Business News - 5-13-2021 - Easy Ad - Local Small Business Resources

SpaceX reveals first orbital Starship Plan

Elon Musk’s SpaceX revealed its plan for an orbital flight test of its next-generation Starship rocket, which would launch from Texas and then splashdown off the coast of Hawaii
Starship prototypes stand at about 160 feet tall, or around the size of a 16-story building, and are built of stainless steel
The Starship program continues to move at a rapid pace, with the company coming off last week’s successful landing and recovery of Starship SN15

Cruise, a majority-owned autonomous vehicle subsidiary of General Motors, expects production of its driverless shuttle called the Origin to begin in early 2023, Cruise CEO Dan Ammann said Thursday
The time frame given for the vehicle is the most detailed yet and also hints at when the commercial operation of Cruise’s current autonomous vehicle test fleet is expected to start
In March, GM CEO Mary Barra said the company was “confident” that Cruise would launch and commercialize operations “sooner than many people think”

For rideshare companies like Lyft and Uber, the slow emergence from the pandemic brings hope that their services will hum back to life as customers resume travel
But there are still challenges ahead for gig-economy companies operating in the rideshare and food delivery spaces
One was signaled by Uber’s recent decision in the U.K. to reclassify its drivers as employees after the supreme court there handed down an unfavorable ruling

Amazon is hiring 75,000 warehouse and delivery workers at its facilities in the U.S. and Canada, the company said Thursday
The hiring push comes as businesses are looking for labor in an increasingly tight market
Amazon and other companies including Chipotle and McDonald’s have announced wage increases to attract employees

Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida said that the company is grappling with the semiconductor shortage, as well as a surge in raw material prices
“The impact we foresee as of speaking is about 500,000 units in terms of the production this year,” Makoto Uchida told CNBC
Today’s cars rely on computer chips for everything from the management of engines to driver assistance systems

Discord on Thursday announced a new feature that will put it in competition with Clubhouse, Twitter and Facebook in the fast-growing, real-time audio market
Stage Discovery will make it possible for Discord users to easily find live audio conversations happening across the various communities that exist on the app
Discord this month will also begin testing ticketed events for Stage Channel conversations

DoorDash reported a loss of 34 cents per share on revenue of $1.08 billion for its first quarter
The company said that delivery drivers were in short supply but consumer demand was stronger than expected
The company raised its 2021 forecast for gross order value to between $35 billion and $38 billion

Disney reported second quarter results Thursday, posting lower-than-expected revenue and subscriber counts for its streaming service
Disney+ now has 103.6 million paid subscribers
The company missed on subscriber estimates for Disney+, coming in at 103.6 million paid subscribers but it was expected to post 109 million, according to FactSet

While Airbnb’s revenue grew 5% in the first quarter, gross booking value rose some 52% as users opted for full homes and destinations outside cities
The company’s net loss tripled, largely due to debt repayments
Airbnb is uncertain if the recovery will continue at the same rate in the second half of this year

Shares of Bumble fell sharply Thursday morning, dipping below its initial public offering price of $43 apiece, after the company reported first-quarter results
The company issued what some considered cautious guidance
The dating company’s stock dipped more than 17% to hit an all-time low of $38.91 apiece