time on. I don't know. It'll be interesting to see what happens.
• 8:13
  But yeah, they've made $12 billion in the quarter, you know, they're hardly scared of a couple
• 8:17
  of states sewing. Exactly. I couldn't imagine having started a company though. We are one of the
• 8:22
  biggest countries in the world. Half of them are wanting to sue. I know. I wonder what your
• 8:29
  conscience is in terms of being the leader of that company. So many people are blaming you for
• 8:37
  the mental health of the entire population. But then how many people would be so thankful for
• 8:43
  Instagram? For the businesses they've created, the money that they've made, the people they've
• 8:47
  been able to keep in touch with the relationships that have started through Instagram. You know,
• 8:52
  like, I guess it kind of comes back to your values. What do you prepared to invest in? Are you okay
• 8:59
  with this or not? If not, maybe meters, not a company that you will invest in. So individual
• 9:05
  preference, really? Gosh, there's a lot going on in the world at the moment isn't there.
• 9:08
  And some other things going on in terms of our outfits, it feels all of a sudden inappropriate.
• 9:13
  I know. You know, like, we are being like, happy Halloween, trying to be a bit of joy.
• 9:19
  A bit of a mental health. Yeah. Yeah. It takes from us. Okay, well, here's some positive stuff.
• 9:25
  So Hong Kong has a bit of a problem. What kind of problem? People aren't having sex. Why?
• 9:32
  It's a bit of a sexless nation. Oh, no. So the government is planning to pay out $20,000 Hongkong
• 9:38
  dollars, which is about two and a half thousand US per baby to help encourage people to have sex
• 9:43
  and have babies. But hold on. Have you tried to spin the story to be like, people aren't having sex
• 9:49
  or to make it more sound more interesting? Or is it the idea that the population is shrinking? And
• 9:54
  that's why they want to pay people. I mean, a bit of both. Yeah. So the government has all these
• 9:58
  grand plans. These projects want to do. It wants to grow the region. But people aren't having
• 10:03
  sex and they're not having children. And this is all due to work stress, the exciting night life
• 10:08
  that's in Hong Kong and the really tight living conditions. So people are not honing.
• 10:15
  People aren't honing. Yeah. They're too concerned with work and stressed about work. So
• 10:20
  Oh, gosh. I think this is a global issue. Yeah. So they're like, you know what? Okay. We're
• 10:24
  going to encourage baby making by giving everyone 2,600 US if they have a baby. Yeah. So
• 10:32
  can't they just pay us for having sex not just having a baby? I think that's called prostitution.
• 10:36
  Yeah. What's this? I mean, does the government does it? Well, I think that they should be,
• 10:42
  they should be subsidising vibrators or giving free loot. Like give a bit of other, you know, help
• 10:47
  the other people that don't want to have babies that also need to be having more sex. But the whole
• 10:51
  point is that they want people to have sex to have babies. Yeah. Well, I don't know. Like, I think
• 10:55
  you just you start with the root of the problem. Excuse the pardon.
• 11:03
  I am laughing under this shoot. You address the work stress and you address the
• 11:10
  shitty living conditions, you know? Just like you trying to see. I know. God. I thought having less
• 11:16
  babies was actually a really good thing from an environmental standpoint. I thought we were
• 11:20
  trying to encourage people to have less children for a planet. I think that's you.
• 11:25
  I think. Oh, I'm sure that was a thing. No, governments. You want population growth.
• 11:30
  Population growth means money, economic growth. Yeah. See, this is the difference. I wasn't
• 11:34
  I was like, the planet can't handle it. Yeah. But the economies are like, we need it. Yeah.
• 11:39
  Like, Japan's got a huge issue because it's got a real ageing population and people aren't
• 11:44
  having enough children. So you're going to get stagnant growth or growth going backwards,
• 11:48
  which is never good for a country, which leads to income growth, job prosperity,
• 11:54
  productivity, innovation. Yeah. All of that. Yes. But in other news, on the other end of this
• 12:01
  spectrum, so we've gone from babies to older people, older women, you know, I love Microsoft.
