Verizon customers reported internet outages along the East Coast Tuesday, predominantly in the Northeast. Downdetector.com shows customers in the New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington areas most affected. Some took to Twitter to complain, prompting Verizon to respond that a fiber was cut in Brooklyn. Verizon didn't respond to our request for comment. An FCC spokesperson directed us to acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's tweet that the Public Safety Bureau is "working to get to the bottom of what is going on."
Cowen forecast 24% Q4 revenue growth to $828 million for Vimeo parent IAC, after the video platform’s announcement Monday it raised $300 million in equity funding. In a Tuesday investor note, analyst John Blackledge attributed expected stronger financial results to investments and the impact of COVID-19 to multiple business segments. IAC said last month it plans to spin off Vimeo as an independent company this year, which Blackledge pegged for Q2. He forecast strong Q4 revenue growth for Vimeo at 53% driven by strong growth in subscribers and average revenue per user. IAC reports Q4 Feb. 3.
That the “secular shift” toward streaming video adoption “accelerated heavily” in 2020 amid COVID-19 spurred S&P to upgrade Netflix to BB+ from BB, said the ratings service Tuesday. Consumers “spent more time at home and consumed increasing amounts of in-home entertainment,” said S&P. “All streaming services benefitted from this trend, but Netflix, the leader in the sector, saw an unprecedented shift.” The company ended 2020 with 203.7 million subscribers, compared with S&P’s guidance of 195 million. Netflix had 8.51 million global net subscriber additions in Q4, beating its Oct. 20 forecast by nearly 42% (see 2101190066). S&P doesn’t expect Netflix to “revert” back to pre-2020 “metrics” because the pandemic “accelerated the adoption of streaming video services globally,” it said. “This should mitigate the impact of increasing competition as many new streaming services launched over the past year” or so, including Disney+, HBO Max and Peacock, it said. The analysis didn’t factor in the possible impact of Netflix price increases being phased in over the next 30 days. Netflix emailed subscribers in recent days that it will raise the premium tier by $2 to $17.99 monthly and the standard plan by $1 to $13.99. The increases take effect in late February.
Eight Kepler cubesats, Kepler-8 through Kepler-15, were put into orbit Sunday on SpaceX's small satellite rideshare mission, SpaceX said. It said it plans multiple launches this year, including in March and June, to add to its data and IoT constellation.
Streaming accounts for a quarter of all TV viewed in the U.S., Resonate reported. Eight million Americans have boosted their streaming viewership during the pandemic, 41% watch through a streaming service, it said Monday, predicting a $9 billion over-the-top video ad spend in 2021. Connecting with streaming viewers is “vital” to business growth, but it’s a “nuanced” audience that’s different from traditional cable TV subscribers, said Resonate. OTT viewers are 141% more likely to watch TV through a streaming device; 52% are female; 24% are 25-34 years old; 24% have annual income of $25,000-$50,000; 33% spend 20-40 hours online per week; and 79% have some college education. The most-watched streaming networks are Netflix (76%), Amazon Prime Video (59%), Disney+ (46%) and Hulu (41%). Some 47% watch via the Roku platform. Half have cable TV; 39% have cut the cord. About 23% have rented three or more streamed movies in the past 90 days; 79% watch TV from 7-10 p.m.; 43% often binge-watch; a third are online on their phone while watching TV; 26% watch TV only on-demand; and 6% are likely to try a new subscription in the next 90 days.
Intel continues dealing with challenges from surging demand and manufacturing issues amid its second CEO change in a few years, executives told investors on a Q4 call Thursday. The chipmaker made “tremendous progress” repairing “defects” in its 7-nanometer process technology, and new CEO Pat Gelsinger will have final say on 2023 CPU product introduction decisions soon after he joins Feb. 15 (see personals section, Jan. 14), said outgoing CEO Bob Swan. There's nothing nefarious in the board’s decision to replace Swan with Gelsinger, just part of its normal “succession planning process,” said Chairman Omar Ishrak. Gelsinger said he will share his “detailed perspective” on Intel after he assumes his new role: “Based on initial reviews, I am pleased with the progress made on the health and recovery of the 7-nanometer program. I am confident that the majority of our 2023 products will be manufactured internally.” PC demand in 2020 “was off the charts,” giving Intel Q4 share gains, especially in consumer entry-level and education laptops, said Swan. “Those two segments tend to be lower margin,” he said: “Real strong demand” taxed Intel’s ability to keep up with CPU supply. The stock closed 9.3% lower Friday at $56.66.
The opportunity in hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence is “enormous” due to the digital transformations due to the pandemic, said IBM CEO Arvind Krishna on a Q4 call Thursday. “We see the hybrid cloud opportunity at a trillion dollars,” with fewer than 25% of “workloads” having moved to the cloud so far, he said. The AI market opportunity also is “massive,” he said. Though AI deployment rates remain “in the single digits,” customers are “at the point where they are moving from experimenting with AI to deploying it at scale,” he said.
Consumers are shopping online more than ever but finding the service experience increasingly “inadequate,” a Northridge Group survey found. Two-thirds of the roughly 1,000 canvassed consumers plan to continue their escalated rate of e-commerce shopping post-pandemic, but shoppers “are increasingly frustrated at the level of effort required to reach companies to get the help they need,” said the management consultant Thursday. With 42% of consumers reporting resolution of such headaches on “first contact,” that’s a sure sign that brands are “missing the mark,” it said. And 73% report “long wait times to reach a live agent” as their biggest gripe, with 69% also reporting difficulty finding website answers and 60% complaining they had to provide information “over and over again” when they finally did reach a live rep, said Northridge: “Despite the global pandemic, consumers continue to be unforgiving when it comes to poor customer experience. An alarming 73% of consumers report they are likely to switch to a competitive brand after just one negative experience.”
Roughly half of corporate tech decision-makers expect companies lagging in digital transformation a year into the COVID-19 pandemic will go under within three years, Kong found. The cloud services provider canvassed 400 chief information officers and other tech executives in the U.S. and Europe in December and January, finding the proportion who think digital laggards are doomed by 2024 rising 14 percentage points from a year earlier. “A shocking 84% predict this dire outcome within six years,” said Kong. Two-thirds say they deserved to be fired, lose out on a promotion or denied a bonus for failing to pursue prudent “modernization initiatives,” it said. And 89% agree “creating new digital experiences to address COVID-19 business challenges is a business-critical endeavor.”
Holiday spending on e-gift cards jumped more than 80% from a year earlier, reported Blackhawk Network Thursday. "Digital adoption will continue and is here to stay,” said the payment solutions provider. “This stream of digital shoppers will benefit retail sales in" Q1. Nearly half of consumers it surveyed plan to spend at least $25 more than their gift cards' value, on average. Consumers report doing 68% of their holiday shopping online, and 41% say the payment methods they used to buy gifts in 2020 were different from previous years. Nearly a quarter reported using a mobile wallet for the first time, and of those, 37% plan to stick with that method.