Mar.23 — In the space of two decades, Tencent Holdings Ltd. has become China’s most valuable company and Asia’s largest conglomerate. But with Chinese authorities stepping up scrutiny of the internet sector and cracking down on monopolies. it’s not clear if the WeChat owner will still have the same freedom to expand. Bloomberg Television’s David Ingles reports.
Category Archives: Business
Analysis: Global Battles For ‘Water’ – A Necessity Or Commodity? (Video)
Water is fundamental to life, yet it’s also a scarce commodity. In many cases, greed and mismanagement are causing this life-giving essential to run dry. What happens when water is monetized? From Australia to California, from New York to London and Brussels, this investigative documentary tells the story of the global struggle over water.
Following rushes to secure gold and oil, the age of the water rush is now here. As well as growing populations and expanding agriculture, there are the problems of environmental degradation and climate change. Global demand for water is skyrocketing. By 2050, at least one in four people will live in a country with a chronic water shortage. The situation has awakened the greed of giant financial institutions, which are going on the offensive, investing billions in the sector. Goldman Sachs, HSBC, UBS, Allianz, Deutsche Bank and BNP are among those pouncing on the commodity known as “blue gold.”
But can fresh water really be considered a commodity on par with oil, coal or wheat? Should the players in these markets – banks and investment funds – be allowed to bet on the value of water? Will concern for profits undermine water’s essential function? Or should this precious resource be declared off-limits to financial speculators? A battle has broken out between those who advocate the monetization of water, and those who defend it as a human right. It’s a battle being fought on many fronts: ideological, political, environmental and, of course, economic. And the fate of the nearly ten billion inhabitants of our planet hinges on its outcome.
Analysis: Is Texas Now The New California? (Video)
Tesla’s gigafactory and Apple’s second-largest campus aren’t the only big businesses coming to Texas. From Oracle to Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Elon Musk to Joe Rogan, Texas has lured an increasing number of big businesses and billionaires away from California since the pandemic began. While California’s population and job growth both slowed to a trickle, Texas added more residents than any other state in 2020. CNBC talks to those moving and longtime Texans about the reasons behind the trend and what it could mean for the future of the Lone Star State.
Video Profile: How Danny Meyer Built ‘Shake Shack’
It’s hard to think of a bigger restaurant success story over the last decade than Shake Shack. The high-end burger chain began as a hot dog cart in 2001 in New York City’s Madison Square Park by famed restaurateur Danny Meyer. The menu was handwritten written by Meyer on a single sheet of paper in about 10 minutes and is about 85 percent the same today.
But there’s so much more to this story. Like for three years after 9/11 that hot dog cart paid the bills at the crown jewel of Meyer’s restaurant empire, Eleven Madison Park. Or how he wasted over a million developing a line of French fries only to throw them away out of pure pride. If Danny Meyer is the heart and soul of Shake Shack, its longtime CEO Randy Garutti is the engine that powers it. Here’s how they built Shake Shack.
Business Customs: ‘Why Do Americans Tip?’ (Video)
Tipping is a quintessential American custom. In the U.S. consumers tip for services ranging from baggage handlers at the airport to housekeepers at hotels. But according to some analysts, tipping has created an environment where restaurant servers are subjected to sexual harassment and low pay.
About 70% of tipped workers in the restaurant industry are women and about 45% are people of color. In a recent study by One Fair Wage and UC Berkeley’s Food Labor Research Center over 78% of restaurant workers reported witnessing hostile behavior from customers who were asked to follow Covid-19 safety protocols, more than 40% noticed a change in the frequency of unwanted sexual comments from customers and 83% said their tips had declined during the pandemic.
With Covid-19 leaving millions to do essential work for low pay there have been renewed calls for a $15 minimum wage and the elimination of the tipped minimum wage — the base salary for many restaurant workers. Forty three states, including Georgia, North Carolina and Texas, have a tipped minimum wage for workers who in some cases are paid as little as $2.13 an hour by their employer.
