You’d Better Start Saving

#HotStuffComingThrough — The most-hotly anticipated IPO in recent memory, Airbnb, filed its prospectus on Monday, so we can officially get excited now.

#WeHaveLiftOff — The federal aviation authority has finally cleared Boeing’s 737 Max to fly again after a 20-month grounding spurred by two deadly crashes.

#MerryXMusk – Tesla made headlines this week upon the announcement it will be joining the highly coveted S&P 500 list. 

#BezosGotYouCovered — First it came for retail, then it came for groceries, and now, Amazon is coming for the pharmacy industry.

#AndFinally — As if LinkedIn stories weren’t bad enough, Twitter is jumping on the ‘disappearing post’ bandwagon with its new feature. 

#HotStuffComingThrough

The most-hotly anticipated IPO of the year looks to be mere weeks away after Airbnb filed its prospectus with the SEC on Monday night. 

Hasn’t Airbnb been crippled by COVID-19?

It took a hit, not gonna’ lie. However, the company that was named after a blow-up mattress managed to recover remarkably well this year to pull out a quarterly profit during the worst economic crisis the travel sector has ever faced. Airbnb will likely be valued at between $20 billion and $30 billion ($50 billion after services and cleaning charges) and shares are expected to be priced between $25 to $35. Conversely, we don’t even have an IPO date yet — though it must be a matter of weeks — so these figures are naught but speculation. The one thing we do know is that it will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ‘ABNB’. There’s a lot of buzz around this one, especially when you look at Airbnb’s potential: It estimates that its total addressable market to be $3.4 trillion, including $1.8 trillion for short-term stays, $210 billion for long-term stays, and $1.4 trillion for experiences.

Bet you didn’t know 

Airbnb has 4 million hosts worldwide (86% from outside the U.S.), and 5.6 million active listings. 

#WeHaveLiftOff

It’s the moment that Boeing and Wall Street have waited almost two years for as its Boeing 737 jets finally take to the skies once more.

Wait, they’re letting them fly again?

As someone with a crippling fear of flying, I can’t say I’m relieved to see that the U.S. federal aviation authority has finally cleared Boeing’s all-important jet, which was grounded in March 2019 after two crashes killed a collective 346 people. FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said, after ungrounding the plane, that a repeat of the conditions in both crashes is now “impossible” thanks to design and training changes. Hmm, I feel so much better about flying now, thanks Steve! No doubt Wall Street was pleased though as one of the U.S.’s largest manufacturers now has its golden child back, ending the massive backlog of more than 3,000 jet orders and more than $20 billion in estimated damages from its grounding. Since the 737’s grounding in March 2019, Boeing stock has plummeted 51%, though this can also be attributed to the coronavirus, the next big challenge facing Boeing. Out of the frying pan, etc..,

Bet you didn’t know

If you stretch out all of the Boeing 747’s electrical wiring on a flat, straight surface, it would extend over 150 miles.

#MerryXMusk

Tesla stock rallied this week on news it was being added to the S&P 500 index, an early Christmas present from Papa Noel to Papa Musk! 

S&P 500’s electrifying announcement

This is big, even by Tesla’s news standards. On Monday, the S&P 500 announced the electric vehicle maker will be joining the S&P 500 on December 21st, sending Tesla shares up 13%. Remember back in September when Tesla met all the criteria to be included in the S&P 500 but was snubbed? CEO Elon Musk must be feeling pretty smug now. Joining the index has many benefits, one being that index-tracker funds will now pick up the stock, which will increase the value of Tesla shares and possibly result in less volatility. The prestige of being added to the list certainly won’t hurt Tesla’s bull case either. Moreover, Tesla Motors already ranks in the top ten most valuable companies on the list, with a market cap of $386.8 billion, making it the largest company in history to be added to the benchmark index. The inclusion gives Tesla’s path to profitability validation and puts it in the same category as industry heavyweights such as Apple and Microsoft.  

Bet you didn’t know 

Famous entrepreneur Elon Musk attempted to open his own arcade when he was 16 years old. He even got as far as signing a lease but was too young to get a real estate permit.

#BezosGotYouCovered

Technophobes look away now, Amazon’s just begun dipping its fingers into yet another pie.

What’s Jeff up to now?

Fleets of trucks, legions of carriers, even an army of drones; and at the head of it all an ever-smiling Jeff Bezos sitting on his smiley face-shaped throne, plotting world domination. The next target in Amazon’s ever-growing empire? Pharmacies! On Tuesday, Amazon Pharmacy was launched, a little over two years on from the e-commerce giant’s 2018 purchase of PillPack. This latest venture seeks to gain a foothold in the $300 billion pharmacy industry by allowing customers in the U.S. to order prescription medications for home delivery, including free shipping for Amazon Prime members. Amazon is entering the prescription-delivery scene at an important time as customers are increasingly relying on getting their medicines via mail to avoid getting exposed to the coronavirus. There’s only one question left really: Is there any escaping from Amazon? After just three-quarters Amazon had already declared 2020 its most successful year ever, with revenue of $91.2 billion made between July and September. All hail lord Bezos…

Bet you didn’t know 

Amazon’s workforce has grown at a rate of 50% year-on-year to roughly 1.16 million. At this rate, it will soon surpass the U.S. military’s 1.3 million personnel. 

#AndFinally

Another week, another social media app cloning — I mean ‘adding’ a new ‘disappearing post’ feature. Really, you too Twitter? We thought you were the cool app that wasn’t reliant on frivolous stories but focused on more important things like celebrities trying to be funny. The micro-blogging site launched ‘Fleets’ this week, a story-like element that appears at the top of the app and allows users to post content for 24-hours. Fleets are basically the exact same as Facebook and Instagram stories, who of course copied Snap’s version on Snapchat. It seems the social media firm is struggling with the feature already though as members have reported Fleets moving very slowly, with some even blaming them for crashing their apps. Twitter stated that people are more likely to join conversations if ‘what they’re saying lives just for a moment in time.’ Many users are still wondering why Twitter added this feature before the much sought after ‘edit’ button. Change the record folks, it ain’t happening.

Instagram users not ‘appy 

Twitter’s not the only one stealing ideas from other popular social media company’s. Instagram’s new ‘Reels’ feature is very familiar indeed and seems to be a replica of TikTok’s video stream. The rearranged home screen focuses on Reels and their new shopping component, but Instagram users are so unhappy with the new update they have threatened to delete the app. Tyler the Creator lashed out at Instagram this week, stating ‘this update is stupid’ and many users sided with him, claiming that the company is blatantly just trying to make more money. 

Bet you didn’t know

Co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, sent the first-ever tweet in 2006. It read ‘just setting up my twttr.’ The founders referred to it as ‘twttr’ following the trends of the early 2000s in removing the vowels of words. 

The Week In Numbers

95%

is how effective Pfizer claimed its coronavirus vaccine is this week, days after Moderna announced a 94% effective version of their own.

1 billion+

Alipay users in China will now have seamless integration with Shopify merchants after the two companies formed a partnership this week.

$1.21 billion

is how much Sea Limited’s total revenue came to in Q3, according to its report this week, up 99% year-over-year.

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