3 charts for you today:
Ever have one of those days where everything just goes wrong? Home-workout company Peloton just had one of those days, every day, for a whole quarter.
Last year Peloton capitalized strongly on the shift to work-from-home, selling thousands of its $2,000+ bikes throughout the pandemic and building up a fanatic fanbase. This year hasn't been as easy.
Jumping off the bike
Probably the most worrying trend in Peloton's numbers is also the simplest: people just aren't using their Peloton as much as they used to. The number of total tracked workouts fell for the second quarter in a row, and the average member is using their Peloton about 20% less than they did this time last year.
On top of that, the financials aren't good. Revenue did grow 6% relative to last year, but that was below expectations, and boosted by an heavy slash in the price of a Peloton. The company was hoping that the lower price would whip up crazy demand. That never happened.
What did happen was Peloton's gross profit margin fell to 12%, from 39% a year earlier, guiding the company to an overall operating loss of $360m for the quarter. Oh, and the company is having supply chain issues, like everyone else.
At the time of writing, the company's share price is down more than 33%. A Peloton hasn't crashed this hard since last year's Tour de France.
18 months ago, Europe became the center of the COVID pandemic. Today, it is once again.
The latest data compiled by Our World In Data shows cases, hospitalizations and deaths rising across Europe, in stark contrast to much of the rest of the world.
Back once again
This week senior officials at the World Health Organization warned that Europe could see a further 500,000 deaths this winter, as colder weather moves people indoors, where transmission is more likely.
Vaccination rates are high in some European countries, but remain stubbornly low in others — particularly in Eastern Europe. That fact, coupled with waning vaccine immunity for those that got their vaccinations early, and colder weather, could be a bitter combination.
If you've ever set up a website, you'll know that buying a domain name can be a confusing (and sometimes expensive) experience.
You'll also have probably come across GoDaddy — the biggest domain name registrar in the world.
GoDaddy Go
Domain names are actually registered and controlled by a non-profit organization called ICANN. GoDaddy's business, and that of other domain name registrars, is registering your domain name with ICANN and then helping you actually host your site. And business has been steadily booming. This week GoDaddy revealed it was on track to do almost $3.8bn in revenue this year.
Are there any websites left?
There aren't many sensible sounding ".com" names left, and that's partly because of "domain parking". Some opportunistic folks realized early on that the internet was probably going to be around for a while, and that certain domain names would probably become pretty valuable one day.
Snapping up available domains has become a whole market in itself - and there have been some big sales. Elon Musk coughed up $11m for "Tesla.com". Toys 'R' Us spent $5.1m on "Toys.com", and in 2019 "Voice.com" went for a record $30m.
Luckily, ".com" is just one of hundreds of what are called "top-level domains". We actually use www.chartr.co (no "m"), and you've probably seen lots of others like ".io", ".info", ".org", ".net" or country specific top-level domains like ".co.uk". So we aren't about to run out of websites any time soon.
1) Sportico has put together a list of the 25 highest-paid athletes of all time, adjusted for inflation. There are 6 golfers in the top 25, but it's Michael Jordan at the very top, thanks to more than $2bn in earnings.
2) Australia is in the middle of an "avocado glut", as bumper crop yields and limited demand have seen prices for avocados fall up to 80% in some places. Millennials should now expect to get on the property ladder with ease.
3) An experimental COVID pill created by Pfizer reportedly cuts the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% in vulnerable adults.
4) The US economy added 531k jobs in October, ahead of expectations for gains of 450k.5) You can help build the AI kitchen of the future! Invest in Miso Robotics today.*
6) Travel is back baby. Airbnb reported 67% revenue growth year-on-year, with 80 million nights or experiences booked on its platform in its latest quarter.
*This is sponsored content.
