Warren Buffett-backed BYD dethroned Tesla in the fourth quarter of 2023 as the world’s top EV maker, selling more battery-powered vehicles than its U.S. rival. BYD was founded by Wang Chuanfu and started making batteries for mobile phones in the 1990s. By 2003, it pivoted to autos and now has become the top car brand in China, as well as a major producer of batteries for electric vehicles. It’s now aggressively expanding globally, exporting over 240,000 cars across 70 countries last year. Elon Musk said in Tesla's Q4 earnings call that Chinese automakers will "demolish most other car companies in the world" unless regulators step in. With sights set on North America, BYD could try entering the U.S., but faces government opposition. CNBC explores whether BYD can sustain its relentless growth and what's next for this EV juggernaut.
The video game industry cannot quit microtransactions.
In fact, two of the largest video game companies in the United States — Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive — now make the overwhelming majority of their money from live-service games, subscriptions and in-game purchases, according to their recent earnings reports.
Microtransactions are purchases that users make inside a game using real money. They show up as subscriptions, virtual currencies, and character customization options, among other examples.
Popular live-service titles such as Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Clash Royale were built around this revenue model. Game publishers must provide updates throughout certain game life cycles to retain player attention, which is where the term "live service" comes from. Gamers pay for those updates through season passes or subscriptions.Gamer backlash from the early attempts at in-game purchases caused the video game industry to shift its approach to these subscriptions and bundling purchasable content.
"The industry is really moved to more of a what they call a battle pass system, or some kind of packaging of seasonal content," said Mat Piscatella, executive director of video games at Circana. "Those systems have found much warmer response because I think people are finding that they're getting more value, and more reliable value for their money."
In-game spending has become a high-stakes issue in addition to a lucrative business. Electronic Arts' live-services operations made the company $5.6 billion in its most recent quarter, according to the company's latest earnings report. Epic Games, which created the popular Fortnite franchise, took Apple to court over an in-game payment system that the developer released inside Fortnite in order to bypass Apple's App Store fees. In Europe, app stores and so-called loot boxes are a major focus of tech regulators.
Watch the video above to learn more about microtransactions, the backlash involved, and where the industry goes from here.
For more than 40 years, ESPN has reigned supreme as the king of sports media. Growing its business by consistently raising the price of its fee to cable TV providers, ESPN now generates more than $16 billion in annual revenue. But the business of media is changing rapidly. In the past decade, about 40 million U.S. households have cut the cord on traditional cable TV. ESPN must adjust to find customers that aren’t subscribing to the cable bundle as new competitors including YouTube TV, Apple, Amazon, Peacock and perhaps Netflix bid on packages of live sports. This CNBC documentary examines ESPN’s strategy to fend off larger streamers and questions its sustainability in a digital-first world.
Norway has had massive success with EV adoption, with 82% of new cars sold in the country last year being electric. This high adoption rate can be attributed to the generous subsidies that Norway has offered to electric vehicle owners as well as the country’s investment in charging infrastructure. Tesla’s sales in Norway represent only a sliver of the 1.8 million vehicles the company delivered last year, but Norway’s importance to Tesla goes beyond cold hard cash. Tesla’s early foothold in the country has made Norway the perfect proving ground for the company and acted as a poster child for the EV transition as a whole. As a result, Tesla CEO, Elon Musk has taken a number of trips to the small Nordic country and has often praised Norway’s support of electric vehicles. Norwegians were the first European customers to receive deliveries of the Model S in 2013 and it quickly became the country’s best-selling car. Today, that title has been transferred over to Tesla’s Model Y. But with competition from other EV cars from automakers including Toyota, Skoda, Volkswagan and BYD heating up, it remains to be seen if Norwegians will continue to choose Tesla in the future. To learn more about Norway’s success with electric vehicle adoption, check out CNBC’s documentary:
Despite its reputation for gastronomy, France has become an American fast-food mecca. Between 2019 and 2023, more than 1,300 fast-food restaurants opened in the country, and over the past decade, sales increased by 61%. McDonald’s has the biggest stronghold because of its first-mover advantage. But Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, KFC and Five Guys are expanding their reach. New players like Popeyes and Krispy Kreme moved in for the first time in early 2024 as French consumers continue to seek affordable and convenient food options.
