Money Buzz! Europa

Category: Business

  • YouTube ad revenues surged by 46% in Q4 2020 to nearly $7 billion

    YouTube ad revenues surged by 46% in Q4 2020 to nearly $7 billion

    According to the research data analyzed and published by Comprar Acciones, there was an increase of 23.5% in the company’s revenue to $56.9 billion.

    YouTube generated $6.89 billion in ad revenue during Q4 2020 alone, up by 46% year-over-year (YoY).

    Youtube’s Q1 2020 ad revenue totaled $4.04 billion, up from $3.03 billion in Q1 2019, but down from Q4 2019’s $4.72 billion.

    Q2 2020 saw an even bigger fall to $3.81 billion before a rebound to $5.04 billion in Q3 2020.

    For the full year 2020, YouTube’s ad business revenue rose to $19.78 billion, up from $15.15 billion in 2019. It accounted for about 10% of Google’s total annual revenue, which was $181.69 billion.

    The figure was about a quarter of Facebook’s total of $84.17 billion. Together, the duopoly accounted for 49% of online video ad revenue in 2020 according to Omdia.

    This share is projected to increase to 51% by 2024.

    Additionally, YouTube was the top non-game, subscription-based mobile app in 2020. According to Sensor Tower data, it grossed $991.7 million globally and $562 million in the US alone.

    It was the top earner on the App Store, but on Google Play Store, Google One took the lead.

  • Cazoo acquires Cluno, a German car subscription service

    Cazoo acquires Cluno, a German car subscription service

    Cazoo acquired Cluno, Germany’s leading consumer car subscription platform, for an undisclosed sum.

    Founded in 2017, Cluno offers a flexible and hassle-free alternative to car ownership, offering a choice of up to 100 makes and models.

    This ia available with a single monthly subscription fee which includes the car, maintenance, service, warranty, tax and insurance.

    The deal will enable Cazoo to launch its full proposition in Germany and across Europe giving customers the option of purchasing, financing or subscribing to thousands of cars on the platform.

    Cazoo, already one of the fastest growing businesses in Europe, plans to launch its UK subscription service in the coming months.

  • Payment delays between companies in Poland have shortened to 48 days

    Payment delays between companies in Poland have shortened to 48 days

    Average payment terms for Polish businesses were 48 days in 2020, 9 days less than in 2019, Coface reports.

    Payment delays are common practice in Polish companies, only 2.4% of companies reported that they had not experienced any payment delays.

    11% of the companies recorded a cumulative total of receivables delayed for more than six months and equivalent to more than 10% of annual turnover (compared to 16% a year earlier).

    The Polish economy contracted by 2.8% in 2020, but Coface estimates that it will grow by 4% in 2021.

    Despite various liquidity support measures (tax and social security exemptions and deferrals), 43% of companies have not benefited from any form of assistance.

    But, after the phasing out of aid measures planned for 2021, two-thirds of companies expect their business activities to deteriorate this year.

  • Covid-19 pandemic caused losses of 1.98 billion euros to the Accor hotel group

    Covid-19 pandemic caused losses of 1.98 billion euros to the Accor hotel group

    The French hotel group Accor announced on Wednesday that last year it registered a net loss of almost two billion euros and its activity decreased by 60%, AFP reports.

    Accor, the owner of brands such as Ibis, Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure and Pullman, said that its turnover fell to 1.61 billion euros and lost 1.98 billion euros.

    Also, disposable room revenue (RevPAR), a benchmark in the hotel industry, fell by 62% last year, and even by 88.2% in the second quarter, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Despite the crisis, Accor opened 205 hotels in 2020 and has a portfolio of 5,139 hotels in 110 countries. 82% of these new hotels were open at the end of December.

  • Notino, a 42% increase in turnover in 2020, to 563 million euros

    Notino, a 42% increase in turnover in 2020, to 563 million euros

    Notino reached an annual turnover of 563 million euros in 2020, an increase of almost 194 million euros compared to the previous year.

    The company delivered over 12 million packages in Europe, and during the Black Friday promotion, the busiest period before Christmas, it processed a number of 140,000 packages in one day.

    On average, the number of packages processed daily in 2020 was about 30,000.

