Eating

China is not only eating the West in electric cars or televisions. It also threatens Starbucks

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New York is so damn big that it would be logical that the news of the opening of two coffee shops would pass unnoticed. After all, the city that never sleeps is full of places where one can taste (or pick up) a lattecappuccino, macchiato or any other coffee variation that comes to mind. The opening of the first two Luckin Coffee stores a few months ago in the Big Apple was however sneaked into media such as CNN either The New York Times and has inspired analysis of all kinds out of the country. Logical. After all, in just a few years Luckin Coffee has achieved bend your pulse to Starbucks in China. Now, for his landing in New York, he has chosen a place located barely 60 meters from one of their cafes. What is Luckin Coffee? If its name doesn’t sound familiar to you, don’t worry, it’s more than understandable: Luckin is a coffee shop chain founded in 2017 in China by Jenny Qian and Charles Lu and since then its expansion has focused mainly on the Asian giant. In 2023 he achieved a key milestone by surpassing Starbucks as the largest coffee brand in China and in recent years it has not stopped growing: from close to 16,200 stores that it had that year in China (more than double that of its American rival) has gone on to manage more than 20,000 in several countries. In July the company spoke of 24,097 points of sale spread across mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. During the first quarter of 2025 alone, it launched 1,757. After taking over the Chinese market, a few months ago the company announced his landing in America with two stores in Manhattan and Washington Square Park, an area popular with students. “This is just the beginning. New York, we are here,” warned Luckin in networks. Is it that important? The landing of Luckin Coffee in the US market has generated expectation inside and outside the country. Normal. Your surprise Starbucks in China in 2023 (both in sales and number of stores) had a symbolic value that goes far beyond the numbers. To begin with, because the Asian giant is one of the big markets of the American multinational. Starbucks has also been established in the country for some time: it opened its first establishment in Beijing in 1999, contributing greatly to establish coffee culture in a nation that has traditionally opted for tea. That’s why Luckin’s jump to the US has generated so much interest. How has it succeeded? With a bet well defined. At least until now, Luckin Coffee’s strategy has been based on three pillars. First, a dizzying expansion focused on gaining market share. Second, the user experience. Customers manage their orders directly through an app and in just a few minutes they can collect their orders at the counter, without any human interaction. The mobile application is not only dynamic; It allows the company to retain its customers by using discounts, bonuses and gamification. The third bet is a wide offer and, above all, affordable prices. During its landing in the US, the Chinese chain has decided to launch aggressive discounts that leave its coffees in less than two dollars, considerably below of what Starbucks charges for its drinks in the Big Apple. In fact there is who points that the American multinational’s strategy to stand up to its Chinese rival will be to move in the opposite direction: if Luckin focuses on app orders and low prices, Starbucks has proposed eliminate the premises of their network that only accept orders via app and for pickup due to their low “warmth”. The idea: return to the origin, to the traditional cafeteria experience. Does it only happen with Luckin? No. In fact Luckin is just one of many Chinese tea chains, hot potsdrinks… that are landing in the US to compensate for the changes in the Chinese market. How he slid TNWT in a recent analysis On the subject, there they find an excess of supply and an economy weighed down by the real estate crisis and weakened consumption, which leads them to look to the other side of the Pacific. One of the threats that its US competitors face is that this leap comes with aggressive tariffs. Gaining a foothold in the US market will not be easy. The Luckin case is a clear example. It has just opened its first stores in New York, but in front of it it has almost 17,000 establishments that Starbucks manages in the US. If the Chinese chain has demonstrated something, however, it is its resistance. In fact, it has managed to overcome the serious crisis it experienced in 2020, when an accounting scandal left it on the edge of the abyss. Since then it has not only managed to recover and grow. Now aspire to quote again in the USA. Images | Xataka In Xataka | China has just beaten the United States in the most unexpected fight: that of branded coffee shops

Every time you think you’re eating poorly lately, think about these Neanderthals who ate their neighbors.

