Speaker 1: This is locked the Flux.
Speaker 2: I'm Brett and Justin as Wednesday, the twenty first of August.
Speaker 1: Juzy Boy.
Speaker 3: Not all heroes war capes, my friend, and it's fair
Speaker 3: to say that Asik has taken on a Voldemort sized job.
Speaker 1: Get this one.
Speaker 3: Assick claims it's taken down more than seven thousand fishing
Speaker 3: and investment scam websites.
Speaker 1: Now that's just for the last twelve months.
Speaker 3: And given that Australian's lost more than two point seven
Speaker 3: billion bucks from scams in twenty twenty three, this kind
Speaker 3: of seems necessary and personally, I am sick of seeing
Speaker 3: fake Koschi selling me financial advice.
Speaker 1: Stop at Koschy. He's everywhere is and he he is.
Speaker 2: According to the latest Pluck survey, the average Aussie is
Speaker 2: spending more than seventy eight dollars on subscriptions every single
Speaker 2: month between Netflix and Spotify, Dizzy plus ko Bang. You
Speaker 2: are already there but been in. More importantly, the majority
Speaker 2: of Flux users have forgotten to cancel more than three
Speaker 2: subscriptions to keep draining their card. And that is why
Speaker 2: we built the Flux Subscription Tracker, where you can securely
Speaker 2: connect your bank inless thirty seconds and let plucks do
Speaker 2: its magic. We'll tell you a list of all your
Speaker 2: subscriptions so you can track your spending and cut those
Speaker 2: subscriptions that you don't use anymore. So make sure to
Speaker 2: check it all out in the flux app.
Speaker 3: Three reliable stories today, juzzy boy, let's do it for
Speaker 3: our first. Combank has warned its investors that keeping cash
Speaker 3: at its bank branches is costing it more than three
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty million bucks a year.
Speaker 2: Hint, hint, nudge nudge, sorry for us and help us
Speaker 2: go cash lists. Tell me more so, juzzy boy.
Speaker 3: We spoke last week about Combank's whopping cash profit of
Speaker 3: nine point eight billion bucks, and that was for the
Speaker 3: last financial year.
Speaker 2: Most of that coming from its retail and business customers.
Speaker 3: And most of that not coming from serving customers at
Speaker 3: the bank branch.
Speaker 2: Which is why it was quite interesting and quite peculiar.
Speaker 2: The Combank highlighted in their annual port the provision of
Speaker 2: cash services is costing them three hundred and fifty million
Speaker 2: dollars a year.
Speaker 3: And not only that, juzzy boy, Combank called it a
Speaker 3: challenging commercial model.
Speaker 2: Nowabe man, that includes cash in ATMs and also cash
Speaker 2: at bank branches.
Speaker 3: But over the past six years, monthly cash ATM with
Speaker 3: for alls chausey boy, they have dropped by fifty percent.
Speaker 2: And get this, some banks aren't even holding any cash
Speaker 2: in some of their branches anymore.
Speaker 3: But Chelsea boy, do not toss your wallet in the
Speaker 3: bin just yet. Out Come well, twenty percent of people
Speaker 3: over sixty five are still heavy cash users and cash
Speaker 3: is still an important part of our society broadly.
Speaker 1: So what is the key learning here?
Speaker 3: Banks are in a delicate dance at the moment, trying
Speaker 3: to trim the fat from their costly old school cash
Speaker 3: services while keeping the regulators off their backs.
Speaker 2: You see, bee Man, If they cut back too far
Speaker 2: on the cash services, regulators might step in with even
Speaker 2: tougher rules.
Speaker 3: Which could make things even more expensive for the banks
Speaker 3: than they are now. You've gotta feel for Combank, poor
Speaker 3: old Combank. Here's a fun step, bbe Man. Cash payments
Speaker 3: have dropped from always forty percent of all payments in
Speaker 3: Australia in two thousand and seven to less than ten
Speaker 3: percent of all payments by twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: That is according to the RBA.
Speaker 2: But even so, banks no not to mess with the
Speaker 2: baby boomers yeap.
Speaker 3: According to research by payment platform Wave, eighty two percent
Speaker 3: of baby boomers were very concerned about cash disappearing.
Speaker 2: And this is quite a timely release of info from
Speaker 2: Combank because later this month they'll be facing a Parliament
Speaker 2: committee on the use of cash services.
Speaker 3: For our second story, X formerly known as Twitter, has
Speaker 3: seen its ad revenue drop by more than twenty four
Speaker 3: percent in the first half of this year as advertisers
Speaker 3: stay away from X.
Speaker 2: Fair to say Elon Musk is the human embodiment of
Speaker 2: a red flag for ex's man, So tell me more.
