YouTube Claims 1.5 Billion Viewers

Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, said that 1.5 billion "logged-in viewers" visit YouTube each month. On average, viewers spend over an hour a day watching YouTube on mobile devices alone, she added. Wojcicki also signalled that YouTube will continue to invest in original content. "To date, we've launched 37 original series and movies on YouTube Red, and they've generated nearly a quarter billion views," she said. source: YouTube blog post

Verizon and Telefónica Lead on ROCE

Although the US telecoms market is often considered to be less competitive than its counterparts in Europe, Verizon is the only US telco consistently making a better return on capital employed (ROCE) than Telefónica and Orange. For the period between 2010 and 2016, AT&T's average ROCE of 7.2% trails well behind that of Verizon (10.4%) and Telefónica (9.7%).

For more information on US and European telcos' financial performance, see the recent reports published by Pringle Media.

The Kindle version of the US report is available here and the iPad version is here

The Kindle version of the Europe report is available here and the iPad version is here

T-Mobile US Matches AT&T on ROCE

On one measure, T-Mobile US is now as profitable as AT&T - return on capital employed (ROCE). In 2016, the subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom made a ROCE of 6.9%, marginally ahead of AT&T. However, for most investors that represents a pretty poor performance.  Over the past seven years, only Verizon has consistently made a respectable ROCE.

The US telecoms industry is entering a pivotal phase in its development. With the laissez-faire Trump administration, the US telecoms market may finally consolidate from four main players to three. Although intense competition seems to be good for consumers, at least in the short term, the aggressive campaign to win market share by T-Mobile US has weakened the profitability of AT&T and Verizon, while causing more pain for long-suffering Sprint.

Having already acquired DirecTV, AT&T is looking to merge with Time Warner as it seeks to become a vertically-integrated provider of consumer entertainment. Verizon is also pushing into content and advertising, albeit through smaller acquisitions, such as the ongoing purchase of parts of Yahoo!, and in-house development.

To explore the case for consolidation, Pringle Media has just published a report tracking and comparing the key financial metrics of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile US over the past seven years. 

The Kindle version of the report is available here and the iPad version is here.

Deutsche Telekom Pulls Away from Peers

In 2016, the revenue gap between Deutsche Telekom and Europe's other leading telcos - Vodafone, Telefónica, Orange and Telecom Italia - widened significantly. Thanks to the performance of T-Mobile US, Deutsche Telekom's revenues climbed above 70 billion euros, while Vodafone, Telefónica and Telecom Italia saw their top line shrink slightly.

However, on other financial metrics, such as return on capital employed (ROCE) and net profit, Deutsche Telekom still trails behind some of its peers. And Vodafone's operations are generating a similar amount of cash to those of Deutsche Telekom, despite the revenue gap.

In 2016, the average ROCE among the big five telcos was 6%, an uptick from 5% in 2015, but down from almost 10% in 2010.

Pringle Media has just published a report tracking and comparing the key financial metrics of these five major telcos over the past seven years. 

The Kindle version of the report is available here and the iPad version is here.

Google Assistant Leads on General Knowledge

Source Statista

For more on Amazon Alexa and how it is trying to beat Google and Apple in the battle for the smart home, please see my report for STL Partners.

Google Shares New Numbers on App Usage

Source: Statista

Vodafone Suffers Slowdown

Vodafone reported 1.5% year-on-year growth in service revenue on an organic basis for the quarter ending March 31, 2017. That was slower growth than in the preceding four quarters and Vodafone warned that European roaming regulation will curb future growth. The results were weighed down by weak performances in the UK and India, where Vodafone is facing intense competitive pressure and is merging its operations with those of Idea Cellular.

However, Vittorio Colao, Group CEO, sounded a bullish note, saying: "Sustained investment in network quality has provided the platform to offer more generous plans to our mobile customers in Europe, stabilising contract ARPU, and has allowed us to capture strong data growth in our emerging markets operations. We continue to be Europe’s fastest growing broadband provider, seizing the opportunities created by convergence and winning revenue market share, supported also by our Enterprise business which continues to outperform its peers."

For the financial the year to March 31, 2017, Vodafone reported 700 million euros of revenue from the Internet of Things. It also said it used data analytics to deliver 3.1 billion personalised offers in the financial year. Source: Vodafone presentation

China's Consumers Embrace Local Brands

Source: Statista