Being an adult with your money is hard. So how can we make adulting easier by making better financial choices? In this special edition of Money Mind, young adults look for the answers to these questions and more. Helping make sense of it all are financial planner Christopher Tan, property expert David Baey, and careers coach Chee Sze-Yen.
From fashion to household products and even travel…you name it and someone online will have a ‘dupe’ for it. ‘Dupe’ short for the word ‘duplicate’, is now part of online lexicon. How did ‘dupes’, a less expensive alternative to a more costly product, become part of popular culture? Why is finding a good ‘dupe’ a point of pride for Gen Zs? The Talking Point team finds out as they make their way to China, where anything, and everything, can be made for cheaper, and perhaps even better.
Indonesian Imam Januar has built and grown various YouTube channels such as RB Official which currently has over 10 million subscribers.
Now, he’s teaching content creation and monetisation classes to aspiring YouTubers and even building a ‘creator house’ in the village of Tapen Bondowoso in East Java.
What are the unspoken rules of first dates? Which green flags should we look out for when considering long-term relationships? How do we navigate difficult conversations like money?
Actor Munah Bagharib, entrepreneur Dew Francis and Money FM 89.3’s Zia-ul Raushan share their takes with Sue-Ann.
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.
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