1) YouTube Targets Apple $AAPL Music and Spotify $SPOT
Bloomberg.com video published Mar 23, 2018: YouTube is about to launch a paid music subscription service. It's trying to steal listeners from Apple Music $AAPL and Spotify $SPOT, which went public this week: Spotify’s direct listing allowed investors and employees sell up to 55.7 million ordinary shares without the company raising new capital or hiring a Wall Street bank or broker to underwrite the offering--Digging Into The Spotify IPO - Spotify (Pending:SPOT) | SeekingAlpha.com: "founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon own 37.3% and 43.1% of the combined voting power, respectively, meaning shareholders will not have influence on the major decisions of the company." See https://www.nyse.com/quote/XNYS:SPOT (Spotify share price).
2) But Will Music Streaming Ever Be Profitable? Google $GOOG $GOOGL and Apple $AAPL may not care since the former is mainly trying to sell advertising while the latter is capturing market share for its devices and content channels. Amazon $AMZN likewise may be willing to break even. That may leave other streaming service providers like Spotify and Pandora in a tough competitive position:
source: Statista.com
3) Investing
- Brexit: The U.K. Is Doing Just Fine, Thanks | WSJ.com 23 Mar 2018: "For a country supposedly crawling out of the ruins of the Brexit vote, the U.K. has been having a strikingly good year so far. The number of people working stands at a record high, and income inequality is approaching a 30-year low, according to the Office for National Statistics. New orders for manufacturers are at their highest level in a generation, and employers in general are struggling to find enough staff to cope with demand. Even the (relatively new) national happiness index stands at a peak."
- Eurozone: Jean-Claude Trichet: We still live in an ‘abnormal situation’ | POLITICO.com: The former ECB head talks about grappling with the euro crisis and reforming the eurozone to avoid future ones ... “I’m seriously worried,” he says. See also Rise of Italian nationalism a blow to European economic stability | TheHill.com.
- Still Underwater: My 10-Year Odyssey Through America’s Housing Crisis | WSJ.com: "Misery over real estate hasn’t ended—2.5 million homes are still worth less than their mortgages ... the story of one Wall Street Journal reporter’s upside-down American dream."
- Trump Hits 50% Approval Rating, Surpasses Obama At This Time In His Presidency | ZeroHedge.com April 2, 2018. [Editor's note: the mainstream media narratives are getting jaded, which may be why Trump's poll numbers appear resilient and to the upside in the face of such unprecedented unfavorable media bias. My take: the American people do not like nor trust bicoastal "elitists"--in media or inside the Beltway. If I were a Dem politico, I wouldn't underestimate Trump, he just keeps tweeting, etc. As far as markets are concerned, you have to accept and adapt to the environment as it is, Trump is Trump, a fixture in the financial 'landscape' for now. Filter out the noise which dominates most 'news' today, something Warren Buffett has been telling us to do for years.
4) ICYMI Tech News:
- Google-Led Plan to Upend Wireless Industry Gains Momentum | Bloomberg.com--How Google, carriers, and startups plan to capitalize on the Citizens Broadband Radio Service spectrum, likely to be freed from US military control this year--A bold plan to open up spectrum could rock the wireless industry and prove a $260 billion win for consumers. See also Alphabet, Quietly, Just Stunned The World | SeekingAlpha.com: "Waymo and Honda (NYSE:HMC) reportedly will build a self-driving delivery vehicle together."
- Google is equipping more rural school buses with Wi-Fi and Chromebooks | TheVerge.com: a partnership between Google and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), spread across 16 districts in 12 states.
- Now's The Time To Buy This Discounted Tech Giant | Alphabet Inc. | SeekingAlpha.com
- Samsung's Smartphone Business Could Face Some Headwinds | forbes.com: Samsung is losing ground to Chinese smartphone manufacturers in growth markets.
- Apple Plans to Use Its Own Chips in Macs From 2020, Replacing Intel | Bloomberg.com
- The End of Windows | Stratechery.com by Ben Thompson: "Nadella, though, had a short-term problem: Microsoft’s most important customers — enterprises — hated Windows 8."
-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo
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