• 12:07
  Hey, I was at an event the other night and someone that used to work at Microsoft was there and I was
• 12:12
  like, fiction, I come, she would have loved us. What's happening there? Anyway, they're one of the
• 12:18
  very few companies that are now offering miniple as benefits. Yes. Yes. Another green tech
• 12:25
  for you. I love that. Yes. So companies like Microsoft, Applecrumbian Fetch,
• 12:31
  Applecrumbian Fetch, they're playing catch up. They have got a lot of work to do with that company.
• 12:35
  But anyway, there's a there's a handful of companies in the NBA, actually, which is a company
• 12:41
  in itself, not the basketball team, but the company that owns the organization. They are
• 12:47
  providing things like hormone therapy, counseling, all of that help retain that older demographic
• 12:53
  of women because that makes up about 20% of the labor force in that, you know, if you're not feeling
• 13:00
  well, you're going through hot flushes, you're tired, that's actually they've calculated has cost
• 13:07
  the US economy about $27 billion a year. So in like lack of productivity and not being able to
• 13:13
  work. So the more that companies can support those women and just be a bit like nicer and kind
• 13:19
  of supportive and, you know, curing force and being like, you know, what? I think it's really hard
• 13:25
  to go back to work later in life. I think if you've had kids and then you're going back to work,
• 13:30
  it can be really overwhelming and scary and the, yeah, that also think it's just like if I was tossing
• 13:38
  up between two jobs, it was Microsoft and I don't know, Amazon and Microsoft gave me, you know,
• 13:44
  a lot of menopause benefits and I was heading into that age bracket and I'd be like, oh,
• 13:48
  I'll definitely choose Microsoft. Well, I wish that they had similar stuff for egg freezing and
• 13:53
  fertility and, and I also think as we get older, we're still working longer. Back in the day, probably
• 14:00
  women going through menopause or, hey, women weren't probably a large part of the workforce and
• 14:05
  you didn't work that late in life. You probably retired. So now that women are working longer as well,
• 14:11
  it's kind of makes sense. So, yeah, so go Microsoft. That's so great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:17
  We could make a montage of your go Microsoft. Sorry. I know. Gosh, yes.
• 14:22
  Could be a song. Go Microsoft. Go, go Microsoft. Yeah. So hopefully we see more and more,
• 14:29
  not just support for women at that age bracket, but women in general in the workforce.
• 14:35
  And I think I hope that we start to see almost a snowball effect. And when as soon as a few
• 14:40
  companies start doing this, the others are like, well, if we want to be attractive to female staff
• 14:46
  and for them to think about applying it out companies, we have to also provide those benefits.
• 14:53
  It's kind of like sick leave back in the day, you know, companies didn't offer sick leave,
• 14:57
  and then so you get introduced. And then now it's just the norm and holiday leave and all of that.
• 15:03
  What earth did you do before sick leave was a thing? You probably just took your holiday. I don't know.
• 15:08
  Holiday leave, but yeah, so I just think it's so good all these things that have come out of COVID
• 15:14
  in terms of flexible working conditions for everyone, but that naturally benefits women more.
• 15:20
  And things like this are real focus on health and well-being and how important that is and how
• 15:26
  important it is to have a really healthy and I guess good cultured company. Totally. You know,
• 15:32
  you can't put a price on that. There's just I think there's just a real wake up call happening
• 15:38
  when it comes to what is needed to create actual equality in the workplace. Totally. And that comes
• 15:46
  with flexible working hours. It comes like every honestly, I cannot even remember how I managed
• 15:52
  to do washing cook food, like while it's being in an office all day and then you add in being a
• 15:59
  parent on top of that and like how on earth was it done? I know. Yeah, genuinely cannot remember.
• 16:05
  I mean, we must not have been able to get it done. It's just impossible. Even this morning,
• 16:10
  I put on a load of washing. It takes five seconds, but the amount of like ease that that will
• 16:15
  bring me rather than having to try and fit it in before or after work at like 6 a.m. or 8 p.m. at night.
