This is locked the Flux.
I'm Brett and Justin as Wednesday, the twenty first of August.
Juzy Boy.
Not all heroes war capes, my friend, and it's fair to say that Asik has taken on a Voldemort sized job.
Get this one.
Assick claims it's taken down more than seven thousand fishing and investment scam websites.
Now that's just for the last twelve months.
And given that Australian's lost more than two point seven billion bucks from scams in twenty twenty three, this kind of seems necessary and personally, I am sick of seeing fake Koschi selling me financial advice.
Stop at Koschy. He's everywhere is and he he is.
According to the latest Pluck survey, the average Aussie is spending more than seventy eight dollars on subscriptions every single month between Netflix and Spotify, Dizzy plus ko Bang. You are already there but been in. More importantly, the majority of Flux users have forgotten to cancel more than three subscriptions to keep draining their card. And that is why we built the Flux Subscription Tracker, where you can securely connect your bank inless thirty seconds and let plucks do
its magic. We'll tell you a list of all your subscriptions so you can track your spending and cut those subscriptions that you don't use anymore. So make sure to check it all out in the flux app.
Three reliable stories today, juzzy boy, let's do it for our first. Combank has warned its investors that keeping cash at its bank branches is costing it more than three hundred and fifty million bucks a year.
Hint, hint, nudge nudge, sorry for us and help us go cash lists. Tell me more so, juzzy boy.
We spoke last week about Combank's whopping cash profit of nine point eight billion bucks, and that was for the last financial year.
Most of that coming from its retail and business customers.
And most of that not coming from serving customers at the bank branch.
Which is why it was quite interesting and quite peculiar. The Combank highlighted in their annual port the provision of cash services is costing them three hundred and fifty million dollars a year.
And not only that, juzzy boy, Combank called it a challenging commercial model.
Nowabe man, that includes cash in ATMs and also cash at bank branches.
But over the past six years, monthly cash ATM with for alls chausey boy, they have dropped by fifty percent.
And get this, some banks aren't even holding any cash in some of their branches anymore.
But Chelsea boy, do not toss your wallet in the bin just yet. Out Come well, twenty percent of people over sixty five are still heavy cash users and cash is still an important part of our society broadly.
So what is the key learning here?
Banks are in a delicate dance at the moment, trying to trim the fat from their costly old school cash services while keeping the regulators off their backs.
You see, bee Man, If they cut back too far on the cash services, regulators might step in with even tougher rules.
Which could make things even more expensive for the banks than they are now. You've gotta feel for Combank, poor old Combank. Here's a fun step, bbe Man. Cash payments have dropped from always forty percent of all payments in Australia in two thousand and seven to less than ten percent of all payments by twenty twenty two.
That is according to the RBA.
But even so, banks no not to mess with the baby boomers yeap.
According to research by payment platform Wave, eighty two percent of baby boomers were very concerned about cash disappearing.
And this is quite a timely release of info from Combank because later this month they'll be facing a Parliament committee on the use of cash services.
For our second story, X formerly known as Twitter, has seen its ad revenue drop by more than twenty four percent in the first half of this year as advertisers stay away from X.
Fair to say Elon Musk is the human embodiment of a red flag for ex's man, So tell me more.
Well, jazy boyit Remember back in October twenty twenty two, Elon Musk acquired Twitter for forty four billion US dollars.
I do, and if I'm not mistaken, he brought in a kitchen sink into the office.
Money's first day.
That's correct, And since then X has been through more drama than the season finale of Maths.
I would say.
First it was the name change from Twitter to x.
Xing someone just doesn't quite roll off the tongue like tweeting someone.
Then he fired six thousand staff throughout the first eighteen months.
And there has also been some criticism of the moderation processes on X with a heap of hate speech and also lots of misinformation.
Which brings us to a new report from an ad tracking company called Media Radar YEP. They claim that X has seen its AD revenue dropped to seven hundred and forty four million US dollars in the first half twenty twenty four, and that's twenty four percent lower than the AD revenue they generated in the first half of twenty
twenty three. Josie Boy, why oh why of companies pulled back so hard from their ads spend on X Well, a number of companies were found to be advertising on the platform and the ads would be promoted right beside controversial stuff like posts praising Nazis. And it's fair to say it's just a little too much brand risk for big companies looking to advertise their products.
So what is the key learning here?
Brands want to be where the eyeballs are, but they also need to feel safe about the company they keep.
In the world of marketing, brand alignment is how well a company's advertising reflects its core values and its identity, as.
Well as the image it wants to project to its audience.
But right now, Jasi Boy for brands buying ads on X is a high risk game about us.
Risky is offering free ice cream in a room full of lactose intolerant people.
And X's AD revenue had already tumbled thirty six percent year on year in the last financial year.
So be Man. While Muskie Mask has tried to give confidence to brands, the damage has all already been done.
And given that ads make up about ninety percent of X's income, that's according to The New York Times, X has a real predicament on its hands.
For our third and final story, General Motors is cutting one thousand software employees globally to focus on its high priority initiatives like using.
AI GM taking time to just work on itself at the moment, what is happening here?
Josie boy wellbe Man at General Motors is the American car manufacturer that's been around since nineteen eight.
It's the name behind car brands based in the US and also around the world like Chevrolet, Hama, SAB and the classic Ossie Holden, Rest in Peace Holden and Now General Motors has announced that it will be laying off one thousand staff in its software and its services division.
But what's interesting here is that General Motives has made it clear these job cuts aren't about reducing costs.
No, they're actually a way to streamline the software side of the GM business.
That's because GM is exploring ways to make software and AI more central to its vehicles.
So now GM is resetting itself to better with other car makers in an industry that's becoming increasingly software driven. So what is the key learning here? In the automotive industry? Software is the new hardware.
You see, b Man, Software to find vehicles have become more common and more normalized. As cars are evolving more through software, you could almost call them smartphones on wheels. Think heated seeds, driving assistance, speeches, fast charging, free these. The list goes on.
I would call mine listen more of a knock here on wheels.
Get this BMN. The average lines of software code per vehicle doubled from one hundred million in twenty fifteen to two hundred million in twenty twenty.
And that number is expected to jump to six hundred and fifty million by twenty twenty five.
Plusam, is there any worse feeling than looking up your bank statement and seeing a number of subscriptions that you're not even using but you've been charged for months. Well, we have a solution to that. It's all in the Flux Subscription Tracker in the Flux app. To make sure to check out the Flux app to safe some cash.
Thanks for listening and we'll see you on Friday.