    Perfumes increased by 22% year on year, in the case of makeup products the increase was almost 50%, and in terms of hair cosmetics and skin care, turnover increased by 70%.

    Notino is present in 24 markets and has over 16.5 million customers.

    Last year, the company opened a second logistics center in Romania, after the one in the Czech Republic.

  • Raben Group revenues exceeded 1.26 billion euro in 2020. Big investments in Poland

    Raben Group revenues exceeded 1.26 billion euro in 2020. Big investments in Poland

    Raben Group has finished the previous year with the revenues exceeding 1.26 billion euro, and new investments in Europe.

    The main industries served by the company in 2020 were food (30%), consumer technologies (21%), automotive (17%), retail (12%) chemicals (11%), non-food FMCG (9%).

    In the European logistics network, road transport accounted for the largest part of services provided by Raben Group (66%), followed by contract logistics (13%), FTL (8%), Fresh Logistics (8%), Lead Logistics Provider (4%) and finally Sea&Air (1%).

    Poland generated the highest revenue in Raben Group last year

    In April, Raben Logistics Polska moved its depot in Olsztyn to a new location and in June, the first operations started in Adamów, where the company is running a central warehouse for Makro at Panattoni Park A2.

    The 33,000 m2 facility utilises many innovative solutions which increase not only process efficiency, but also employee safety.

    The automatic sorting system created thanks to effective cooperation with the customer is particularly noteworthy. It is one of the first and most modern sorters of this type in Europe.

    The second half of the year was also marked by the construction of new facilities in Silesia – a 50,000 m2 distribution centre in Ruda Śląska and additional warehouses in Sosnowiec.

    In November, the company opened a location in Legnica, where a dedicated contract logistics project for Ahlers AG Group is run in the 11,000 m2 facility leased at Panattoni Legnica Park.

    Fresh Logistics Polska, which specialises in logistics of fresh products in controlled temperatures, also invested a lot in 2020.

    Thus, the company invested in modern warehouses with a total area of 16,000 m2 in Wojanowo and Nowa Wieś Wrocławska.

    After the completion of the project, Fresh Logistics has a total warehouse capacity exceeding 55,000 m2 dedicated to the storage of fresh food products.

    The new investments allow for the storage of goods which require various temperature ranges from 0°C to +15°C, and for providing additional services such as co-packing and labelling.

    Moreover, they allow for storing frozen products and performing transloading operations of container units.

  • Teknosa revenues up by 36% in 2020 to a record-high

    Teknosa revenues up by 36% in 2020 to a record-high

    Teknosa increased its revenues by 36% to a record-high TL 5.6 billion, while recording TL 85.3 million in net profit, up from the net loss of TL 148 million a year ago.

    The company’s online revenues grew 3.6-fold annually to exceed TL 1 billion. As a result, e-commerce’s share in total retail revenues soared from 7 to 19%.

    The company’s performance improved quarter by quarter and reached its peak in 4Q20.

    Teknosa is the leading technology retailer and e-commerce platform in Turkey.

  • Family businesses are optimistic about their recovery by 2022

    Family businesses are optimistic about their recovery by 2022

    Family businesses are optimistic about their recovery over the next two years, with 86% anticipating a return to pre-pandemic growth rates by 2022, says PwC.

    The estimates are encouraging as, given the health crisis, only 28% of respondents estimated sales increases for 2020, with 46% estimating decreases.

    The impact of COVID-19 on sales is uneven across sectors

    Of those in hospitality and leisure, 84%, the highest proportion of any sector, expect a contraction, followed by 64% in automotive and 63% in entertainment and media.

    Regarding the measures taken during the pandemic, 80% of family businesses have enabled home working for employees and 25% have repurposed production to meet pandemic-related demand.

    Only a third of family businesses have had to cut dividends and only 20% have needed access to additional capital. 

    Looking to the future, 80% of family businesses plan to diversify or expand into new products or markets.

    Digital transformation has been delayed

    Although 80% of respondents say that initiatives related to digitalisation, innovation and technology are a top priority, progress in those areas has been slow.

    Only 19% say that their digital journey is complete, with 62% believing that they have a long way to go.

    Of businesses that report having digitalised their operations, 41% are in their third or fourth generation of managing the family business.