Speaker 3: Well, jazy boyit Remember back in October twenty twenty two,
Speaker 3: Elon Musk acquired Twitter for forty four billion US dollars.
Speaker 2: I do, and if I'm not mistaken, he brought in
Speaker 2: a kitchen sink into the office.
Speaker 1: Money's first day.
Speaker 3: That's correct, And since then X has been through more
Speaker 3: drama than the season finale of Maths.
Speaker 1: I would say.
Speaker 2: First it was the name change from Twitter to x.
Speaker 3: Xing someone just doesn't quite roll off the tongue like
Speaker 3: tweeting someone.
Speaker 2: Then he fired six thousand staff throughout the first eighteen months.
Speaker 3: And there has also been some criticism of the moderation
Speaker 3: processes on X with a heap of hate speech and
Speaker 3: also lots of misinformation.
Speaker 2: Which brings us to a new report from an ad
Speaker 2: tracking company called Media Radar YEP. They claim that X
Speaker 2: has seen its AD revenue dropped to seven hundred and
Speaker 2: forty four million US dollars in the first half twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four, and that's twenty four percent lower than the
Speaker 2: AD revenue they generated in the first half of twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three. Josie Boy, why oh why of companies pulled
Speaker 2: back so hard from their ads spend on X Well,
Speaker 2: a number of companies were found to be advertising on
Speaker 2: the platform and the ads would be promoted right beside
Speaker 2: controversial stuff like posts praising Nazis. And it's fair to
Speaker 2: say it's just a little too much brand risk for
Speaker 2: big companies looking to advertise their products.
Speaker 1: So what is the key learning here?
Speaker 2: Brands want to be where the eyeballs are, but they
Speaker 2: also need to feel safe about the company they keep.
Speaker 3: In the world of marketing, brand alignment is how well
Speaker 3: a company's advertising reflects its core values and its identity, as.
Speaker 2: Well as the image it wants to project to its audience.
Speaker 3: But right now, Jasi Boy for brands buying ads on
Speaker 3: X is a high risk game about us.
Speaker 2: Risky is offering free ice cream in a room full
Speaker 2: of lactose intolerant people.
Speaker 3: And X's AD revenue had already tumbled thirty six percent
Speaker 3: year on year in the last financial year.
Speaker 2: So be Man. While Muskie Mask has tried to give
Speaker 2: confidence to brands, the damage has all already been done.
Speaker 3: And given that ads make up about ninety percent of
Speaker 3: X's income, that's according to The New York Times, X
Speaker 3: has a real predicament on its hands.
Speaker 2: For our third and final story, General Motors is cutting
Speaker 2: one thousand software employees globally to focus on its high
Speaker 2: priority initiatives like using.
Speaker 3: AI GM taking time to just work on itself at
Speaker 3: the moment, what is happening here?
Speaker 2: Josie boy wellbe Man at General Motors is the American
Speaker 2: car manufacturer that's been around since nineteen eight.
Speaker 3: It's the name behind car brands based in the US
Speaker 3: and also around the world like Chevrolet, Hama, SAB and
Speaker 3: the classic Ossie Holden, Rest in Peace Holden and Now
Speaker 3: General Motors has announced that it will be laying off
Speaker 3: one thousand staff in its software and its services division.
Speaker 2: But what's interesting here is that General Motives has made
Speaker 2: it clear these job cuts aren't about reducing costs.
Speaker 3: No, they're actually a way to streamline the software side
Speaker 3: of the GM business.
Speaker 2: That's because GM is exploring ways to make software and
Speaker 2: AI more central to its vehicles.
Speaker 3: So now GM is resetting itself to better with other
Speaker 3: car makers in an industry that's becoming increasingly software driven.
Speaker 3: So what is the key learning here? In the automotive industry?
Speaker 3: Software is the new hardware.
Speaker 2: You see, b Man, Software to find vehicles have become
Speaker 2: more common and more normalized. As cars are evolving more
Speaker 2: through software, you could almost call them smartphones on wheels.
Speaker 2: Think heated seeds, driving assistance, speeches, fast charging, free these.
Speaker 2: The list goes on.
Speaker 1: I would call mine listen more of a knock here
Speaker 1: on wheels.
Speaker 2: Get this BMN. The average lines of software code per
Speaker 2: vehicle doubled from one hundred million in twenty fifteen to
Speaker 2: two hundred million in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: And that number is expected to jump to six hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty million by twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Plusam, is there any worse feeling than looking up your
Speaker 2: bank statement and seeing a number of subscriptions that you're
Speaker 2: not even using but you've been charged for months. Well,
Speaker 2: we have a solution to that. It's all in the
Speaker 2: Flux Subscription Tracker in the Flux app. To make sure
Speaker 2: to check out the Flux app to safe some cash.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and we'll see you on Friday.