an ‘electrostate’ that continues to feed on coal

by

To understand China, it is essential to enter their philosophical roots. A constant that has marked its history is the art of thinking in the long term, of planning with decades in advance. An ideology that is deeply linked to confucionism, which prioritizes collective duty, social stability and sacrifice present for a stronger future. However, it should be noted that Confucio did not explicitly speak of political or economic strategy in the current terms, but its emphasis on meticulous planning can be glimpsed in the country’s current energy policy. An “electrostate.” He 10% of Chinese GDP It is in clean energy, since technologies, such as electric vehicles, batteries, wind turbines and solar panels are growing at a dizzying pace. According to the Financial Timesthe objective is not simply to modernize its energy infrastructure; It is to create an “electrostate.” In other words, that its economy works almost exclusively with electricity generated from low carbon sources. All according to the plan. The transition to an electricity -based energy model is not accidental. It is the result of a combination of state planning, mass investments and technological innovation. It all started more than 10 years two years after Xi Jinping assumed power, when he ordered the Chinese energy system to “revolutionize”. Thus they began with the strategic investments that are expected that within five years another 800,000 million dollars will be added to consolidate the electrical infrastructure, intended for ultraalta tension lines that the country already has 40 transporting solar and wind energy. The expansion of renewables. Planning also had The expansion in renewableswhere the country leads the transition solar and wind With megaprojects. Next to it and at the same vertiginous rhythm, China has taken into account That the greater the renewable capacity, the greater the need for storage systems. The batteries have become a key piece to stabilize the electricity grid and manage the intermission of solar and wind energy, but there is still a long way to achieve the 500GW of storage necessary to completely support its renewable network. Also, like They have detailed In Financial Times, the two largest Chinese companies in the country, Catl and Byd, have allocated 5% of their income to research and development, which has allowed to drastically reduce storage costs. An elephant in a room. Despite all this change, China continues to aggressively invest in fossil fuels. In fact, Keep building new coal plants and represent 80% of construction plants worldwide. This paradox has raised international criticism, especially for the risk of increasing global emissions while the country is presented as a leader in clean energy. From The commercial war with the United Statesthe vulnerabilities of global supply chains have been exposed, which has led To China to reveal their plans on the control of their own coal and oil reserves as of key energy infrastructure. However, he has not stopped his projects outside because He wants to reinforce Its geopolitical influence while minimizing internal risks. The dual strategy. China continues to invest in renewable energy for long -term electrification, while maintaining control of fossil fuels to avoid short -term interruptions. This duality has generated international criticisms that accuse Beijin of flooding the market with subsidized clean technologies and breaking their climatic commitments, as He has collected The Financial Times. A planned future. While the rest of the world debate how to reduce emissions and ensure energy supply, China has chosen not to choose a single path. Instead, he has opted for both. And if we look at its philosophical roots, Taoism summarizes it well: opposites not only coexist, but also need. Renewable and fossils. Yin and Yang. On the energy board, China is playing with both cards at the same time. Image | Kenueone and Palacio do Planalto, CC BY-SA 4.0 Xataka | China is immersed in a nuclear revolution and needs industrial amounts of Uranium. His solution: “fish” in the sea

Mr. Beast has brought his extreme tourism videos inside the Mayan ruins in Mexico. That is a problem for ruins

