Hello and Happy Valentines Day to the 38% of you that are reportedly planning on celebrating this year. To everyone else, Happy Wednesday, thanks for spending it with us. Today we explore:
Shares in ride hailing company Lyft briefly surged more than 60% in after-hours trading yesterday, in response to the company publishing optimistic guidance on its journey toward sustainable profits… an outlook that proved slightly too good to be true.
Decimal, placed
An initial version of the Q4 press release stated that Lyft was set to grow its adjusted EBITDA margin — a closely watched profitability measure — by 5%, suggesting a stunning turnaround in the company’s fortunes. The only problem was that the 5% figure was a typo: the real figure should have been just one-tenth of that (0.5%) — a mistake that implied hundreds of millions of dollars in additional (adjusted) profits for the coming year.
Within the hour, Lyft execs explained the more measured expectations to analysts on an earnings call, with the company subsequently issuing a corrected press release. Although Lyft has since pared its gains, at the time of writing the stock is still up 21% on the day. Indeed, the error overshadows what was otherwise a solid update from Lyft following a difficult year.
Last April, Lyft laid off more than 1,000 employees — one of multiple measures implemented to cut costs as the company bids to join larger rival Uber in becoming consistently profitable. Like so many of its peers, Lyft also has ongoing battles with its drivers, with more than 100,000 Uber, Lyft, and Deliveroo workers set to strike today over disputes regarding pay and working conditions.
Mixed signals
If you’re someone who has an overwhelmingly long list of TV shows that you’ve been told you “must watch”, you might take some relief from the latest FX report, which reveals that the number of new US-produced scripted original series actually fell 14% last year.
Across broadcast, cable, and streaming, there were 516 scripted shows made for adults in 2023 — the largest annual decrease in over 2 decades, and the lowest overall count since the pandemic.
Contentful
A record 600 new scripted shows hit our screens in 2022, as the streaming wars raged on. But, while 2020 saw productions stall for months on end and countless media companies fold under the weight of an unprecedented hiatus, 2023 was similarly disrupted.
The almost 5-month-long Hollywood strikes caused filming delays and a marketing bottleneck, which not only led to a wave of high-profile TV cancellations across both networks and streamers, but hampered the creation of new content as writers took to the picket line.
Even so, strikes aren’t solely to blame for scripted TV’s decline. Platforms like Disney+, Netflix, and Apple have recently veered away from subscriber gains-at-all-costs and towards profitability, introducing cost-cutting measures and diversifying their content spending to acquire more local language originals and sports content.
I think I’ve seen this ad before…
Online marketplace Temu ran the same ad so much during the Super Bowl broadcast that newspublications can’t agree on whether it aired 5 or 6 times, as the Chinese-owned platform looks to keep interest in its app burning in the US.
With the average 30-second slot reportedly costing ~$7m, PDD Holdings, the company behind Temu, may have splashed out as much as $42m on the promotions… and that’s before accounting for the $10m in giveaways it promised on game day.
Shop ‘til you drop
Having not even celebrated its 2nd birthday as a company, Temu has exploded onto the crowded e-marketplace landscape, becoming the most downloaded iPhone app last year in the US. The platform promises the ability to “shop like a billionaire”, with its gamified and giveaway-heavy storefront offering millions of low-cost products (mostly shipped from China) proving to have piqued American interest.
Even compared to Shein, an e-commerce giant that’s scaled at hyperspeed, Temu’s rise has been meteoric, with Google searches soaring since its US launch in September 2022. However, like the platform’s controversial compatriot — which it filed an antitrust lawsuit against in July ‘23 — Temu is attracting the ire of politicians and accusations of forced labor, at a time when US sales on the platform are already reportedly dropping.
• Bowled over: Sunday's Super Bowl brought in an average of 123.7 million viewers, making it the most watched broadcast in the history of television.
• An analysis of 100 million words revealed that Brits really do love talking about the weather, pubs, tea, and cake — which is discussed 3x more often than salad.
• The most expensive home for sale in the US — an ~11,500 sq ft compound in Naples, Florida — has just gone on the market for $295m.
• Ad hoc: When Super Bowl LVIII went into overtime, the handful of back-up spots that CBS had booked netted it nearly $60m in extra ad money.
• Google’s complete history of Valentine's cards, from a lovesick 3rd century priest to a Victorian prankster’s ‘skidoo’.
• If you’re still recovering from the Chiefs’ victory, you might find comfort in this: how many times and when NFL teams have won the Super Bowl.
Off the charts: Go out for a Valentine's dinner, or stay home? How does America plan to celebrate tonight? [Answer below].