CNBC goes inside the shadowy world of organized retail crime, revealing how a crime ring stole millions of dollars of beauty items that ended up for sale on Amazon, according to authorities. For months, we got exclusive access to major investigations by the California Highway Patrol, making arrests and serving search warrants. Ulta Beauty CEO Dave Kimbell, in a first in-depth interview by a corporate leader about organized retail crime, says more needs to be done by the online marketplaces to curb the sale of stolen items.
Shopback, PropertyGuru, Meta, eBay and Dell. These are just a handful of companies that carried out mass layoffs in the first quarter of 2024 alone.
What are the sure signs that a retrenchment is headed your way? How to tell if your job is safe? If you do get laid off, should you hide it from your next potential employer? We find out the answers from an HR professional who agreed to bare all the facts on condition of anonymity.
The Sony PlayStation changed the gaming industry’s landscape when it was introduced to players 30 years ago. The PlayStation 2 went on to become best-selling console of all time, a title it still holds today. But the company has its fair share of challenges ahead with the ever-changing gaming sector. Just last year, Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard threatened the landscape of gaming exclusivity. And Sony faces some headwinds with lower demand and industry-wide layoffs. Sony has continually adapted and evolved over the span of the past three decades, but can it continue to hold strong in the console wars? CNBC spoke with Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan, former SIE Worldwide Studios chairman Shawn Layden and other experts to find out.
Athletic Brewing Co. is a mid-sized craft brewing company based out of Milford, Connecticut. Like most craft brewing operations Athletic Brewing pumps out IPAs, Dark Beers, Lite Beers, Hazy, some special edition, maybe even a fruity offerings during the summer. Like other breweries you’ll find huge industrial barrels of hops and wheat, maybe a couple brewing awards displayed. But, the one thing you won’t find at Athletic Brewing is alcohol.
Fisker, the EV startup founded by renowned Danish car designer, Henrik Fisker, is struggling. The Fisker name became a cautionary tale for much of the automotive world after his first company, Fisker Automotive, ended in bankruptcy. Now, he is trying again, with a new company bearing an almost identical name and logo. The company and its founder are taking steps to strengthen the financials and reputation by selling cars through dealers, by licensing technology, and negotiating a potential investment from an unnamed large automaker. But so far, executive turnover, delivery bottlenecks, cash burn and other challenges have hampered the growth the EV maker was hoping for.
CNBC Marathon explores the decline of electric vehicle sales and its implications.
In August 2023, it took about twice as long to sell an EV in the U.S. as it did the previous January. Prices of EVs are down 22% year-over-year and that's mainly driven by Tesla. About two thirds of EVs sold are Elon Musk's brand. Companies like Ford have ramped up hybrid production as demand has leveled off.
Used EV prices are falling. Studies show that used EV prices fell somewhere around 30 percent in September and October 2023 from the same period in 2022. Used overall vehicle prices including internal combustion engines (ICE), hybrid and EVs declined by only around 5 percent.
In October 2021, Hertz publicly announced it intended to buy 100,000 Tesla vehicles. Newly emerged from bankruptcy, Hertz had a bold plan to lead the EV revolution in car rental. Shares of Hertz soared, as did Tesla’s - its market value hit $1 trillion. First mover advantage aside, it would help Hertz distinguish itself in an industry plagued by commoditization. But only a couple of years in, the rental company’s EV strategy is facing some serious challenges: pricing troubles, skyrocketing repair costs and low resale values. Meanwhile big rental rivals are holding back on EVs.
When investors think of the financial markets, the first thing that likely comes to mind is the stock market.
But there is a bigger, less-flashy counterpart to the equity market: the bond market. At the heart of the fixed income space lies U.S. Treasurys, one of the safest investments in the world.
"We have not paid attention to the Treasury market because it was a market for foreigners or for the Fed," said Priya Misra, fixed income portfolio manager at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. "Now it's a market for all of us, and it's giving you better yield. So it's something which we should not ignore."
Buyers of U.S. Treasurys have been changing, with major players including China, Japan and the Federal Reserve seeing their respective holdings decline in recent years. The shift could have broad implications for the U.S. economy.
