"The only thing I'd add John is, as Chris mentioned, obviously we're seeing both digital and delivery growing significantly in those IOM markets. In the U.K., for example, over 20% of their sales in Q4 were delivery sales. So, we are seeing some significant growth both in delivery and digital."
Source: Extract from the McDonalds earnings call, reported by The Motley Fool, 28th January 2021
"Facebook daily active users (DAUs) – DAUs were 1.84 billion on average for December 2020, an increase of 11% year-over-year.
Facebook monthly active users (MAUs) – MAUs were 2.80 billion as of December 31, 2020, an increase of 12% year-over-year.
Family daily active people (DAP) – DAP was 2.60 billion on average for December 2020, an increase of 15% year-over-year.
Family monthly active people (MAP) – MAP was 3.30 billion as of December 31, 2020, an increase of 14% year-over-year.
Capital expenditures – Capital expenditures, including principal payments on finance leases, were $4.82 billion and $15.72 billion for the fourth quarter and full year of 2020, respectively.
Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities – Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities were $61.95 billion as of December 31, 2020.
Headcount – Headcount was 58,604 as of December 31, 2020, an increase of 30% year-over-year."
"A record 82 million households around the world watched Netflix original series Bridgerton in its first 28 days.
Netflix reported that the period drama has made the top 10 in every country except Japan – hitting number one in 83 countries including the US, UK, Brazil, France, India and South Africa.
The success of the series also propelled the books, by Julia Quinn, into The New York Times best seller lists for the first time – some 18 years after they were first published."
"Netflix powered past the 200 million subscriber mark in 2020 to cap its biggest-ever year of growth, driven by viewership gains during COVID-19.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, Netflix added 8.51 million paid streaming subscribers, about 2.5 million more than expected, to stand at 203.7 million worldwide at the end of the year."
Source: Variety, 19th January, 2021
"The site, which has boomed in popularity in the past year, is technically open to anyone – from personal trainers to artists and cooks – but it’s best known for one thing: nudes. Creators charge subscription fees for exclusive content, put up pay-per-view posts, and generate income from tips and livestreams.
A spokeswoman for OnlyFans told Guardian Australia there are more than 1 million creators worldwide, 85 million registered users, and it paid out more than US$2bn ($2.7bn) globally this year."
[...]
"Use of OnlyFans exploded during the pandemic, going from 7.5 million users last November to 85 million now."
Source: The Guardian, 22nd December 2020
"European food-ordering firm Just Eat Takeaway.com NV said on Wednesday it had received 57% more orders in the fourth quarter than a year earlier, as strict social distancing rules and work-from-home trends continued to boost online orders.
Order growth accelerated from a 46% jump in the third quarter, as countries across Europe went back into lockdown due to swelling numbers of coronavirus infections.
Takeaway’s orders were up 56% in Germany and 58% in the United Kingdom. Restaurants in the Netherlands delivered 39% more meals through the company’s platform.
The company said it expects revenue to have jumped more than 50% in the whole of 2020, with an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin of around 10%."
Source: Reuters, 13th January 2021
"Since launching in 2012, Netflix has grown rapidly in Europe. By 2016, it had launched its services across the whole of Europe, and passed the $1 billion revenue milestone. By 2017, it had the largest customer tally of any subscription TV business in Europe. And by 2020, it reached another milestone. Last year, Netflix had become the second largest entity in Europe in terms of revenues, behind only Comcast (which owns Sky’s operations in Europe), and overtaking the German public broadcaster ARD. It would seem that there is no limit to Netflix’s meteoric rise as it helps itself to a greater portion of the audio-visual revenues. In 2020, Netflix alone accounted for more than 6 per cent of all European TV revenues.”"
" Today, Amazon announced its first-ever purchase of eleven Boeing 767-300 aircraft, expanding its fleet to continue to serve customers. The purchases include seven aircraft from Delta and four aircraft from WestJet, which will join the network by 2022. Amazon Air’s fleet expansion comes at a time when customers are relying on fast, free shipping more than ever."
"UPS expects to induct 1.75 million returns into its system every day this week, which would represent the highest weekly total of returns in the carrier's history, a spokesperson told sister publication Supply Chain Dive via email.
The expected 8.75 million returns this week is a 23% increase over the highest week of returns for the 2019-2020 holiday season.
