Economy November 1, 2021
Ryanair cuts half-year loss thanks to traffic recovery
As a result of the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, Ryanair has cut its losses by more than 8 million euros in its first half.
The visibility is still low and winter will be difficult, says the company. It increased its traffic forecast to 100 million passengers this year, but still expects to lose between 100 and 200 million euros.
In the six months between April and September 2021, traffic jumped by 128% to 39.1 million passengers. This figure is up from 17.1 million a year earlier, the carrier said in a statement Monday.
The company’s revenues jumped 83% to 2.15 billion euros. As of a year ago, the carrier reported a loss of 411 million euros.
“In the second quarter, following a very disruptive first quarter in which many Easter flights were cancelled and travel restrictions eased more slowly than expected in May and June, traffic rebounded with the successful rollout of EU Covid digital certificates,” commented company boss Michael O’Leary.
As a result of the slower-than-expected recovery, the company relied on a low price policy to boost volume. It applied an average fare of 33 euros, down 30% year-over-year, said the CEO.
Operating costs, which had soared due to the pandemic, “only grew by 63%, mainly due to lower fixed costs such as aircraft, airports, and road transport”.
A difficult winter ahead.
Ryanair, however, warns that despite a rebound from summer vacations, winter will be challenging. The company still expects a loss between 100 and 200 million euros.
As a result, the outcome “will depend heavily on the continued deployment of vaccines and the absence of adverse developments related to Covid-19,” according to the company.
Ryanair is optimistic and has recently revised upward its 5-year growth forecasts from 33% to 50%. It hopes to reach 225 million passengers in March 2026 instead of 149 million before the pandemic. In five years, the company plans to create 5,000 jobs. This initiative will make up for the 3,000 jobs cut at the beginning of the health crisis.
For MetaNews.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, revealed his vision for the metaverse at the company’s Q2 2022 earnings call.
Overall, the company’s Q2 2022 filing showed a significant increase in cloud-based services. Microsoft reported $51.7 billion in revenue, a 20% increase over the previous year. Intelligent Cloud revenue was $18.3 billion, a 26 percent increase over the previous year. Azure drove a 29 percent increase in sales for server goods and cloud services. As well as a 46 percent increase in revenue for other cloud services.
Among the trends noted by Nadella on the earnings call was a “structural shift in PC demand.”
According to Microsoft CFO Amy Hood, Windows revenue from PC manufacturers increased by 25%, which was “far over expectations”. She stated that demand was being driven by the PC market’s success, particularly in the commercial category.
According to an earnings call transcript obtained on the financial blog site Seeking Alpha, Nadella envisions the metaverse as the next wave of the Internet. “Just as the initial wave of the Internet has allowed anyone to construct a website, I believe the next wave of the Internet will be a more open world where people, whether companies, game developers, or anyone else, may create their own metaverse world,” he stated.
“The first place we see this is the increasing digitization of people, places, and things to truly enable organizations automate operations at the next level,” he explained. “So, today, we have a number of examples of customers engaging with us through Azure IoT, Digital Twins, and Mesh. So that’s what you’ll see in Azure, and we’re investing heavily on it.”
Nadella sees prospects for Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces further up the software stack. This in-development technology is to control physical operations in physical areas such as a store, a connected factory, or a building. “We now have a suite that powers entirely by connected spaces,” he explained. Microsoft’s goal, he noted, is to automate physical operations.
Style.me, the industry-leading 3D fashion technology company, has launched a new innovative offering that enables designers to become metaverse-capable creators. In addition this latest step extends the company’s solutions into the world of digital fashion and NFTs. Moreover building on its growing success in virtual fitting and styling.
The company Style.me mints and distributes fashion NFTs
Style.me creates and distributes fashion NFTs, allowing people to wear, share, and use them across the metaverse. In addition, the company gives its partners the ability to bring their physical collections into the digital realm through bespoke “phygital” experiences.
The company Style.me’s plug-and-play technologies will allow metaverse projects to make digital fashion accessible to their communities. New experiences, such as virtual runway presentations, exhibitions, and live events, will be possible for designers and companies.
Style.me, with its 3D and AR technologies, is at the forefront of making digital fashion more accessible
Fashion NFT utilities are now limited, and Style.me is at the forefront of making digital fashion more accessible with its 3D and AR technology.
Style.me’s President, Rufus Parkinson, stated. “Style.me’s mission has been to enable consumers to see and interact with fashion in the digital environment since its inception. We believe that digital fashion and NFTs will alter the industry by allowing us to leverage our patented technology to open up a new dimension of user experiences.”
Combined with blockchain technology and the rapid expansion of the metaverse, digital fashion will explode in the next few years. Morgan Stanley estimates that the premium digital fashion sector alone will reach $20 billion by 2030.
Style.me’s goods are already in high demand, with consumption rising 386 percent in the last year, and this additional fashion NFT offering offers up even more prospects for growth in the digital fashion industry.
According to an upgraded version of the program, Tencent Holdings has stealthily integrated the Unreal Engine video game engine into its increasingly obsolete QQ messaging network. Hence, analysts believe the move is part of the social media and gaming giant’s entrance into the metaverse.
According to LibChecker, a third-party app inspection tool, the Shenzhen-based company updated QQ last month. The new version, which was formerly a chat app, includes portions of the Unreal Engine video game engine.
Tencent launched a new app feature called Super QQ Show, which is a 3D interactive arena where users can socialize, watch shows, and play games, at the same time as the update. As a result, observers claim the move is Tencent’s latest attempt to establish a footprint in the metaverse.
Resuscitating QQ.
The decision also demonstrates Tencent’s commitment to resuscitate QQ, its second most popular messaging platform behind WeChat with 590 million monthly active users, which had fallen out of favor in recent years as Chinese netizens shifted their attention to short videos and other platforms.
In China, the metaverse is gaining traction. Although the country has not yet developed a national plan for the concept, like South Korea has, officials in some key cities have pushed businesses to investigate it. For example, one of four frontiers to explore in Shanghai’s future five-year plan is the metaverse.
The Super QQ Show is currently under testing by a small number of users. Tencent staff uploaded screenshots and video footage of the functionality. Which shows players dressing up their avatars in 3D, decorating their homes, and visiting others. Thus similar to Nintendo’s Animal Crossing video game franchise.
The Unreal Engine is utilized in successful games such as Bioshock and Mass Effect. Tencent owns a 40% share in Epic Games, which operates the engine in the United States. Last year, Epic Games was one of the first worldwide tech behemoths to make metaverse development a top priority. Epic’s flagship game, Fortnite, considered as one of the market’s leading metaverse initiatives.
For MetaNews.
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