by

Mrbeast It is the most important youtuber and followed in the world, and virtually any idea it has to generate content in its channel becomes a trend. Millionaire contests, spectacular challenges, philanthropic maneuvers … and now, adventure tourism. One of his last adventures has been to pass One hundred hours in an old Mayan temple two thousand years old. It is an idea with a peculiar dark side. One night in the temple. In the video we can see how Mrbeast wanders inside several Mayan pyramids, among other Chichén Itzá. Accompanied by an native guide, which reinforces its promotional character for the powerful tourism business in Mexico, sleeps in the jungle, and can touch funeral masks of the kings buried in the area. A privilege that is not at the scope of any tourist. A superstar. With almost 400 million followers and more than 82,000 million visualizations, no one doubts that Mrbeast is The most important youtuber in the world. The average video display on its channel is about 100 million, although it already has many exceeding 200. The income of your channel They can exceed four million dollars, not counting sponsorships or agreements. An authentic icon of the platform that is largely responsible for the spectacularization of Influencers: Always looking for the most extreme challenge, the most shocking image and the most unexpected trip. The spectacularization of YouTube. This spectacularization of the content is very clear in the titles of its last videos: ‘Would you risk drowning for $ 500,000?‘, I survived 7 days in an abandoned city, I survived the 5 most mortal places on earth… It is a radicalization of the content that is not only in the subject, but in the visual: climbing assemblies, a lot of noise and screams, many careers, a dynamic that stuns and that Keep the spectator dopamine by the clouds. Extreme tourism. Mrbeast exploits a new form of telematic tourism that is hooking millions of viewers by making these trips to remote places, often giving them an adventurous narrative: these trips are often linked to extreme challenges or tests, and have turned tourism into an experience that can be digitally consumed. For example, a few months ago we talked about Fabio Belnome and his trip in a 1998 Fiat to Japan. But there are many more in different social networks: the mountaineer @Nimsdaithe urban explorer @Shieyfreedom or the traveler to high -risk countries @drew_binsky. Thanks to them, the hashtag #tikToktravel, for example, has More than 23,000 million views. The dark side. However, there is a dark side in videos such as Mrbaest Chichén Itzá. In 2024, the Secretariat of Tourist Development of Yucatán reported that he expected the arrival of 6.7 million tourists, more than double those that arrived in the last year pre-pandemic. It is an area to which tourism provides 90% of its income. The controversial Mayan train. To promote and facilitate tourism, projects such as Mayan traina transport that will travel relevant areas of the Mayan zone, with special attention to serve tourism, connecting airports in a space of 1500 kilometers. But the authorities are concerned about Environmental impact of the pharaonic López Obrador project. For example, the works have been arrested in the area of ​​the Riviera Maya, one of the most frequented by tourists. The impact is more than studied in what affects caves, temples and other protected areas, and Even Unesco has intervened. The double track. Mexico is, in this way, before a dilemma: the content of Mrbeast is sponsored, as the video credits affirm, by the Tourism Secretariat of Mexicoin collaboration with institutions such as the National Institute of Anthropology and History. But at the same time, the massification of tourism is eroding archaeological treasures such as these temples, in a dilemma of which perhaps the great travel and adventure youtubers will have to begin to take responsibility in the future. Header | Mrbeast In Xataka | The videos of AI have broken the Instagram and Tiktok algorithms. Welcome to the new “AI landscape”

We are in 2025 and the Wi -Fi of the airplanes is still terrible. Starlink is demonstrating that we are at the turning point

