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Apple Pay Launching In China As U.S. Adoption Stalls

Loading the player… Apple ( AAPL ) Pay will be available in China beginning this Thursday, with the consumer tech giant facing stiff mobile payment competition in the world’s largest smartphone market from Chinese Internet heavyweights Alibaba ( BABA ) and Tencent ( TCEHY ). Alibaba’s Alipay is China’s most popular online payment service, while Tencent has integrated payments into its WeChat mobile messaging app, much like Facebook ( FB ). And amid concerns of slowing iPhone sales, a new study says that U.S. adoption of Apple’s mobile payment platform has plateaued. First Annapolis, an electronic payments consultancy, says that some 20% of iPhone 6 owners report using Apple Pay at least once, while 15% say that they use it regularly or frequently. While awareness among iPhone 6 owners remains high at 84%, the usage figures are slightly down from last year. In the U.S., Apple faces competition from Samsung Pay and Alphabet ( GOOGL )-owned Google’s Android Pay. Samsung Pay was launched last fall and works not only with NFC (near-field communication) terminals like the Apple and Android systems but also with magnetic stripe terminals and chip-card terminals, which could allow for wider adoption. Still, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said at the start of the year that Apple is “overwhelmingly the share leader” in point-of-sale mobile payments. He expects new features like peer-to-peer payments and in-browser integration to further boost adoption in 2016. Shares are looking to continue higher with a 1.2% gain Wednesday after jumping 3% in heavy volume Tuesday. Apple is still in a downtrend, a little less than 30% below its all-time high reached last April. Alphabet advanced 1.8%. Apple stock could also be getting a boost from reports on Tuesday that it received a car-related patent for a mobile device sensor to “determine when the user is in a vehicle that is driving.” The news has sparked new speculation that Apple — along with Google, Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) and others — is working on a self-driving car.

Shopify Q4 Earnings Beat, Showing Strength Of Social Marketing

Shopify ( SHOP ) reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday morning and provided guidance above expectations, sending the stock upward. Shopify reported revenue of $70.2 million, up 99% year over year and beating the consensus estimate of $61.2 million, as polled by Thomson Reuters. It reported a 1 cent per-share loss, minus items, where analysts had expected a 5 cent loss. The company reported a 3 cent per-share loss in the year-earlier quarter. Shopify stock jumped as much as 21% in early trading in the stock market today , but it pared the advance to a 7% gain, near 22, by midday Wednesday. Shopify raised $131 million with its May 2015 initial public offering that priced shares at 17. Shares popped 55% on their first day of trading and peaked in June at above 42. Shopify provides a cloud-based e-commerce platform that businesses use to build websites and sell goods online and across multiple sales channels, including mobile and social media. Shopify says it was among the first e-commerce providers to add the ability to sell over the leading social media platforms, including Facebook ( FB ) and Twitter ( TWTR ). More than 25% of Shopify merchants have enabled social media selling. In November, Shopify announced a partnership with Facebook that lets shoppers buy Shopify merchants’ products through their Facebook pages. In September,  Amazon.com ( AMZN ) selected Shopify to be its preferred platform for helping small and midsize retailers build and manage online stores. The plan lets Shopify businesses use Amazon’s payment system and other services, part of a plan that Amazon announced a year ago to ultimately shut down its Amazon Webstore business, which provides a similar service. More than 243,000 merchants use the Shopify platform, the company says. For Q1, Shopify expects revenue of $65 million to $67 million, above the analyst consensus of $62.1 million. At the midpoint, that would be a 76% increase from the year-earlier quarter. It expects an adjusted operating loss of $6.5 million to $7.5 million. For 2016, Shopify expects revenue of $320 million to $330 million, where analysts had modeled $286.7 million. “Over the holiday season, our merchants collectively sold almost $3 billion worth of products, a huge increase from the year before,” Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke said in the company’s the earnings release.

T-Mobile Q4 Earnings Beat, Subscriber Guidance Seen Conservative

T-Mobile US ( TMUS ) early Wednesday reported Q4 earnings above expectations and forecast 2.9 million postpaid phone subscriber additions in 2016 at the midpoint of its guidance range, down from 4.5 million adds last year, amid intensified competition in wireless services. T-Mobile stock was up 3% in early trading after the company posted its latest results. The wireless firms’ subscriber guidance is “likely conservative,” Jefferies analyst Mike McCormack said in a research report. “The company raised net add expectations throughout 2015 and is likely taking a conservative approach (for 2016), particularly given aggressive promotions from Sprint.” T-Mobile has gained market share vs.  AT&T ( T ), Verizon Communications ( VZ ) and Sprint ( S ) with its aggressive, Uncarrier-branded  promotions. T-Mobile, controlled by Germany-based  Deutsche Telekom ( DTEGY ), said December-quarter EPS minus items nearly tripled to 34 cents from 12 cents in the year-earlier quarter vs. analysts estimates of 15-cent profit. Revenue rose 1.2% to $8.25 billion, edging the consensus estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. For 2016, T-Mobile forecast adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $9.4 billion at the midpoint of its guidance, below analyst expectations. T-Mobile had adjusted EBITDA of $7.4 billion in 2015. It did not provide 2016 revenue guidance in its earnings release. Phone leasing plans that have become standard for wireless service providers have lowered equipment revenue but boosted  EBITDA. T-Mobile said it added 2.06 million subscribers overall in Q4, including postpaid, prepaid and wholesale customers — about the same as Q4 2014. T-Mobile reported “bad debt expense” of $228 million in the quarter, up 52% from the year-earlier quarter. T-Mobile preannounced at a Jan. 6 conference that it added 917,000 postpaid phone subscribers in Q4.  Verizon   said it   added 449,000 postpaid phone customers in Q4 — those billed monthly and more lucrative than prepaid users — while Sprint added 366,000. AT&T in Q4 lost postpaid subscribers for the fifth quarter in a row, shedding 342,000.