Hello and happy Friday! We usually try and avoid having 3 charts of a similar format in one newsletter... but aliens might actually exist, so the rules are out the window. Here's 3 bar charts exploring:
Meta morphs
3 billion monthly active users. That's the latest milestone the world’s largest social network has exceeded for the first time ever, according to Meta’s 2Q report, equivalent to more than one-third of the world's population logging in every month.
The jump in users was accompanied by an 11% rise in revenue, as Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp — members of Meta's diverse “family of apps” — saw a rebound in advertising, following a post-pandemic decline that saw the company cut more than 20,000 jobs since last November.
Shiny object syndrome
In recent years, Meta’s big bold vision has been all about the metaverse — a virtual world in which Mark Zuckerberg expects us to one day work, shop, chat and play. To build that vision, Meta has been burning billions of dollars a year, ignoring the many newspaper column inches devoted to ridiculing the entire idea.
On the business side, the company is still forecasting expenses to rise in 2023 and 2024 — but now, that’s not just because of the metaverse, as Meta joins the ever-accelerating AI arms race, building the large language model LLaMA 2 (co-developed with Microsoft). Indeed, mentions of “AI” in the company’s conference calls have increased 4x since 2021, while chatter about the metaverse has dwindled since its initial announcement.
Although Meta has suddenly added AI as a focus, the company is taking a slightly different tack to other tech giants, announcing that it would give away the code for its latest AI model, LLaMA 2, for free. While leading competitors like Microsoft and Google have moved quickly to integrate AI into their premium products, they have also warned of the dangers of failing to regulate the software. When playing catch up, Meta’s open book approach might just pay off.
Related: Threads, Meta's answer to Twitter, has lost half its users.
Friend finder
Bumble, the popular female-led dating app, this week announced the release of a separate app geared towards users making friends rather than romantic connections.
The pivot towards platonic matchmaking may come as no surprise to power users of the app: the ‘BFF mode’ feature, which Bumble launched in the main app in 2016, currently accounts for 15% of Bumble’s users. Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd expressed that young people are now more open to striking up friendships via an app, with a company survey finding 67% of Gen Z respondents agreeing that making new friends online “lessened their loneliness”.
Alone again, factually
Bumble's timing may be prescient. In the wake of pandemic-borne social distancing, surveys have observed a ‘loneliness epidemic’ across the US: in 2021, almost 1 in 6 Americans reported feeling lonely or isolated, with young adults nearly twice as likely to feel this way than those over 65. Last month, a YouGov survey found that, while 55% of Americans have between 2–5 close friends, 13% have just one, and a further 8% have no close friends at all.
The same survey reported that 59% of Americans consider themselves to be introverted, of which 21% self identified as very introverted. Today, the most common way for romantic couples to meet is online (per Stanford research) — could that one day be true for friendships too?
Grimacing
McDonald’s investors were lovin’ it yesterday, after the company posted earnings that beat estimates across the board. The fast food giant reported Q2 net income of $2.3 billion, up 94% on last year, as well as global same-store sales that rose 11.7%.
The company partially credited “culturally relevant brand and marketing campaigns” — like its Grimace promotion that was an absurdist breakout hit with Gen Z on TikTok — for the increased sales figures. For McDonald’s, it seems that success in the online sphere is becoming as much a part of the business as flipping burgers and serving fries.
Appy meals
Indeed, the golden arches have perhaps never loomed larger in the digital landscape. Digital sales across the whole McDonald’s system (including franchised stores) exceeded $8 billion in the latest quarter, up 33% on the 2022 figure. That’s due in no small part to the mega success of the McDonald’s app, which was downloaded a staggering 127 million times worldwide last year — more than double the downloads that Uber Eats, the second most downloaded food & drink app, notched.
And the app, where users can score exclusive deals and build up loyalty points, is only extending its lead over competitors. According to Apptopia figures cited by the Wall Street Journal, the McDonald’s app had 18% more monthly active users in Q2 than it did last year. That's an impressive figure for an app that launched 8 years ago, but its even more striking when compared to the churn rate for major fast food competitors, like the Burger King and Wendy's apps, which have seen users and downloads tumble in the last year.
• After a tip to a conservative watchdog, it has been found that President Biden’s German Shepherd, Commander, bit Secret Service agents 10 times in a 4-month period.
• Another key inflation rate has cooled, with PCE inflation rising 3% in the year to June.
• Subway diehards can score themselves free sandwiches for life… if they legally change their name to “Subway”.
• Elite college admission data show just how much it pays to be rich.
• Mapping marriage facts and divorce rates across the states.
• Particularly evil web developers are competing to see who can create the most infuriating, least friendly user experience.
Off the charts: Retail traders have bid up the share price of another ailing company... possibly the latest target of the "meme stock" phenomenon. But which company is it? Hint: They keep things fresh. [Answer below].