by

June 30, 2016. BBC publishes an article called: How does the Wi -Fi work in the airplanes and why is it so bad? Almost 10 years later, we are almost in the same place. The Earth has revolved for almost a decade but in terms of connecting to Internet networks from the air it seems that we are completely stagnant. Or it seemed. 2016. “Some compare their speed with that of the beginning of the Internet, when, with the soundtrack of the atrocious beep of the modem, they had to be put on patience while any page was loaded.” With this paragraph Yolanda Valery for BBC In 2016 what was the experience of trying to connect to the Internet from the air. In that same article it was explained that connecting to the Internet from a flight guaranteed a certain guarantee to do very basic connected tasks, such as sending an email. But it was also mentioned that you could already forget to see a content in streaming Or, at least, assume that it was going to be a really tedious experience. We remain the same. In 2016, the offer of a wifi on board was relatively recent. In 2013 we told you that Iberia made this service available to the client at a price of five euros … for five megas. Shortly after, Enrique Dans narrated his experience In an Iberia plane and pointed out that the option was really interesting but that the result was very bad. And even raised if he had to be offered under the conditions of that time. Already in 2017, in Xataka We wondered why we still have no wifi in all airplanes. And we could say the same right now, with a good handful of airplanes that do not offer it … and above all: those who offer it and serve little or nothing. If we enter On Iberia’s own page We verify that in its reference to the connection packages it is specified that allow “Internet navigation, messenger, email, download and sending documents”. That is, tasks that require poor discharge speed. And they emphasize that it is “it is possible that during some moments of the trip the signal can come weakened” or that it lends itself with “three different suppliers, so you can experience differences between one flight or another.” Why is it so bad? The main reason why the Wi -Fi in the airplanes is so bad is how the Internet connection is obtained. You can take “global, satellite or land coverage,” depending on the flight, they point out on the Iberia website. This means that the plane receiver can connect to telephone antennas or satellites if the latter are not available. On a transatlantic flight, that connection is more unstable since Terrestrial antennas are far away. It only remains to be connected to a satellite so that the shipment and reception of data is complicated. First because the distance is much broader than when we have our feet on the floor and, second, because the plane moves hundreds of kilometers per hour, which complicates the reception and sending of the data. The big problem is that although the bandwidths that users have to share are now the demands of applications. Not only is the Quality of the images we load on Instagramis also the huge amount of data that an application like Netflix needs to play your streaming videos. Already in 2020, in Xataka We estimated that one hour sailing on this platform consumes between one and seven GB (depending on quality). A turning point? Andrew J. Hawkins explains in The Verge that the time may have come to say goodbye to these connections. In the aforementioned article, it indicates its experience aboard an E-175 Embraer, a 88-seat narrow fuselage plane that United Airlines uses for short flights. This, specifically, lasted 90 minutes. The plane is one of the first connected to Starlink and, in fact, will begin offering on May 15. The figures collected are highly hopeful. Connected to the airport Wi -Fi, Hawkins said navigating with a 305 Mbps discharge and a load of 249. The latency was 5 ms. During the flight, the speed was 196 Mbps of discharge and 27.3 Mbps of load with a latency of 19 ms. The discharge speed is close to the experience before climbing to the plane and although the figures are remote from what it offers on land, they are notable compared to those we had so far. During the whole flight. Hawkins breaks another spear in favor of the system and United Airlines: the wifi was active throughout the flight. “The service works from the door to the door, not only above 10,000 feet, restriction under which some other systems operate. As soon as I sat, they told me to connect to the Wi-Fi using United mobile application. “ In fact, in your article to The VergeThe author reflects the speeds during takeoff (234.8 Mbps of discharge and 14.9 Mbps of load with a latency of 19 ms) and the landing (72.6 Mbps of discharge, 26.1 Mbps of load and 90 ms of latency) when the worst data was collected. The time, despite this, would be brief because as soon as the plane touched earth again offered good figures with 231.5 Mbps of discharge. Although, this time, with the worst load data with only 3.01. Well to watch movies. But not so much to work. Because Hawking himself points out that he could use Instagram and Tiktok, Disney Plus, follow the ceremony of the new Pope for CNN or watch a live match “with a crystalline image quality.” However, the result was much less impressive when loading a file on Google Drive that took him seven minutes. Explains that this is because Starlink’s own infrastructure It is designed to download content and not so much to raise it, hence the difference in figures between the two processes. Differential. How much would you be willing to pay … Read more

Apple deal with tariffs, but wants not to be noticed. I consider up the price of the iPhone without mentioning them, according to WSJ