    Top priorities for the next two years include expanding into new markets / customer segments (55%), improving digital capabilities (52%), launching new products / services (50%), increasing the use of new technologies (49%) and rethinking the business model (39%).

  • TBI Bank partners with Onfido to cut customer onboarding time by 67%

    TBI Bank partners with Onfido to cut customer onboarding time by 67%

    TBI Bank announces a partnership with Onfido, the global identity verification and authentication provider, to power secure and seamless customer onboarding.

    As TBI Bank constantly rolls out new phygital products, knowing customers and verifying their identity is vital for regulatory compliance.

    Before partnering with Onfido, this was achieved with live video calls with an agent, a process that was time consuming and sometimes inconvenient.

    Since the collaboration between the two companies started, the following results were seen:

    • TBI Bank are now able to onboard and verify new customers 80% faster than before;
    • TBI Bank have reduced their cost to acquire a new customer by 66%.

    By integrating Onfido’s AI-powered ID verification service, TBI’s customers can sign up by simply taking a photo of their government-issued identity document (ID) and taking a selfie.

    Onfido first checks that the ID is genuine and then matches it to the user’s face. This ensures the person presenting the identity is its legitimate owner and is physically present.     

  • Innobyte turnover up by 55% in 2020, at 1.8 million euros

    Innobyte turnover up by 55% in 2020, at 1.8 million euros

    Innobyte, a Romanian software development company specialized in eCommerce, ended 2020 with a turnover of 1.8 million euros, 55% higher than in 2019.

    For the current year, Innobyte is counting on a 15% increase in turnover, exceeding the 2 million euros milestone, while maintaining the level of profitability and increasing the number of employees by 25%.

    The factors that will contribute to reaching the milestone estimated by the company refer both to the accelerated digitization and to the fact that in 2021 the basic need will be related to the performance of existing platforms and the development of solutions that place each business in the top of customer searches, to differentiate them from the competition.

    Also, among the trends influencing the eCommerce market continue to be the development of marketplace platforms, in order to offer a wide range of products, but also the development of niche stores, where more emphasis is placed on customization and creating a great experience for customers.

    The subscription model is another trend that is increasingly observed in eCommerce. It allows online stores to secure recurring customers for whom they will deliver their favorite products on a regular basis.

    Also, the orientation towards the development of mobile applications continues the growth curve, becoming an increasingly important tool in the strategy of eCommerce players.

    In 2021, Innobyte aims to increase the number of employees by 25%, so that the team reaches 50 eCommerce specialists, in order to increase the capacity to manage new projects.

  • Cegeka opens its office in Moldova. 200 new jobs available

    Cegeka opens its office in Moldova. 200 new jobs available

    The European IT solution provider Cegeka opens a new office in Moldova. Five employees already work at the new location in Chisinau.

    Cegeka intends to increase the number of employees to 200 in the coming years.

    In the coming years we want to recruit 200 people. We are looking for experts in software development, infrastructure management, cloud engineering, DevOps, automation engineering and data science, says Tom De Vos, Nearshore Director at Cegeka.

    Cegeka has been active in Romania for more than 15 years and has at the moment more than 600 employees.

    Cegeka is an European provider of IT solutions, including end-to-end application development services as well as IT team extension, Cloud services, IT infrastructure, data and automation services like Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning, Business Intelligence, RPA, IoT, DevOps.

  • AstraZeneca profit at $ 3.2 billion last year, more than double compared to 2019

    AstraZeneca profit at $ 3.2 billion last year, more than double compared to 2019

    AstraZeneca’s sales rose 9 percent to $ 26.6 billion, thanks to new drugs and strong demand for anti-virus products such as asthma.

    This increase offset the decline in revenue generated by other products, in which the distribution to patients was slowed by the pandemic, especially in oncology, due to the postponement of treatments to give priority to those against coronavirus.

    In 2020, a year marked by a coronavirus pandemic, the British group has developed a vaccine along Oxford University.

    In December, AstraZeneca received emergency approval to begin distributing its Covid-19 vaccine in the UK, followed by India, Argentina, Mexico, Morocco and the European Medicines Agency.

    Also, the group has started the third phase of testing for an antibody-based drug against Covid-19.

    AstraZeneca is committed to provide 170 million doses of vaccine in 190 countries around the globe.