"What we're observing is that [the new buyers] are a lot more price sensitive," said Anders Persson, global fixed income chief investment officer at Nuveen. "They're just not quite as sticky."
Watch the video above to find out more about why major buyers are fleeing the U.S. Treasury market, the impact on yields and the economy at large, and how investors can best navigate the market going forward.
CNBC Marathon explores the business of airline amenities and how airlines are working to improve them.
Over the past couple of years, airlines and credit card companies like American, United, Chase and Capital One are investing millions into expanding their airport lounge networks for customers. However, lounges have become so popular that some face overcrowding, and companies like Delta are making it harder to get airline status.
Airlines have been spending big to add more space and comfort to seats on board planes. According to AeroDynamic advisory, airplane seats were a $2.6 billion dollar market globally in 2022, almost half of $6.2 aircraft interiors market. U.S. airlines like American, Delta and United have been adding more premium seats to their fleets. Delta estimates its premium revenue will be 35% of total revenue this year compared to 24% in 2014.
Food service on domestic airlines has drastically changed in recent years. Nearly 3 million passengers fly every day in the U.S. Post pandemic, airlines have seen an increase in passengers buying up to premium seats - putting pressure on airlines to offer better food options and more of them.
Airplane Wi-Fi has been around for decades but its reliability and speeds can vary widely depending on the airline, the route and the type and age of the aircraft. American Airlines, United and other U.S. airlines have been updating their fleets to provide better Wi-Fi. Delta has spent over $1 billion retrofitting its planes to bring free wifi to its customers.
Hyundai Motor Group is the 3rd largest automaker in the world by volume. In the 1990s, it suffered low sales and a reputation for low quality. Now its three auto brands - Hyundai, Kia and Genesis - are nipping at the heels of well established competitors, and winning award after award. While Tesla still dominates the EV industry, Hyundai and Kia are inching closer. But the company also wants to revolutionize manufacturing, invest in robotics, autonomous driving and flying taxis, ambitions that many rivals have abandoned. But the company has also faced setbacks: a plague of thefts, millions of vehicles at risk of catching fire, a looming union push and a snub from the U.S. government.
The tech sector is having a big 2024. Nvidia just crushed earnings expectations. The AI boom remains in full swing. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index is up more than 8 percent year-to-date.
The U.S. economy is also doing surprisingly well, adding 353,000 jobs in January, well ahead of economists' forecasts. Hotter-than-expected inflation data may also keep the Fed from cutting rates as soon as the market expects, a sign that the economy remains strong enough to support higher interest rates for longer. It's a different story for tech workers, though.
"The layoffs to the start of 2024 signal a dramatic shift in the tech industry," said Jeff Shulman, professor at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business. "We're going to continue to see layoffs happen as the future of work has changed, as the future of technology has changed, and as investors appetite for risk and growth versus profitability has dramatically changed as well."
The number of tech sector layoffs in 2024 has been outpacing the number of terminations in 2023. So far, about 42,324 tech employees were let go in 2024, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks layoffs in the tech industry. That averages out to more than 780 layoffs each day in 2024. In 2023, nearly 263,000 tech employees got laid off, averaging about 720 firings each day that year.
There are several factors behind the churn. Artificial intelligence is at the forefront. Companies need to free up cash to invest in the chips and servers that power the AI models behind these new technologies. There's also the stock market effect. Companies that conducted layoffs haven't been punished for it, either by investors or on their bottom lines.
Watch the video above to find out more about why tech workers may be poised to endure another rough year of layoffs, and why the surprising strength of the U.S. economy may not be coming to their rescue.
With annual sales of $11.6 billion as of December 2023, Nescafé is Swiss-based food giant Nestlé’s largest coffee segment. Sold in over 180 countries, one in seven cups of coffee consumed worldwide is a Nescafé. Globally about 3 billion cups of coffee are consumed each day and that number is expected to rise. To keep up with demand Nescafé works with over 100,000 farmers and buys more than 13 million bags of green coffee annually. It also has two dozen factories globally. But producers are facing a number of challenges including fluctuating coffee prices and higher labor costs . So how is Nescafé instant produced? CNBC traveled to Vietnam to get a behind the scenes look at Nestle’s operation to find out.
Food delivery is a booming business in 2024. There's one food delivery trend, however, that hasn't gone along for the ride: ghost kitchens.