by

September appears again in the calendar as the month of the iPhone. And if everything follows the usual pattern, Apple will take advantage of those dates to present its new family of smartphones, the iPhone 17. They are expected to arrive with design news and some relevant technical changes. But there is another aspect that begins to take strength: the price could rise, and not necessarily for obvious reasons. An increase on the table … with nuances. According to The Wall Street JournalApple is valuing a price increase in its next iPhone. The information, attributed to familiar sources with the company’s plans, points to a strategy that would combine this increase with the new functionalities and a redesign of the product. It is still not clear what these improvements would be exactly, but It has long been talking about an ultrafine model. The question of tariffs, the elephant in the room. The same sources assure that within the company there is a clear intention to prevent this possible rise from being publicly associated with American tariffs on products from China, where most iPhone are still manufactured. The reason is evident: in April, An article that hinted that Amazon It would show the impact of tariffs on the final price was enough for The White House considered it a hostile gesture. Bezos’ company had to deny that possibility quickly. A difficult climb to justify only with cuts. The context is not easy for Apple. According to the sources cited by WSJ, the margin of maneuver to cut costs through the suppliers is limited. That means that, if there is no price increase, the impact of tariffs would result in a direct reduction in benefits. Hence, according to these internal voices, the company is considering what they describe as “the less bad option”: to raise prices and present the changes as a natural evolution of the product. India progresses, but China is still essential. In parallel, Apple continues its geographical diversification process. Tim Cook already advanced that A significant part of the iPhone sold in the US during the second quarter will leave India. However, the production of high -end models – the Pro and Pro Max – will continue to depend mainly on China, sources say. Although India has also begun to assemble pro versions, apparently its technical infrastructure is not yet at the necessary level for equivalent mass production. The commercial agreement and what is still standing. This Monday, USA and China announced an agreement to suspend much of mutual tariffs. Even so, some remain active. Among them, a 20% tariff that reaches smartphones, linked to the conflict over fentanyl, and another of 10% that remains as a base rate. The truce is partial and temporary, which adds relief, but also uncertainty to the global board. And Europe, how does it fit this story?. At the moment, the focus is in the US market. But if the price increase is justified in product improvements and not in external factors such as tariffs, it cannot be ruled out that new prices are also transferred to Europe. For now, Apple has not made statements about it. From Xataka we have contacted the company to know its position. We will update this article when we have an answer. Images | Amanz | Niels Kehl In Xataka | We have been accustomed to the propaganda of the United States for years: now the era of Chinese propaganda has begun

Extra virgin olive oil is one of the purest products in the world. And it is also full of microplastics

by

As if it were the fashion concertFrance’s olive oil consumers have been waiting for their time for too long: that exact point in which the Bodegas Galas are left without the accumulated reserves of 2024 and prices begin to go down driven by the arrival of the Spanish product. The good news is that this moment has arrived. The bad is that oil bottles come with surprises. Surprises? These days, preparing the “great moment”, the great French magazine of consumption ’60 million of consommateurs’, decided to analyze the main brands They were in the French market. They selected 22 bottles of extra virgin olive oil (that is, extracted only with mechanical pressure or centrifugation). Despite the numerous frauds that have been found, the results of the analyzes seem to square with the requirements of composition of this type of products (99% of lipids of a certain profile, predominance of monoinsaturated oleic acids, etc …). The surprise has been the fact of finding high levels of microplastics. Also in oil? Indeed: “Bios or conventional all (…) contain some type of phthalates”, chemical substances that make the most flexible and lasting plastic. Although they are allowed products, there are an increasing body of evidence which suggests that they have an important role as endocrine disruptors. A few days ago We commented on his role in the regulation of blood pressure. And what do we do? The problem of microplastics is huge, really. Only now we begin to be aware of its dimension and depth. However, cases such as this show that we are not being diligent in the control of these: the presence of phthalates is directly due to the containers we use. A global problem. Because yes, these are French data, but it would be naive not to assume that in Spain (where these oil are consumed up to six times more and the presentations are very far from being ‘premium’) the situation is better. It is not, it cannot be. And it is precisely what should lead us to a reflection: we talk about one of the most important products in the country, the axis of a strategic industry that articulates the entire country. It is time to assume that conserving that heritage requires a much deeper look, a plan that goes beyond day to day. And that, I’m afraid, is a pending task. Image | Fulvio Ciccolo | Oregon State University In Xataka | Olive oil sales have fired 50%. The market is so broken that it threatens to be bad news