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Approximately 40,000 years ago, a group of Neanderthals captured girls and women, took them to the vicinity of the Goyet caves (in present-day Belgium) and ate them. And no, it’s not a figure of speech. What is a girl like you doing in a place like this? Although the third Goyet cavern has been studied since the 19th century, it was not until a few years ago that tomographic techniques, ancient DNA analysis and isotonic measurements have allowed us to fully understand what was happening in the heart of the mountain. And we have seen the best example a few days ago in Scientific Reports, Quentin Cosnefroy and a large team of European researchers have managed to identify a minimum of six individuals among the mass of bones to be studied. At least four were adult or teenage women of short stature and surprisingly fragile bones. And that in itself was quite curious: why was the proportion of women so high? But it wasn’t the most curious thing: the most curious thing is that they had been eaten. Hunger. According to the analysis, virtually all of the bones show cut marks, fracturing for marrow extraction, and other signs of processing for human consumption. But the most striking thing is the selection: it is not a random group, but a very specific demographic sample. I have already said the key: the bones were too graceful to be Neanderthal bones (who, remember, populated the caves at that time). The isotopic studies showed that none of these individuals came from the vicinity of Goyet: that is, they were women from other groups who (as I said) were captured and taken to the cave to be consumed with tools. They were a banquet. And no, I’m not going overboard with sensationalism. The same study acknowledges that the statistical probability of finding such a gender and age composition is ridiculous. “The exclusive presence of women and children in the Goyet complex does not respond to chance or a sample of natural mortality. It is a deliberate selection,” said Christian Pérez. And he was right. The only reasonable explanation is exocannibalism; something that had only been identified in modern ethnographic contexts as a form of violence towards groups (in the context of tribal wars). As the authors pointed out, this interpretative key is what can help us understand what was happening. The last living Neanderthal. Little by little, the question of what happened to the Neanderthal universe becomes more accessible to us. In fact, “the appearance of extreme behaviors such as selective cannibalism could be interpreted as an expression of growing tensions” and that clears up many doubts about what could (and could not) happen. As much as the theories on assimilation gain strengththe truth is that this admiration was not a bed of roses. Image | Matt Benson In Xataka | The story behind the “terror farm” of Burgos: cannibalism, rats, corpses… and animal welfare seal

The problem is not that there is a risk of eating chicken in Spain: it is that it is going to get very expensive

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In November 2023, Luciana Gallo and her team toured Punta León, a protected natural area on the southern coast of Patagonia. “It was like walking on a battlefield,” explained in SINC. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It was truly shocking: mountains of dead birds on the beach, thousands of elephants and sea lions dying.” The bird flu had reached that remote place in Argentina. A few weeks ago we confirmed that had arrived at the antarctic island from South Georgia killing 50,000 females elephant seal These days, however, the news caught us closer: it had also arrived in Spain. And the truth is that while the headlines are filled with bird flu, mass confinements and health alerts, chicken continues to be a central food in our diet. So it is logical that panic has spread. And, of course, that is a problem: a huge problem. In Xataka They are touching our balls (specifically, their price) Although not the one we tend to think. Although we are witnessing live and direct the largest epizootic of which we have records, the WHO continues to consider that the general risk to public health posed by A(H5N1) is low. Because, as Sergio Ferrer points out a few months ago, the most surprising thing about what we are seeing these years is that, “despite being immersed in a massive and historic wildlife mortality event, very few cases have been detected in humans.” And of course, there is no risk of contagion from consuming chicken or eggs from the supermarket. “No one has caught the bird flu virus from eating properly cooked animals or animal products,” said Jatin M. Vyasfrom Columbia University and he was right. Today, eating well-cooked poultry products is safe. That’s not the problem. And what is the problem? That the last thing a sector subjected to increasing costs, mandatory investments and minimum margins needed is a “global pandemic“. The consequences are clear in chicken meat. According to the Ministry of Agriculturethe price at origin of chicken meat in Spain was around €2.37/kg in week 38 of 2025. That is, an increase of 4% compared to the same moment in 2024. A moment in which, thanks to inflation, the price was already high. In Europe, the situation is worse: the price of broiler chicken has exceeded €3/kg for the first time and that represents an increase of 11.2% year-on-year. Something similar happens with eggs.. {“videoId”:”x7zvhsf”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”REAL VS. FAKE BURGERS Could you tell them apart?”, “tag”:”food”, “duration”:”221″} And we’re talking about chicken, mind you. Chicken is not just another product: for years it has been the cheapest meat per kilo of protein. That is to say, It is the cheap protein par excellence. If the price breaks, the balance of the entire country’s shopping basket is broken. We have a serious problem around the corner. We better not miss the shot. Image | In Xataka |The United States has been immersed in extreme egg prices for months. Spain now faces the same problem (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news The problem is not that there is a risk of eating chicken in Spain: it is that it is going to get very expensive was originally published in Xataka by Javier Jimenez .

