Last month you enjoyed our roundup of some of the companies in our portfolios that are making news and moves, so we thought we’d try that again.
Alibaba
Launched more than 20 years ago, Alibaba is one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms, with customers across 190 countries worldwide.
Each year on 11 November, Alibaba benefits from an unofficial shopping holiday in China called Singles’ Day. Back in 2017, the company set a world record for the most payment transactions during the festival; its mobile wallet app, Alipay, processed 256,000 transactions per second.
This year, the shopping frenzy broke records again, bringing in 498.2 billion yuan, which is equal to around US$75 billion. This was an increase of 26% compared to the same timeframe last year, suggesting that consumers are not afraid to shop despite the pandemic.
Uber
Uber was one of the big IPOs of 2019 that didn’t really take off like expected.
But this week, Uber shares closed at $48.18 — the highest close since the company’s IPO — after drugmaker Pfizer announced that its COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective in protecting people from transmission of the virus.
This hasn’t been the only good news for Uber lately.
Last week, California’s Proposition 22, which allowed “gig workers” in the state to be classified as independent contractors, passed. Uber is one of many companies that rely on gig works and would have suffered if forced to restructure.
PayPal
PayPal has announced customers in the U.S. will be able to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency from within their PayPal accounts. The company has also increased its weekly crypto purchase limit to $20,000 per week, up from $10,000 in October.
Perhaps the more interesting news, though, is PayPal plans to allow users to make purchases with cryptocurrencies in 2021. Although buyers will be able to use their crypto funds to make purchases, PayPal will convert the funds into the relevant national currency.
PayPal, which has one of the largest merchant networks in the world, is up against Square’s Cash App, among others, when it comes to paying with crypto.
The Spaceship Universe Portfolio invests in Uber at the time of writing.
The Spaceship Universe Portfolio and the Spaceship Origin Portfolio invest in Alibaba and PayPal at the time of writing.
Important! We’re sharing with you our thoughts on the companies in which Spaceship Voyager invests for your informational purposes only. We think it’s important (and interesting!) to let you know what’s happening with Spaceship Voyager’s investments. However, we are not making recommendations to buy or sell holdings in a specific company. Past performance isn’t a reliable indicator or guarantee of future performance.