This is how absolute domain has achieved

by

China dominates The lithium -ion battery market with an indisputable forcefulness. If we stick to electric cars the country led by Xi Jinping Fabrica 57% of batteries that these vehicles use. Catl and Byd are the biggest manufacturers of energy accumulators of the planet with A market share in 2023 34% and 16% respectively. And if we look at electronic devices equipped with batteries, your domain is equally forceful. The evolution that the lithium batteries industry has experienced in this Asian country is the result of a very ambitious strategy pergenerated by the Government a decade ago. In 2015 President Xi Jinping announced the plan “Made in China 2025”an initiative that pursued to take the country to a world leadership position in thirteen strategic technologies. In some of them, such as the production of medicines, large tractors, the manufacture of industrial machinery, the artificial intelligence (AI) or the robots does not lead, but has established itself in a competitive position. In batteries, however, he leads clearly. China’s success is the result of a well -measured strategy China has gone from having a share in the global battery market of 50% in 2015 to no less than 80% today. A decade ago his position was already good, but in 2025 his domain is absolute. Another fact that we are not overlooking is that the global production of lithium batteries in 2015 amounted to 42 GWh, while in 2024 this figure increased to 1,400 GWh. This growth is mainly explained thanks to the intervention of this Asian country. China is the largest electric car market on the planet, so its internal demand is able to sustain its battery industry alone In any case, the really interesting thing is to know what strategy has allowed the country of Xi Jinping to control such an important market in such a forceful way. As we can intuit, this success is the result of several factors. On the one hand China bet early on LFP batteries (Lithium Iron Phosphate), which use iron and lithium phosphate instead of cobalt and nickel, so they are cheaper and more safe, through subsidies of public vehicles. This happened in 2009. Years later, in 2016, the State subsidies prioritized the improvement of the benefits of these batteries, and therefore, They increased their competitiveness. This scenario allowed China to use patents derived from LFP technology in their free domestic market, which helped him gain experience and develop his production capacity. In fact, Catl, Byd and other Chinese manufacturers Batteries have put in recent years huge factories that have allowed them to develop the economy of scale producing a huge volume of batteries with an extremely competitive unit cost. In addition, China is the largest electric car market on the planet, so its internal demand is able to sustain its battery industry alone. However, beyond the support of the government and the ability with which China has managed to climb its production capacity, it is important that we do not overlook another factor: this country has access to raw materials in very advantageous conditions. The new lithium and iron mines under your control have allowed you to have great reservations of these chemical elements at a low price. In addition, its supply chain allows you to control, in addition to the extraction of raw materials, your refining and the assembly of all the components of the batteries, thus reducing the presence of intermediaries and the margins of external suppliers. From one thing we can be sure: at the current situation it is very unlikely that other countries will snatch market share to China in this industry. More information | Asianometry In Xataka | Historic record for China: its chips industry has produced in 2024 more than ever despite the sanctions

Europe detected the oscillations of the blackout in Spain but did not know how to anticipate collapse

by

While It is still done Analysis Committee meetings to find out what happened in the blackout of April 28. A new preliminary report of the European Network of Electricity Transportation Networks (ENTSO-E) has thrown An important focus on something that Europe could not see. Short. So far, what was known were the data of the “Black box”where second to second it has been investigated that it began to fail. But a new preliminary report of the Entso-E has confirmed That it is not only about the oscillations that were recorded in Spain: collapse was a “complex sequence of events.” In depth. The point is that the report explained that during the half an hour before the incident, two power and frequency oscillations were observed in the European electricity grid, between 12:03 and 12:07 and between 12:19 and 12:21. And of course, both Red Eléctrica in Spain and RTE in France took measures to mitigate these oscillations. However, at 12:33, the electrical system of the Iberian Peninsula He collapsed completely. The matter has more crumb. At that time, no oscillations and system variables were detected within the normal range of operation. But that did not mean that everything was under control. Europe had detected those oscillations, but when Spain and France intervened, they did not interpret it as a critical risk. This was how in southern Spain, a series of failures in electricity generation caused a loss of 2200 MW. This loss was sufficient to trigger a drop in the frequency of the system, which fell to 48 Hz. In other words, the electrical frequency must be maintained around 50 Hz. If it drops from 48 Hz, the system can enter a critical state. And that was exactly what happened. From that moment on … The blackout was inevitable. The electricity exchanges between Spain and its neighboring countries were at high levels: 1000 MW towards France, 2000mw to Portugal and 800MW to Morocco. But when the system collapsed, these connections were also lost. The transmission lines between France and Spain stopped working at 12:33:21 and automatic protection systems disconnected the entire Iberian network three seconds later. There was a figure that circulates in networks. The president of the Government in his appearance before the media said: “15GW disappeared in 5 seconds”I immediately ran this statement in the networks, but the Entso-E has specified that the loss was 2.2GW. So where did that figure come from? The 15 GW that circulated after the blackout comes from an initial REE estimate based on automatic defense systems. According to the Secretary of Energy of MitecoJoan Groizard, 10 GW were counted in automatic cuts (demand breakdown) and 5 GW in contribution of interconnections that stopped supplying energy. However, the report of the ETSO-E specifies that the loss recorded in southern Spain was 2200 MW (2.2 GW), a significantly lower figure, evidencing that the initial calculation did not reflect the loss of generation itself, but the global impact of the event on the electrical system. And now what? Entso-e has created A panel of experts to continue investigating what happened. These experts, from countries not affected by the blackout, will collect all the available data to rebuild minute by minute what happened on April 28 to prepare a technical report that will be presented to the European Commission throughout the second half of the year. In turn, the Spanish committee will continue working in parallel, analyzing not only technical failures, but also possible cyber attacks or errors in digital systems, according to has detailed The vice president, Sara Aagesen, in an interview for eldiario.es. Forecasts In the same interview, Sara Aagesen He has insisted in that the causes of the blackout are “enormously complex” and that no hypothesis is ruled out. But many unknowns are left: what centrals were disconnected exactly? What triggered the drop of 2200 MW? And why not the alert signals were detected in time? The first “green” blackout He has put Testing the Iberian Electricity and has evidenced the vulnerabilities of a system in full transition to renewables. While the full analysis of the blackout could take months, both system operators and governments They move in a field full of uncertainty. The key now is to rethink the Microredes, Energy storage and Gridorming technologies capable of stabilizing an increasingly volatile network. The road is being configured now and is in the present where you have to continue working. Image | Unspash and Eric Fischer Xataka | The other uncomfortable truth of the blackout: Spain does not yet have enough batteries for its renewable boom

