This is what the Flux. I'm Brettan, I Justin and it's Wednesday, the eighteenth of December. Josey Boy.
Ossie's are seemingly pulling back on their Christmas spend despite Westbac talking about confidence coming into the market. According to Finder, the average Ossie plan to spend over thirteen hundred bucks on Christmas this year, which is actually an eight percent decrease on spend from last year.
Interesting day man, now, flex dam. We've loved being with you in your ears every single week while you're making a coffee, jumping on the train, even pumping some iron. Just a quick reminder, this will be our last week of the pod for twenty twenty four, but don't you worry. We'll be fit and firing back on January twentieth, twenty twenty five. So if you're looking for some financings, bow over the summer break and make sure to check out
the Flux app. Your badgeting needs, your subscription tracking, and especially a whole lot of content. Make sure to download the Flux app and check it all out.
Three revolutionary stories today, Juzzy Boy, let's do it for our first our sick is suing HSBC the global banking giant after it alleged that HSBC Isustralia failed to protect its customers from long running scam.
Really telling HSBC, who's bossyv Man? So tell me more.
Well, HSBC is the British based financial services group that was founded in eighteen sixty five, and.
Be man, it's actually the largest europe based bank by total assets with more than get this two point nine trillion US dollars now.
Back in nineteen eighty six, HSBC was granted an Australian banking license and be man, who did.
Some digging And we don't know how many customers they have in Australia, but.
They have been ranked as the best international bank in Australia for ten years.
In a row. But maybe not so much lately.
Now you see jazy boy Asik the corporate watchdog, he's a barking hard at HSBC.
Yep, they're claiming that HSBC didn't respond quick enough to customer complaints about scamsp.
It's believed that nine hundred and fifty HSBC customers last about twenty three million bucks as a result of these spoofing scams, and as part of this campaign, the fraudsters disguise their phone number so that it appeared in the same text chain as legitimate HSBC messages. And assek alleges that it took HSBC one hundred and forty five days to investigate some of these reports, and.
They manned this is big news because the first time that ask has held a financial institution to account over these scams. Wow. So what is the key learning here? The responsibility of preventing scams might finally shift away from individuals to financial institutions and does boy this could result in an enormous shift in priorities for banks. Yeah. According to the hriple c, Australians lost two point seventy four billion dollars to scams in twenty twenty three.
Wowwe But Asse's lawsuit against HSBC argues that financial institutions should take more responsibility for protecting their customers.
Even when scams involve customer errors like sharing their own personal details.
So jazyboy. If ACSEC wins, it could set a new precedent in the financial services space.
And they man, you can be sure that if banks are required to cover these costs, it will definitely change the investment that they put into solvent. So this case has a lot riding on it, not just for HSBC, not just for HSBC customers, but for all banks and all customers across the state.
For our second story, Premier Investments, the owner of Peter Alexander and Smiggle, recently launched its retailers in the UK, but is struggling to hit the mark so far.
Big News feels like Premier Investments is one of the only retailers that actually performs year in. You're out, so tell me more so, Juzzy Boy.
Premier Investments is the as existed retailer that launched back in nineteen eighty seven.
It's the owner of some major Australian brands like you JJ's, You're Just Jeans, You're Portland's your Dotty, the Juzeboy.
The duel in the crown is Smiggle, the stationary store, and also Peter Alexander.
The retailer that made sleep wear fashion.
And Premier also owns chunks of Brevel and Mayer.
Now be Man. A few months ago, Premier made the big bolt move to expand both Smigle and Peter Alexander to the UK, but it.
Hasn't been the best of starts. According to the Australian which got access to leaked documents.
According to these docks, its first three Peter Alexander stores in the UK and more than sixty one percent below four Car Shack.
On top of that, Smiggle is also nearly nineteen percent behind four Car and be Man.
Well, it's still early days for premier investments. It is a sobering reminder for retailers who try to expand overseas. Ooh interesting call.
So what is the key learning here?
International retail expansion is not for the fainthearted retailer, particularly.
When you're coming from over the ditch in Australia.
We know that expanding overseas requires a lot of time and a significant investment. There's rebuilding a brand, There's training up a whole new set of sales stuff who aren't necessarily familiar with the brand. There's also finding the right location to hat your target demographic. They man many Aussie retailers have attempted to expand overseas but come back with their tails between their legs.
Your country Road who launched in the US but retreated and that was in two thousand and two after they struggled to make a profit.
And what our Bunnings. We felled dismally when they opened in the UK yep in twenty eighteen.
They lost about one hundred and sixty five million bucks in just six months.
And then they retreated from the UK, which cost them another four hundred.
Mil So Jesse Boyd Premier will be hoping that it's fortunes in the UK turn rapidly and the poppies.
Realize that they need to look fashionable while sleeping.
For our third and final story, TikTok has got go on to the U s Supreme Court to appeal its potential ban in the US, which is planned to take place on January nineteen.
D Day is coming for TikTok being man scary times for all those TikTok addicts in the US. Yeah, so tell me more.
Well, we know that TikTok has absolutely taken over the universe in the past few years.
It's enabled sounds like give Me My Money and the Apple Dance to take over.
It's created new cultural icons like the little Hippo mood Deng.
It's even shaped language, with demure becoming dictionary dot COM's word of the year.
Because of why, the US government has been concerned about the impact of TikTok's owner, Byteedance on its national security for quite a while.
So earlier this year, the Biden administration warned by Dance to either sell TikTok in the US or else, or else they would be banned.
On January nineteenth, twenty twenty five, not a broad summer for TikTok now. TikTok appealed this legislation to the US Court of Appeal, claiming it was unconstitutional. After failing in the Court of Appeal, TikTok has appealed in the Supreme Court, the.
Highest court in the land. But if this is unsuccessful, it would mean it's all over red rover for TikTok in the US in early January, and not.
Only would this crush TikTok's business, but also the livelihoods of millions of its creators.
So true, So what is the key learning here?
Many creators are not only questioning the future of the TikTok platform, but the future of their businesses overall.
That's because after spending years building an audience, editing videos, and creating a community, it can all be taken away in one thousand.
In fact, it's estimated that small businesses and content creators could lose one point three billion US dollars in just one month.
That's according to TikTok, and.
I also reckon this would increase each and every month.
Of the band. But be man, it's fair to say that this band would absolutely ruin Byte down, who will lose twenty nine percent of their targeted global ad revenue for twenty twenty five. Blux Mam, we'd absolutely loved being injuries a recover coffee on the train throughout the whole of twenty twenty four and will be back bitten firing in twenty twenty five January twentieth, to be precise, one day after TikTok might be dad.
Thanks for listening and we'll see you on for Friday