Chemist Warehouse takes on Visa | Tesla's new car unveiled | New York Times doubles down on women's sport

This is what the Flux.

I'm Brett and aren't justin and it Monday, the fourteenth of October.

Juzy Boy, who said high interest rates were hurting the property market, get this little fact.

The total worth of Australia's housing.

Market jumped to a record eleven trillion dollars in September this year, according to pol Logic.

Now.

That's because of the combination of more homes being built and prices continuing to rise.

Foxam We run the numbers and seventy seven percent of the Flux family said they have forgotten to cancel a subscription in the past, whether it's the Netflix or their gym, or Spotify or the Marvel up didn't even know that one exist. That is the reason why we've created the Flux Subscription Tracker. Connect your bank, counting under thirty seconds and it will identify all of the subscriptions in one place,

Three miraculous stories Today Jusy Boy, let's do it for our first Chemist Warehouse is taking on Visa and MasterCard by rolling out a new way to pay for your products in star and I'm talking the humble QR code.

Oh, this could be the start of a global protest against the two big dogs of payments. So tell me more.

Well, juziboy, we've spoken a lot about Chemists Warehouse recently.

We have. We spoke about their irritating jingles that won't get out of your head. We've spoken about their five hundred and forty million dollars profits last year.

And also it's nine billion dollar reverse takeover of Sigma Healthcare which is still in the works.

But then you got to add it to them because despite these monstrous profits, they're still looking at cutting its costs further.

You see, Juzy boy, Chemis Warehouse spends more than fifteen million bucks a year in payment fees to these payment processes like Visa and MasterCard and Amex.

And now chemist Warehouse is planning to circumvent these credit card fees with QR codes.

Customers will supposedly scan a QR code instead of tapping their card.

And with this QR code, the payment of your cough syrup and vitamins antihistamines it'll be taken directly from your bank account.

And juzyboy, if this new method takes off, which is called pay by Bank. It's a win for pretty much everyone except the card and payment companies.

Interesting, so what is the key learning here?

But it comes to introducing a new consumer habit. One of the biggest challenges for businesses is customer adoption.

You seeb Man. Consumers are creatures of habit, so switching from using a familiar method like a credit card to something new like scanning a QR code requires a lot of effort and even more education.

But payment processing fees are a major operational costs for many many businesses.

Yeah, get this. For many businesses, the fees can range from around one and a half to three percent of the transaction amount on credit cards. That's according to Square.

And a lot of businesses pass these fees straight on to customers in the form of search chargers.

You know your coffee is four dollars eighty and they charge you five dollars and three cents on the payment terminal. For our second story, Tesla has unveiled a new self driving car prototype called the Cybercab, which plans to go into production by twenty twenty six.

Cybercab is surely the ultimate way to avoid small talk with ruber driver.

Tell me more jazzy boy.

Okay, so we know that Elon Musk is the zany, the waki, the unpredictable genius behind Tesler.

And a whole lot of other companies as well.

Yeah. In twenty sixteen, Elon promised the release of self driving cars in the next two years.

And then in twenty nineteen he predicted that Tesla would produce operational robotaxis by twenty twenty.

And if I just look at the calendar now, it is twenty twenty four and we still don't have self driving cars on the road. But before twenty twenty seven, we actually might.

Late last week, Tesla finally revealed a prototype of the self driving cybercab, and I.

Gotta say, be man, it kind of looks like a small lass, sleeker version of the cyber truck. Yeah.

But at the event, which was called Wee Robot, Muskie Musk also unveiled prototypes of the Robovan that can carry twenty humans.

But I gotta say, be man, given all the misses in the past, all of these big reveals of new cars are taken with a grain or a little pinch of salt.

Yeah, and it's a share price actually declined after this news.

Interesting, So what is the key learning here?

When promises no longer excite results, the only thing that matter.

You see, be man. Investors have grown pretty weary of companies that make grand announcements without actually backing them up with tangible outcomes.

In fact, Jazzi boy Elon Musk has allegedly incorrectly predicted the release of your self driving cars seven times.

Oh my god. So when it comes to Tesla's trust, it's built on actual performance rather than their bold forecasts.

Over promising and under delivering leads to a whole lot of skepticism.

And once investors lose confidence, even the most exciting news like a cybercab can fail to boost the company's share price.

For example, the promise of these self driving cars actually saw Tesla's share price drop by around one percent.

So Elon Musk is going to need to show the goods with the regulatory approvals to get investors excited for this one.

For our third and final story, the New York Times is teaming up with Yahoo Sports to launch a new hub for women's sports coverage.

Collaboration and not competition in this media industry that is very rare to see b man, So tell me what's going on here.

Well, jessybo.

The New York Times is the second largest paper in the US, and it's been in circulation since way back, I'm talking eighteen ninety six.

It's also the brand behind our favorite addictive games like wordle and Connections and the Mini Crossword.

And it's also the owner of sports subscription news site The Athletic, which are acquired for five hundred and fifty million US dollars.

And now be man. The Athletic is teaming up with Yahoo Sports to kicks out a new women's sports coverage hub.

Now the content is going to be hosted on Yahoo Sports as website and app, but also published by The Athletic as well.

And both companies will have the option to sell advertising packages as part of this little.

Collab and the new hub, it'll be available for free.

So it should make it easier for The New York Times and Yahoo Sports to tap into the growing audience of women's sports.

And the growing commercial opportunities that come with women's sports.

So what is the key learning here?

Where the audience goes advertisers and media attention follow You.

See a man in the last few years, we've seen interest in women's sports skyrocket.

Late last year, the Matilda's match against Denmark in the Women's World Cup attracted a bigger TV crowd than the AFL Grand Final.

And this year we've also seen the WNBA's average game viewership hit a twenty four year high.

So with audiences gravitating towards women's sports, media companies have been doubling down on their coverage.

Yeah we're talking Time, Magazine, Sports Illustrated, even if they've all increased investment in covering women's sport.

And does BOYD This old pivot isn't just because audience interest is increasing. We're also seeing ad investment in women's sport go up as well, aren't we yep.

WNBA average forty two sponsorship deals per team in twenty twenty four, which is a forty three percent jump in the last two years. Floxam, is there any worse feeling than getting a notification from your bank saying you've just been charged for a subscription you haven't used in months. Well, we're here to help you in the Flux app with our subscription tracker, where you can see all of your subscriptions in the one spot in under thirty seconds and

Thanks for listening and we'll see you on Wednesday.