To the Odyssey of Virtual Tails and Surprise Concerts, Bad Bunny’s entries added one more difficulty: dynamic prices

by

Last week, Bad Bunny presale the Tickets for your next concerts in Spain. And chaos unleashed: virtual lines of hundreds of thousands of people, Falls from the Ticketmaster servers and, to add confusion, announcements of new concerts of the star, which reached a total of twelve over the three initials. Above all this, upward oscillations in ticket prices. Or what is the same: dynamic prices. What are dynamic prices? It is one Price setting strategy in which the cost of a product or service fluctuates based on market demand, consumer behavior, competition and other factors. They are adjusted in real time or at regular intervals, using algorithms and data analysis. It is a system that was known before in sectors such as transport, particularly The aviationbut that Live Nation, the promoter owner of Ticketmaster, has also adopted for her events. And there were for Bad Bunny? Live Nation Call your tickets With dynamic price Platinum tickets. The base price for tickets Bad Bunny’s cheaper started from 73.30 euros plus 10 management expenses for the highest areas of the enclosure. The most exclusive, such as VIP packages, reached 543.30 euros more than 72.50 expenses. Many users reported Very significant increases: 300 euros They duplicate the price In minutes. The cheapest seats cost more than € 500 in a matter of minutes, and in resale It was requested up to € 1,000 Chaos everywhere. At 12.45, a quarter of an hour before the pre -sale of the three initially planned concerts began, The Ticketmaster website He fell due to the very high demand. When the official time arrived, accessing the tickets was impossible. The demand was such that Bad Bunny announced, in successive hours, more concerts. In addition to those who were announced the next day are a total of twelve, all distributed between Madrid and Barcelona. It is absolutely unusual and a very unusual practice in events of this type, which lead to such a noticeable previous planning. Where this begins. In the early last decade, Ticketmaster began experimenting with dynamic prices, system which he launched in 2011. Over the years the practice was settled, and became a norm for the great events with the paradigm shift that postpandymia supposed. On his 2022 tour, Bruce Springsteen put him into practice and popularized dynamic prices, turning them into the new normality. Consequence: some entries of your tour of that year 5,000 dollars came to cost. End the resale. On paper, the intention of Ticketmaster (later absorbed by Live Nation) is to fight the second -hand black market. However, and how It has been analyzed in depthit is a practice that disproportionately benefits ticket sales and harms fans, as seen with the Lighting Reaction in Networks Because of concerts in Spain. It is not the first time: to the aforementioned protests on the springsteen tour we can add the fury that triggered The Oasis meeting, where in a few hours the original prices of the entries, or cases similar to Bad Bunny in Spain with Artists like Pearl Jam, Adele or AC/DC. The rebels. There are artists who have declared themselves against dynamic prices, Like The Cure, Neil Young or, very significantly, Taylor Swift. Of course, this attitude has earned everyone Notable clashes With Ticketmaster and Live Nation. The accusations of these and other monopoly practices artists (since, de factoLive Nation and Ticketmaster They control in the US The live events industry, with 60% of concert promotions in the main rooms of the country and about 80% of the main ticket sale) led to A demand of the country’s department of justice against the company for monopoly. The concert business. This behavior of Live Nation affects alone, it is true, the part of the live events, but in recent years the concerts have become the most profitable nucleus of the music business. As we counted a few days ago, concerts They are increasingly mastodonticwith a profitability out of any doubt. In Spain in 2024, live music entered 25.32% more than the previous year, 725.6 million euros. This upward traction is only possible in terms of great events and concerts in giant enclosures. There is a but. Although everything has a counterpart: the income of the concerts increased by number 8.7 %, but the average gross income by show fell 6.9 %, According to Pollstarand the average number of tickets sold by show decreased by 14.9 %. That is, it is not that people go to concerts more, it is that in just one year the tickets rose notoriously in price. Something that is only possible with strategies that do not have the public’s approval, such as dynamic prices. A real bubble of increasing prices and diminishing patiences. Header | Madrid wanted to make Bernabéu a new concerts. Aitana has given the tip to her plans

