Business

Despite its big controversy, Boeing might have a savior

Amid backlash over the airline’s recent door plug fiasco, RyanAir has come to the rescue. After weeks long inspections, the FAA recently cleared Boeing’s Max 9 737 jets to fly again, despite its harrowing safety incident a few weeks ago. Other airlines have since given Boeing the cold shoulder, but RyanAir is tuning out the noise.

On an earnings call Monday, the Irish airline said that it would be happy to take any Max 10 aircraft that other airlines don’t want to buy. It’s a kinda weird move from an airline that had an otherwise below average earnings call:

• RyanAir decreased its profit outlook for the year by 5% after being delisted from several travel booking sites, like Booking.com, Lastminute, and Kayak.

• The delisting cost the airline a 1% drop in the number of seats filled, and prompted a decrease in ticket prices to entice customers.

While aviation experts don’t see this as an existential threat to RyanAir, they say buying up the Max 10s while they’re in the clearance section could be a good move down the road.

It’s a win-win

The deal could pave the way for RyanAir to have an edge in their finances compared to other airlines, and prove to cut significant costs on their already budgeted fleet replacements in the future.

For Boeing, the upside is pretty clear considering other airlines meager outlook on its planes. United CEO Scott Kirby said last week that the company was deciding whether to cancel an order for a new plane from Boeing (the Max 10). RyanAir gave them a bit of a saving grace, for the time being at least.

Another streaming service is introducing commercials

Something Amazon’s over 70 million customers probably aren’t looking forward to is rolling out… commercials. On Monday, Prime Video began showing ads, a move some analysts expect will generate more than $5 billion in revenue per year.

Subscribers who do not wish to see commercials while watching their favorite shows have two options… cancel their subscription or pay an extra $3 per month to continue watching without ads.

• Only about one-third of subscribers are expected to open their wallets to avoid commercials, Bank of America predicts.

How is Amazon stacking up?

As streaming platforms evolve from their role as the cable extinctionists to more of, well, cable, Prime Video inserting ads into their platform doesn’t come as a huge shocker.

Streaming services are increasingly putting ads into their content, but it’ll be interesting to see how Amazon compares to its rivals:

• Netflix and Disney+ already have established relationships with advertisers, leaving Amazon in a position where it must convince brands to shift to Prime, which could be tricky.

• As of December 2023, Prime made up only 3.3% of US TV-watching time, putting it behind Netflix (7.7%), YouTube TV (8.5%), and other platforms, which have 5.2% collectively, according to Nielsen.

However, Amazon has a luxury other platforms don’t: customer data. The company can use their buying history to put more targeted ads in front of customers as well as offer brands a higher return on their marketing spend, especially since around 70% of US adults have an Amazon Prime membership.

However… Ad buyers who talked to the WSJ said a key asset Prime Video lacks compared to Netflix and Disney+ is a large catalog of popular shows. The company will have to work double time to try and cover ground its competitors have already been walking on.

Ring will no longer let police use your ring camera footage to help solve crimes

The police are going to have a harder time seeing who’s knocking at your door. Ring (which is owned by Amazon) said last week it will no longer let police easily request doorbell footage from users, so officers will have to get a warrant or subpoena instead.

Why the change?

Before the announcement, The Neighbors app (which Ring users are automatically enrolled in) let officers to use a “Request for Assistance” tool to ask individuals to volunteer footage. Civil liberties groups, journalists, and politicians have all put Ring’s claims that its cameras deter crime into doubt.

The company’s inclination to enable users’ handing over of private video footage has made the same groups a bit suspicious, especially in light of reports that law enforcement has requested Ring videos for other means not related to property crime.

New priorities: Ring said it’s focus is changing to more positive uses for its Neighbors app, such as… sharing funny videos. This comes as tech companies are feeling the pressure of the public’s privacy concerns. Last month, Google revoked access to location data history, which police pursued through requests, called geofence warrants, to locate those near a crime scene.

Miscellaneous

The golf industry is investing huge on women players

With the number of women who golf only increasing, the industry is doubling down on a new audience. Golf has a surge of women showing interest. More than 800,000 American women started playing golf between 2020 and 2022, according to the National Golf Foundation, representing a 15% increase.

And 38% of players under 18 years old today are girls, compared to just 14% in 1986, indicating that this demographic shift might be a long lasting one.

Fore the ladies

The sport is attracting women for quite a variety of reasons, says The Washington Post:

• General interest in golf skyrocketed during the pandemic as people looked for outdoor, socially distant activities. Plus, the influx of those switching to remote work created more time for hobbies.

• Millennial and Gen Z women were exposed to golf on social media, where celebrities and professional athletes are continuously posting about the sport.

• Indoor golfing businesses and bars (like Topgolf) have become increasingly popular, acting as more accessible avenues into the sport.

Interest adds up: In 2021, Golf Datatech found that women made up about 20% of the then $5.59 billion golf market.

On par with women

With an emerging market that’s promising billions, brands are quickly adapting to pounce on female spending power:

• In 2021, Callaway launched a product line specifically tailored for female players.

• Athletic brands like Lululemon, Adidas, and Nike carry golf clothing for women, as do higher-end fashion brands.

