Edition 18
Economic Comeback, Companies Zoom Back
Suprabhat সুপ্রভাত (shu-pro-bhaat) or good morning as they say in Bengali! Welcome back to another edition of Business News for Kids (BNFK for short; genius isn’t it? 🤯). We travelled!! For the first time in 2 whole years 😱. So this 18th Edition comes from afar.. specifically, we‘re writing in from the world’s 6th largest economy. But.. Wait whats Economy?! 🤔 Checkout “Wait, what” 👇.
About BNFK
Knowledge is at the heart of being. To be more, we must know more.
With this weekly we distill the latest, most interesting, Business News 📰 .. to an emoji filled, ultra informative, Newsletter for Kids. A dad 👽 & son 👾 experiment, delivered every Sunday.
Catch our previous editions here > #0 , #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13 👻, #14, #15, #16, #17.
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Busy business this week 💼
The IMF released its World Economic Outlook report last Tuesday, predicting that the global economy will grow by 6% 📈. While that doesn’t sound like much, we mustn’t compare an entire economy’s growth to that of a company 😅. While its common for companies to grow by double digit %’s (see how Google grew revenues 60%+👇), countries that grow even in higher single digits are said to be doing exceptionally well 🤑. e.g. the US & UK economies will grow by 7%, China by 8.1% and India by 9.5%; while the European Union region will grow by 4.6% and Sub Saharan Africa by 3.4%.
Earnings season continues with some super growth numbers. Google’s revenue from advertising shot up 69% 😱 - its video star, YouTube 📺, saw an 84% growth. Apple reported is highest June quarter revenue of $81.4 billion with a 36% growth, while Amazon reported its 3rd consecutive $100 billion+ quarter 🤯🤯🤯.
Sony has sold over 10 million PlayStation 5 gaming consoles 🎮! Thats about 2 million more than PS4, making PS5 the fastest selling console in history 🎉. President & CEO of Sony’s Gaming unit, Jim Ryan, said “demand continues to outstrip supply”. Remember Demand & Supply? Check out wait why and discuss with Mom why are PS5 prices constant, in spite of demand being higher 📈 than supply? Hint: competition.
Remember the $60 million+ streaming revenue from Marvel movie Black Widow?🥷 Well it’s star Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney for launching the movie on streaming service Disney+ 🤔. They claim that the launch on streaming services hampered revenue from traditional theatres 📽 - impacting the amount of money she made. You see movie stars are sometimes paid a % of revenue movies make in theatres 🤷. Discuss with Dad - “who’s right”!?
Jeff Bezos & Blue Origin have offered NASA a $2 billion discount to try and win the Moon Lander deal 😱. SpaceX had recently won that contract! They’re not asking to replace SpaceX but be added as another supplier for the Human Landing System Program 🚀🌘👩🚀.
Wait, what is..
Economy: An economy is an area, or a region, where production and consumption of goods and services takes place. The Economy of a country therefore includes ALL the money made and transacted for all of the goods and services produced in that region. In some ways, the resulting revenue is called the GDP 👇.
GDP: Gross Domestic Product is the total Revenue generated by ALL goods and services sold in a country. Remember that that might be an oversimplification🤷. Geek out here. Ask Mom or a big person at home what are Goods, Services?
Demand 🙂: The amount of goods 💻 🔭 (products) and services 🩺 📝 required or wanted by people. Get nerdy here. Basically, if you need it or want it, that generates demand. Try using Demand generation as an argument next time Dad or a big person says “do you need it or do you want it?” 😁
Supply 🙂: The amount of goods and services readily available for people to buy 🤑. Get nerdy here. 🛁
Demand & Supply 🤔: Or more accurately Supply and Demand is a base concept in economics ✍️?! Each of these impact the price of goods and services in interesting ways. Discuss how with Dad or a big person at home.
Sue, Suing, Sued 😅: To file a compliant against someone in court ⚖️. What is a court? Ask a big person at home.
Woah 😱 Weird 🥴
Been dreaming about an XBOX, with no luck finding it?! Well, Krispy Kreme has developed an all new Xbox doughnut 🍩😱👇!!!! You can go get that instead 🤪. Created to celebrate 20 years of Xbox (yup its that ancient), buying them could win you an Xbox Series X 🎮.
If you end up eating a whole lot of that 👆 you’re going to have to run like that👇. Oregon State University’ bipedal robot 🤖, meaning a Robot that walks using two legs, just ran its first 5K run 😱. It’s name is Cassie. Go Cassie Go 🏃.
Inspiring business people to know 🙏
Meet Masaru Ibuka and Akio Moritais our inspiring business persons of this week.
Masaru Ibuka and Akio Moritais are the founders of electronics giant Sony. The company first started off as an electronic store in Tokyo, Japan following on from World War II. Sadly, they both died before they could see the major progress their company has made growing to a market cap $129.24 Billion. Starting as Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation in 1946, they changed it to Sony in 1958. The name "Sony" was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words: one was the Latin word "sonus” from which come sound and sonic; and the other was "sonny" a slang for smart and presentable young men (that the founders thought they were) 😊. Sony went on to create iconic products like the Walkman and PlayStation gaming consoles in addition to TVs and a whole lot more.
Stocks, stonks and.. ⚡️
Stock trading app Robinhood finally listed at the NASDAQ with shares opening at $38. They closed 8% lower for the day valuing the company at a little less than $30 billion 🤯.
While the 👆 US IPO was sluggish, India’s IPO market keeps popping new startup listing potentials, 👉 the latest being Direct to Consumer beauty brand Nykaa that is planning to raise $400 million at a $4 billion valuation 🚀.
Mental models.. whaaaat! 🤯
My dad insisted we put this section in here, even though I protested saying its going to be a while before kids need to apply mental models. Mental models are nothing but ways of thinking, you can use as a framework, to take decisions or solve problems. Who knows, they might just be useful!
The Take a Break Model ⏳ - Ever felt like no matter how much you've tried you're simply unable to do something. Like think of a really good Mental Model🤣. Well in times like that.. Stop, Relax. Take a break.🍫
And then come back to doing it with a fresh mind. You'll suddenly find yourself thinking in a whole lot of new ways and will be done in no time ⏰.Tech, products, toys ++ 🤖
Facebook and iconic sunglasses maker Ray-Ban will launch Facebook’s first Smart Sunglasses 🕶 with an aim to own the 👉 Metaverse 👈. They aren’t the first to come with smart glasses - remember Google Glass and Spectacles by Snap, but given their Augmented Reality prowess with Oculus, they might give us something surprising 😎.
Nothing (yes Nothing 🤷), a new electronic devices brand that we covered previously, officially revealed its first product the Ear 1 👂 wireless earbuds. They kind a look cooler than the earlier all transparent version 👇 and will start selling on August 17th in 45 countries including the US and UK costing $99+ other than in India where they’ll cost Rs.5999 (~$80).
Source: verge.com via Nothing
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Thank you so much for reading - Arv 👾 & Dad 👽 - Pls hit share to make someone’s day. And please take care. 🙏