Orange has a silent plan to reign in Spanish telecos: get with all Masorange

by

Orange has begun to contact international investment banks, according to Expansionto prepare an offer for 50% of Masorange that does not control. It has reserved 4,400 million euros – processes of the megadividndo generated during the merger – specifically for that operation. The main vendors would be the providence funds (14.8%), KKR (13.4%) and Cinven (12.1%), together with Spanish minority shareholders. Why is it important. This movement can mark a turning point in the Spanish telecommunications market, where Orange wants to go from being one more competitor – the third operator, in fact – becoming a dominant giant. Give continuity to the process initiated with the fusion of MasMóvil and Orange Spain that culminated with Masorange. If materialized, this operation could influence competition, prices and services offered to millions of users Between the lines. He Timing The operation speaks for itself. Although the shareholders pact establishes that until September 2025 the works for a possible OPV cannot be formally initiated, Orange is already moving file. This anticipation shows the strategic importance that the French gives to the Spanish market … … but also its determination to avoid any possible complication or competitor interested in this participation. Orange CEO, Christel Heydemann, already dropped clues during the last presentation of results When mentioning that “the OPV was not the only option” and remember that they kept the 4.4 billion intact to “maintain all open options.” A clear sign of your will to explore other ways beyond the OPV. In perspective. This operation marks the final episode of European consolidation, where three large groups – Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica and Orange – are gradually creating an increasingly structured continental oligopoly. Spain, considered so far one of the most competitive markets in Europe and with relatively low prices, can begin to raise prices in the face of lower competition. Movistar, meanwhile, Has Vodafone Spain in the Diana and Digi. For Orange, converting Spain into its second most important market after France has enormous strategic value: It allows you to diversify risks to the regulatory pressure of your domestic market. And makes him gain financial muscle on the European stage. And now what. Although the formal operation cannot be closed until March 2026 (when the two -year period expires during which the sale of shares according to the fusion pact) is prohibited, everything indicates that Orange and the funds will prefer a direct sale instead of an OPV. An IPO to brush would complicate both parties: Orange would have a subsidiary quoted with greater obligations of rePorting And the funds would be forced to sell packages progressively. The greatest question is not whether Orange will complete the absorption, but how the Spanish market will be once you have total Masorange control. And, incidentally, if regulators will have something to say about this concentration of power in a sector as special as that of telecos. Chair change in Brussels, from Vestager to Riberayou can remove obstacles with European consolidation on the horizon. The key is no longer so much in itself, Orange will complete the operation, but how it could impact the Spanish market if consummated. And, incidentally, if regulators will have something to say about this concentration of power in a sector as special as that of telecos. In Xataka | The service that nobody wants to give but we all pay: this is how the universal internet works in Spain Outstanding image | Orange