Once a pandemic darling that raised more than $3 billion in venture funding, the ghost kitchen industry is falling short of lofty expectations. Euromonitor International estimated that the ghost kitchen industry could reach a market size of $1 trillion by 2030.
Big brands wanted a piece of the pie. Companies such as Wendy's, Ruby Tuesday, TGI Fridays and Wingstop all joined the wave of ghost kitchens."It is clear that the impact of ghost kitchens was overestimated," said Evert Gruyaert, restaurant food and service leader at Deloitte. "And we see that today with the decline in ghost kitchens."
Consumers complained about the clandestine nature of ghost kitchens, and food delivery apps shuttered thousands of the virtual kitchens. Then consumers shifted back to brick-and-mortar restaurants in droves, forcing investor pullback and mass closures of ghost kitchens.
Now the smaller businesses left in the industry are pivoting to a new business model to survive. Some hope to diversify the food business to expand to events and catering, not just delivery. One such business is New York City-based Nimbus Kitchen, a co-cooking space hoping to shed the negative connotation of ghost kitchens.
"Shared kitchens and co-cooking infrastructure like Nimbus is here to stay," said Camilla Opperman, Nimbus Kitchen co-founder. "We believe that the future of the industry is catering towards not only the delivery concepts, but to all of these different kinds of food businesses that ultimately need the kitchen space to legally sell to the end consumer."
Watch the video above to find out more about the rise, fall and future of ghost kitchens and if the business can pivot to return to its pandemic highs.
Looking to make a healthier-for-you meat snack, friends Pete Maldonado and Rashid Ali together put forth $6,500 to launch their "side hustle" back in 2012. After four years, Trader Joe's began selling their products and sales significantly grew. In 2023, Pete and Rashid's once side-hustle has brought in nearly $250 million in retail sales.
Sal Khan, 31, moved from California to Texas to live with his parents during the 2020 pandemic. They insisted on not charging him rent. He saw this as an opportunity to build a stronger relationship with his parents, save money, and potentially purchase some properties for his future. Now, almost four years later, he has been able to save over $200,000 and has a real estate portfolio consisting of four properties across the U.S.
This is an installment of CNBC Make It's Millennial Money series, which profiles people across the globe and details how they earn, spend and save their money.
In the late 2010s, towns around Italy started going viral for selling off crumbling properties for 1 euro, or roughly $1.05. How much does it really cost to buy and renovate a 1-euro home in Italy? And is it worth it? CNBC Make It spoke to several Americans who have bought a 1-euro home in Sicily, Italy.
Chisom Okwulehie was gifted at drawing from a young age. She decided to turn her artistic instincts toward a more profitable line of work, studying architecture and public planning in college. Today, the 35-year-old mother of two earns about $163,000 a year working as an architectural designer for the Port of Authority for New York and New Jersey and running her own interior design side business for private clients, Juntero.
This is an installment of CNBC Make It's Millennial Money series, which profiles people across the globe and details how they earn, spend and save their money.
Singapore, a city state around the same size as New York City, has built one of Southeast Asia’s most advanced militaries. Despite being at peace with its neighbors, Singapore’s defense budget was over $11 billion in 2022, ranking it per capita among the highest in the world.
Singapore has ordered 20 F-35 jets and its navy is increasing its number of submarines to eight, more submarines than both its larger neighbors Malaysia and Indonesia combined.
WSJ takes a closer look at why this small nation is pouring billions into its armed forces.
At least three more major banks in Singapore including HSBC, Maybank and Standard Chartered are set to offer a money lock feature as early as June this year. Banks that already started offering the function last November say that while the number of people choosing to protect their savings is growing, most of them are older customers. Young adults make up as little as 15 per cent of the safety feature users. CNA’s Nasyrah Abdul Rohim reports.
One tool that every shareholder or investor should have in their arsenal is the ability to read and assess a company’s financial statements. But not everyone is equipped to cut through the jargon. David Gerald, founder, president and CEO of Securities Investors Association (Singapore) shows Andrea Heng what to look out for.
Singapore's core inflation has fallen well below its peak of 5.5% in January and February 2023. But is it coming off fast enough? OCBC chief economist Selena Ling weighs in.
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