• 16:21
  Huge. Yeah. Yeah. And I think when companies provide these kind of benefits, it's a two-way
• 16:27
  given take. Do you know what I mean? Like if I feel valued at a company, I'm going to give more
• 16:32
  to that company and vice versa. Whereas if you're like, no, you've got to take your sick leave as
• 16:37
  part of your holiday pay. It's like, oh, we'll screw you. Do you know what I mean? That you haven't
• 16:40
  given me, you don't care for me, so I'm not going to care for you. So I think it definitely goes
• 16:44
  both ways. You know, you give me some flexibility. I'll make sure I work hard, you know.
• 16:50
  It kind of just also comes down to trusting your employees, I think.
• 16:53
  Totally. Because like, I mean, they can I work completely different hours. Like Vic loves to be at
• 16:57
  work super early and I would way prefer not to be there super early. And when I say super early,
• 17:04
  I mean like 6.30. She's crazy. But then, you know, it's not a judgment thing. If I get in
• 17:11
  at 10 o'clock, you're not like, oh, you're so lazy because last night I worked all midnight.
• 17:15
  Yeah. And then obviously that's not what I want to do every night. But I think you just comes down
• 17:19
  to trusting that the people that you work with or who work for you. And it's very easy to weed out
• 17:24
  the people that it's very easy to weed out the ones that aren't working. Oh, it's so obvious.
• 17:29
  And the people that are taking the piss. But how nice to have female staff that don't feel
• 17:35
  stressed burnt out because they are trying to do everything.
• 17:40
  They're trying to do everything. Yeah, exactly. Like I think that's way better for a company.
• 17:43
  100%. Anyway, we could talk about this till the cows come home. But it's gonna say I feel a bit
• 17:50
  disappointed in my, in my episode. No, no, no, no. I was like, I tried. No, you did really well.
• 17:57
  Sorry, I know. No, no, no, I wasn't meeting that. I feel a bit disappointed with my outfit.
• 18:02
  Like the things are falling off my eye right now. Like, can you see or you can't see?
• 18:06
  I just love, oh my god, I have to tell this story. So when this is a few years ago,
• 18:11
  I'm so started dating this guy. And you know that mean girls, that part of mean girls where she turns
• 18:17
  up is like the bride with like all that terrible makeup. And then she sees like these playboy
• 18:23
  bunnies and stuff. And she's like, oh, Halloween is the one time of the year where the girls get
• 18:27
  to dress like sluts. Yeah. And she didn't realize that she'd been homeschooled. And she's like,
• 18:32
  yeah, anyway, probably people know me, girls. I think people know me. Yeah. They better
• 18:36
  bring me to explain. Anyway, so we're at this party. And so it turns up. And she had gone as the
• 18:42
  Joker. So she had teased her here. And it was like all this like green shit or something.
• 18:48
  Spray it. Spray it. She was in a oversized suit. You looked great, babe. You looked great.
• 18:53
  But you just started dating this guy. And I was like, well, I'm very, very bauzy outfit choice
• 18:59
  from you. And just face paint on with the smile that goes up to your cheeks.
• 19:03
  It was like a real hardcore outfit. And I saw you at the end of the night. And it was like
• 19:07
  crusty and flaking off and all over your suit. And I'm like, hey, babe, want to kiss me?
• 19:16
  Oh, it was so funny. I wish I had a photo. Oh, I think I'd be able to find it. It was like,
• 19:21
  so does go to the extremes, which I love. All right, let's call the day. Happy Halloween.
• 19:26
  Happy Halloween. I hope you get lots of candy. Thank you so much for listening to the Curve Weekly.
• 19:31
  Make sure you hit the subscribe button to stay up to date with all the many business stock market
• 19:35
  news. And if you like what you heard, we would love a review. Thank you. Yes, we would love a
• 19:41
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• 19:46
  series, could you please leave a review? Because it really helps other people find our cute little
• 19:50
  podcast. And we hope you have a good week and see you next Monday. Bye. Bye.
• 19:55
  Sweet. Yeah. See you next Tuesday. Wow.
• 20:00
  See you next Tuesday. I mean Monday.