All Netflix series have the same appearance and the same photograph. And Netflix has proposed to solve it

by

It is a runrún in the audiovisual industry for years: all Netflix productions have the same finish. In the case of the most almighty fiction factory of the moment, it is a problem, and has won him abundant criticism. Netflix herself knows it and has got to work to solve it: a series of technical novelties that want to end what has been known for years as “Netflix aesthetics.” What is Netflix aesthetics? It is about Visual finish of the series and platform filmsthat It draws attention For generating common features in products that, on paper, would not have to have them: romantic series, horror movies and even realities And documentaries end up receiving a very common distinctive bath with very recognizable characteristics: Excess shine and color; or, on the contrary, areas of the plane very dark or unnecessarily in gloom. Saturated lighting, especially in night images. Devotion to neons, in a kind of aesthetics inherited from the eighties (of what We believe that were the eighties, at least) and that is perceived in series like ‘Stranger Things‘. In terms of editing and assembly, little innovative decisions and Manido resourceseven sometimes overexpressive. The lighting highlights details of makeup and the costumes, which underlines how often Netflix productions have a little original or unnecessarily “studied” production design. In general terms, all these decisions lead to a Netflix production being recognizable at a distance, even in series and films with large production values ​​(‘red alert’) or that should be characterized, precisely, by its distinctive touch (‘Sandman’). But … why? This visual standardization is completely sought after, and there are several reasons for it. One is the standardization of the image due to the technical specifications that Netflix seeks. Among other things, A couple of years ago There was the obligation to use certain cameras, the minimum resolution requirements and what percentage of each production could use an unauthorized camera. These approved cameras began being just a couple, but the list has grown a lot since then. As Some observers claimthat list is currently as long as it could be in an independent production shot in digital. That is, you can no longer blame everything to the limitations that Netflix put a few years ago, because that list of recommended material to roll has grown a lot. What matters. The theoretical Haley Nahman It contributed a possible reason for this visual standardization of Netflix, when it began to detect it in productions outside the platform, such as the horror film ‘M3gan’, and which can basically be reduced to a search for “less conflict.” That is, scenarios with fewer elements, or less illuminated elements (more scarce characters, more sober decoration, more areas in gloom …). Thus costs are not only cheaper because you have to take care of less problematic aspects of a plane, but because it generates an “instruction book” to apply in every situation. The algorithm culture. Of course, the Blind faith of Netflix in the designs of the algorithm It also has a lot to do with this replacement for constants: if something works, it is tried to repeat, and that not only applies to the themes and genres, which we have seen with the appearance of clones of ‘The squid game‘ either ‘Bridgerton‘. It also affects aesthetics, and in that sense, manufacturing visual rollers that coincide with the most popular is more than a technical issue. Even the most striking finishes, such as ‘Stranger Things’, find their immediate replica (in ‘Fear Street’, for example). Below the risk. It is not necessary to influence it too much, but if Netflix has become the most popular and followed platform, it is to polish all kinds of stridency or aesthetics that leave the norm, in order to appeal to as many audience as possible. Again ‘red alert’ is the best example: a cast (The Rock, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot) that seems elaborated by an AI, an aesthetic that is the common average term of all spy films, an argument that has been made with an Excel sheet of common places … Beyond the final quality, what matters is to appeal to the most, the better. An improvement. Aware that this aesthetic can have its positive side in terms of effectiveness, but not so much if the belief is spread that everything that comes from the Netfllix factory is identical (and therefore, it is not worth approaching new proposals), the platform recently announced support for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. They are formats that allow a much broader dynamic and color range, and better preserve the creative intention and offering richer and detailed images. Specifically, the platform promises with this improvement more precise colors and greater detail in each frame, which will help mitigate one of the eternal complaints of the specyers: the darkest scenes of movies and series barely have details. It is a key movement for a future in which platforms are obliged to stand out in front of the competition. Or at least, it seems that each of its proposals has a distinctive and unique style. Header | Netflix In Xataka | ‘The Eternaluta’ is a masterpiece of science fiction, but the story of its creator gives him an absolutely unique background

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.