The 11th Hour Dispatch — Thursday, July 26, 2018
YOUNG MONEY
After a less than stellar earnings report, Facebook’s stock nosedived into an empty pool today, losing as much as $115 billion in market value, but millennials don’t seem to give a flying heck. According to data from Robinhood, around 30K+ more users own the stock today than they did a week ago. Facebook’s monthly user metric increased just 1.54% (for reference, Q1 saw a 3.14% increase) and it brought in $13.23 billion in revenue, which brought it short of the $13.36 billion expected of it. In after-hours trading yesterday, the data-hungry company’s share price was down more than 21%, and it dipped as much as 26% this morning. It now holds the unfortunate record of the biggest one-day market cap loss in U.S. stock market history. Yikes. Facebook closed the day down 18.96% to $176.26.
BIG BUSINESS
The smart device war is heating up. Amazon can now cast content to different devices like Google does with its new feature Alexa Cast. The feature allows users to dictate something to play on any Alexa-enabled device in the home with just a single screen on their phones. Though Amazon’s current offering is not as extensive as Google’s version, which allows you to cast streaming video, this does seem to signal that Amazon might be headed that direction. Currently, most users utilize Alexa’s voice-command capabilities, and this expands her features more. As of now, third-party apps are not supported, so I hope you’re really into Amazon Music.
BINGE WATCH
HBO has picked up Lebron James’ The Shop talk show. The show, which is set in a barbershop, first premiered on Lebron James’ own Uninterrupted site. New episodes will be made for HBO, the first of which was shot in L.A. last week with Snoop Dogg, Odell Beckham Jr., Draymond Green, and Jon Stewart, among others. In each episode, James sits down with “a mix of personalities” for an “unconstructed, frank talk while the cameras roll,” which is then chopped down to a half-hour episode. James based this off of his time spent in barbershops as a child listening to adults speak candidly about various topics. As of now, James is set to appear in at least the first three episodes of the series. The rest of the order is a bit vague, but James moving to La La Land to play some sports ball probably doesn’t hurt his chances of appearing in more.
WHAT GOES AROUND
Disney, following in the footsteps of our caffeinated overlord Starbucks, has announced that it will ban straws and stirrers in its parks starting in mid-2019. The Big Mouse (all hail)’s initiative will reportedly eliminate more than 175 million straws and 13 million stirrers each year. Yes! Save those turtles!
NOTHIN’ BUT ‘NET
Don’t you dare suggest that Gwyneth Paltrow get a fact checker or she’ll drop you faster than you can say Condé Nast.
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