But many in the full-service restaurant industry oppose the proposed changes, saying they would lead to higher menu prices and fewer hours for workers. According to the National Restaurant Association, the pandemic has already enacted a devastating toll on the industry, wiping out 2.5 million restaurant jobs and more than 110,000 eating and drinking establishments in 2020 alone. Watch the above video to find out what the $15 minimum wage and the elimination of the tipped minimum wage would mean for restaurants and their employees.
Reviews: ‘Can Subaru Hold On To Its Recent Success?’
Subaru started as a small scrappy Japanese brand, brought to the states by a couple of American businessmen in the 1960s, and was quickly met with ridicule. But it persisted, and over the decades has gone from being a small niche player to one of the most successful brands in America.
Subaru has weathered economic recessions far better than much larger competitors, and it is positioned near the top of consumer satisfaction surveys. But the ever-changing auto market presents some challenges for them, and they need to adapt to keep up.
When Subaru entered the United States in the 1960s it was panned by critics, and actually advertised its own cheap ugliness. Over the next several decades it would become a highly successful brand through a combination of offbeat but practical cars and a relentless focus on understanding its own customers.
The scrappy brand enjoyed a 93-month sales increase streak that ended in 2019, and it has found ways to survive during the coronavirus pandemic. But it is not without challenges. The intense demand for its vehicles has at times brought growing pains — quality issues and recalls gave led to an unusual quarterly loss in 2018.
There is also pressure on the company, like all automakers, to develop some kind of electrification strategy. Subaru does have a partnership with the much larger Japanese automaker Toyota, which is expected to soon produce an electric vehicle jointly made by the two companies.
Candy Business: ‘How Wrigley’s Dominated Chewing Gum’ (Video)
Gum lines the pockets of most Americans and has been a staple in American culture for centuries. For some, gum is all about flavor, and for others, it’s about fear of bad breath, curbing hunger, or alleviating anxiety. For nearly 130 years, the brand Wrigley’s has become synonymous with chewing gum.
Since its start, the gum maker has dominated the chewing gum market, spawning brands from Juicy Fruit to Orbit to 5 Gum. But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the William Wriglely Jr. Co.; over its storied past, the brand has faced turbulent years. Since the early 2000s, the chewing gum market has seen a decline in public sentiment, which hurt significant players. In 2006, the company ended its long-standing tradition of being a family run business with William Wrigley Jr. stepping down as CEO.
By 2008, Wrigley’s faced increasing global competition and was acquired by Mars along with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. According to Euromonitor International, the gum industry’s market value hit $18.6 billion in 2020. Since 2015, Mars Wrigley has held 25% of the global brand share for chewing gum and a 40% portion in the U.S. The Covid-19 pandemic since it began in March 2020 has negatively impacted gum’s most prominent players and could negatively affect Mars Wrigley gum brands’ future.
Technology: ‘How Covid Is Boosting Innovation’
Covid-19 has accelerated the adoption of technologies and pushed the world faster into the future. As businesses and organisations look towards the post-pandemic era, what lessons can be learned about innovation?
Read more here: https://econ.st/3t6T7yM
Chapters 00:00 – How has covid-19 boosted innovation? 01:20 – Drone deliveries 04:20 – How crises lead to innovation 06:47 – How restaurants have innovated 09:29 – Inequality between companies 10:48 – Some start-ups have thrived 12:57 – Working from home 14:15 – E-learning: benefits and challenges
Analysis: ‘Why Tire Prices Are Rising’ (CNBC Video)
Along with the pandemic, big tire brands are facing unique challenges. While trends have increasingly shifted online due to Covid, the tire market has been more hesitant to growing its e-commerce presence. Trade tariffs and the growing popularity of SUV’s and electric vehicles are also driving up the price of tires, posing an issue with attracting focus-savings consumers. Existing in a competitive market, many of the world’s biggest tire brands are focused on standing out to customers.
Analysis: What Makes ‘Costco’ So Successful
Costco is one of the biggest and most successful retailers in the country. In this video, WSJ’s Sarah Nassauer dissects the wholesaler’s unique approach to doing business. Photo: Qian Weizhong/ZUMA Press
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