The carrier's single-day record is 1.9 million returns — set Jan. 2, 2020."
Source: Retail Dive, 7th January 2021
"[Apple] App Store customers [spent] $1.8 billion on digital goods and services over the week between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, driven largely by spending on games. Customers ushered in 2021 by setting a new single-day spending record of over $540 million on New Year’s Day."
"A new analysis from record labels association the BPI reveals that 1 in every 10 songs (10.1%) streamed around the world is by a British artist. The UK’s share of global streaming is four times greater than its share of global GDP (2.2%)1, underlining the UK’s exceptional performance in music.
The BPI, which represents over 450 UK-based record labels, carried out the analysis based on the music charts of 14 major music markets2, which together account for around three quarters of global recorded music consumption. The 1 in 10 result highlights the extraordinary global influence of British music. The ease of accessing UK music via streaming services and worldwide promotion by labels means that more British artists are now connecting with more fans to build international careers. Music markets previously out of reach, notably in Asia, South America and Africa, are much more accessible thanks to streaming’s global reach and record labels’ digital marketing. Newly-signed artists can now also expect to have a more immediate international impact than previous generations."
Source: Press release from the BPI, 31st December 2020
"On HBO Max, anticipation for Wonder Woman 1984 was apparent, with nearly half of the platform’s retail subscribers viewing the film on the day of its arrival, along with millions of wholesale subscribers who have access to HBO Max via a cable, wireless, or other partner services. HBO Max also saw the total viewing hours on Friday more than triple in comparison to a typical day in the previous month.
“Wonder Woman 1984 broke records and exceeded our expectations across all of our key viewing and subscriber metrics in its first 24 hours on the service, and the interest and momentum we’re seeing indicates this will likely continue well beyond the weekend,” said Andy Forssell, Executive Vice President and General Manager, WarnerMedia Direct-to-Consumer. “During these very difficult times, it was nice to give families the option of enjoying this uplifting film at home, where theater viewing wasn’t an option.”"
Source: Press release from Warner Media, 27th December 2020
"Amazon’s advertising division is pulling in big bucks as its marketplace merchants jockey for position amid the pandemic-fueled eCommerce boom.
The tech behemoth is tracking to post its first $100 billion quarter, with an estimated $21 billion coming from annual advertising dollars alone, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday (Dec. 29), citing FactSet data.
Amazon’s crowded digital marketplace has caused merchants to step up their advertising on the site in order to be more visible in search results. The eCommerce giant's advertising business is currently growing faster than its retail, cloud and Prime subscription divisions.
The 47 percent increase in advertising dollars over last year has helped Amazon become a formidable rival to Google search, which has dominated online advertising."
Source: PYMNTS, citing a report in the Financial Times, 29th December 2020
"Amazon is reporting a record-breaking holiday shopping season that saw more than 1.5 billion toys, electronics and household goods delivered amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“Amazonians around the world have truly shown what it means to be customer-centric and support our communities this year,” Jeff Wilke, CEO of worldwide consumer at Amazon, said in a press release on Tuesday (Dec. 29).
“When our customers — including healthcare workers on the front lines — most needed essential supplies, our teams and partners went above and beyond to stock and deliver those items,” he said."
Source: PYMNTS, citing a press release from Amazon, 29th December 2020
Note - I'm assuming that this covers the period from Black Friday onwards.
"The growth of TikTok in 2020 produced some staggering numbers. Over 176 different songs surpassed 1 billion video views as TikTok sounds. Earlier this month, "The Playlist" was revealed as part of the Year On TikTok: Top 100 retrospective, highlighting the most significant songs on TikTok in 2020. Together, those songs racked up over 50 billion video views on over 125 million creations, and 5 of them reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Nearly 90 songs that trended on the platform in 2020 climbed onto the Top 100 charts in the U.S., with 15 of those reaching #1 on a Billboard chart. Just in the past year over 70 artists that have broken on the platform have received major label deals, including Claire Rosinkranz, Dixie D'Amelio, Powfu, Priscilla Block and Tai Verdes, and dozens more have charted on Rolling Stone's Breakthrough 25. To help take stock of music's massive year on TikTok, we're unveiling our first-ever U.S. music report."
Source: Tiktok's Year in Music, 16th December 2020