All this is great news, especially since research suggests that not playing golf can actually hurt women’s careers. Maybe that’ll get my girlfriend to go to the course.

Meet the new biggest cruise ship in the world

The world’s biggest oceanic entertainment vehicle set sail, and by the looks of it, it lives up to its name. The Icon of the Seas, Royal Caribbean’s new massive cruise ship, is five times heavier than the Titanic, and set sail last week.

Icon of the Seas is quite the specimen:

• It has 20 decks, and is just barley under 1,200 feet long.

• The ship cost $2 billion to build and put out to sea.

• It weighs an astounding 250,800 tons, or 551,155,655 pounds.

The behemoth of a ship has 40 restaurants, seven pools, eight “neighborhoods,” and some atypical attractions like an escape room and a carousel. Most of its inaugural week long trip will be spent at sea, with only three half-day stops along the way.

Cruises are the place to be

Last week, Royal Caribbean became the main Inter Miami jersey sponsor, and Lionel Messi (the teams captain and legendary soccer player) celebrated the partnership by sending a bottle of champagne crashing into the ship’s bow.

The ceremony was fitting, considering the cruise ship industry is making a huge comeback. Passenger ships have rid themselves of their bacteria breeding ground image from Covid, and cruise line bookings are surpassing those before the pandemic.

• Bookings in November 2023 for 2024 cruises were almost 20% higher than bookings in November 2019 for 2020 cruises, one analyst told Reuters.

• Royal Caribbean has had an explosive comeback, roughly quadrupling its stock price from a low during the pandemic and recording its single largest booking day ever when reservations opened for Icon of the Seas in October 2022.

Young people and recurring customers are propagating the cruise’s recent success:

• 85% of cruise passengers say they’d be up for another one, according to the Cruise Lines International Association.

• The vast majority of 18 to 24-year-olds are at least somewhat interested in taking a cruise, per the analytics platform CivicScience.

• Even watching cruises is popular. On TikTok, posts about Royal Caribbean’s nine-month cruise have more than 350 million views.

The cruise industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of tourism, according to the Cruise Lines International Association. However, as they see increasing success, cruise ship emissions are up 6% from before the pandemic, according to the Climate TRACE coalition.

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Grab Bag

Amelia Earhart’s plane may have been found

One of the world’s greatest mysteries just got a lot more interesting. Former US Air Force officer and commercial real estate investor Tony Romeo believes that he’s found Amelia Earhart’s lost plane almost nine decades after she disappeared with it in the Pacific Ocean.

How did this happen?

The (possible) discovery came after Romeo, the CEO of Deep Sea Vision, sold commercial real estate to fund the $11 million expedition to search for the plane.

• Early this fall, he set off with a 16-person team and began to collect sonar data across 5,200 square miles of the ocean floor using a high-tech autonomous submersible.

• Three months into the journey, they found a blurry outline of what they say appears to be Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra near Howland Island, halfway between Australia and Hawaii.

While it isn’t yet confirmed, experts say the potential plane location would be consistent with historical data. Romeo and his team are planning to return this year or in 2025 to gather more data, and if it ends up being the real deal, Romeo says it belongs in the Smithsonian.

A pastor used crypto to scam patrons out of $3 million

Well, this covers this weeks strange headline. Eligio Regalado, a pastor of the digital Victorious Grace Church in Colorado, and his wife, Kaitlyn, are accused of scamming over $3 million from their patrons.

Say what now? The Regalados sold their digital token, INDXcoin, to over 300 investors on their platform, Kingdom Wealth Exchange, Colorado Securities Commissioner Tung Chan alleges. They claimed the coin, which sold for $1.50 each, was linked to even more valuable tokens and worth at least $10 each, according to the lawsuit.

It didn’t end there…

• They had no experience in crypto.

• They were selling unregistered securities without a license.

• And the token was riddled with technical problems and was “practically worthless”.

Chan accused the couple of stashing $1.3 million of the raised money and spending it on luxury items, vacations, a home remodel, and more.

Who made them steal the money?

Regalado posted a video explaining that, yes, they did use the money to remodel their home… but it’s because God told them to. Gotta love divine intervention.

In fact, the Regalados claimed it was God who instructed them to leave their marketing business in 2021 and create a new token, saying “The Lord told us to.” Regalado went even further, saying, “Either I misheard God… or God is still not done with this project.” I’m sure God will have his back on this one when he sees the pearly gates.

Fast Facts

Biotech Brain: Elon Musk revealed on X that the first human has received a brain implant from his company Neuralink. I’m finally one step closer to scrolling twitter using my thoughts.

Technical Difficulties: The FTC launched an inquiry into artificial intelligence investments and deals made by Amazon, Alphabet, Anthropic, Microsoft, and OpenAI.

Super Senior: Tight end Cam McCormick will play in a record ninth season of college football at the University of Miami after being sidelined numerous times with injuries.

Soup Splatter: Two people were arrested after french climate activists threw soup at the Mona Lisa. Luckily, it’s always protected by a glass case, so it wasn’t damaged.

Rectified Rebranding: The gas station Kum & Go will be getting a new name. I can’t imagine why.

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