The Steam Machine’s key to eating the market will be the price. And there Valve has an ace up its sleeve

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The video game world is revolutionized. It’s not every day that a new “PC-console” is announced, but even rarer is that the device comes from Valve. They have just presented the Steam Machinea console-shaped PC that has been posed as a direct threat to Xbox and PS5but also for the Windows PC itself. Much has changed since Steam Machines from a decade ago and, with the new model, Valve will not take timid steps. Steam Deck has shown them that they have a lot to say in the field of hardware, but as always, success will depend on the price of the Steam Machine. It has to be attractive to gain a foothold. And Valve has a wild card called 30%. The price of the Steam Machine and the 30% wildcard A decade ago, Valve already took a hit with the first Steam Machines. He said that they were a timid bet because Valve developed the system, but between the fact that there were not so many games available for it (based on Linux) and that the machines were not designed by Valve, but rather delegated to companies like Asus and AlienWare (which set prices that were not competitive), well the thing ended… badly. The situation has changed a lot by three factors: In the shadows they continued to develop the Steam OS systemmaking it compatible with both Linux and Windows games. They launched a Steam Deck with which they have shown that they know how to make competitive hardware. Although threats such as Amazon and Epic Games have appeared, their platform remains the undisputed queen when we talk about PC gaming. The Steam Machine will arrive (accompanied by a new controller and a virtual reality viewer named Steam Frame) at the beginning of 2026. We do not know the specific date, nor the price. And, of course, once the initial excitement of the announcement had passed, the conversation turned to theorizing about the price of the Steam Machine. Here I want to be cautious because whenever hypotheses are launched about the price of hardware there are a lot of factors that come into play. We can take the components as a reference and say “To build a PC like this is about 700 euros”but then there are the design costs (it is very small and that increases the price), development, logistics… The last time the price of a console was theorized was with nintendo switch 2and their 470 euros They ended up surprising (although the 90 of some of their games were more surprising). Therefore, I don’t want to venture to say whether the Steam Machine will cost more or less. There are some clues. The Verge is one of the media outlets that has had the machine nearby and claims that Valve plans a price “similar to a PC with similar features.” From the middle they point about $800, but that’s only in components (without the system and other costs, for example), but the components are customized and look like versions of laptop CPUs and GPUs, not the ones we can buy for a desktop. From the technical media Digital Foundry take for granted that the range will be between 500 and 600 euros, but again: it is difficult to estimate because there is not much to scratch. Now, my reflection is that, if the objective of Steam is to punch the table and wants to take part of the pie from both the consoles Like the PC itself, the Steam Machine will be sold at a loss. Because? Because if there is a company that can afford it, it is Valve. For starters, it’s a private company. Gabe Newel, Valve’s boss, owns 51% of the shares. This implies that they do not have to give explanations to shareholders. This is why we do not have public figures for Steam profits or Steam Deck sales (although it is esteem which dominates the -small- consolidated PC market). But the reason why Valve can sell a console at a loss, or not care so much about not making money per machine sold, is because all the ones they sell have Steam as launcher and store, and the company keeps a significant percentage per game sold on the platform. That percentage is around 30%which implies that if a million copies of a game are sold, Valve’s share of the pie is considerable. And, although not all games sell millions, thousands of video games are released every month. that “solely” for setting up the servers and hosting the games developed by other companies. Besides, there is the matter of the stickersa market in which Steam also keeps a good percentage of each transaction. AND It is something that moves dizzying figures. On the Steam Machine, as on the Steam Deck, you can run games from platforms such as GOG, Epic or Rockstar, but in the end The PC marketplace par excellence is Steam. It is the mainstream platform and each of those Steam Machines will be a window to a store that has offers every now and then and that is very well positioned at a time when console games are more and more expensive. The consoles themselves are much more expensive than when they were launched five years ago. Therefore, although it is impossible to guess a price for the Steam Machine, as I said, If there is someone who can sell their machine at a loss because it will recover the difference with the software, that is Valve. And if they launch an affordable machine, with the market as it is, they can deal a tremendous blow to their direct competitors: consoles. But also to the PC itself. In Xataka | There are more and more physical video games that are paperweights. It is a tremendous problem for video games as art.

Meta’s star AI scientist plans to leave the company, according to the FT. The new goal is eating the old goal.

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The head of artificial intelligence at Meta, Yann LeCun, would be preparing to leave the company to found his own startup, according to inform Financial Times. The departure of the prestigious researcher, winner of the Turing Award and considered one of the fathers of modern AI, symbolizes the radical change that Mark Zuckerberg is giving to Meta’s strategy around AI. The changing of the guard. LeCun, who led the Fundamental AI Research Laboratory (FAIR) since 2013, is now in an uncomfortable position within Meta. This summer, Zuckerberg hired Alexander Wang28, to lead a new “superintelligence” team, paying $14.3 billion to take 49% of Scale AI, the data labeling startup Wang had founded. As a result of this restructuring, LeCun went from reporting to chief product officer Chris Cox to reporting to Wang, according to account Financial Times. A philosophical divorce. The tension is not only organizational, but conceptual. LeCun has long publicly defended that the language models on which Zuckerberg has focused his strategy are “useful” but will never be able to reason or plan like humans. His bet from FAIR has been different: the so-called “world models”AI systems that learn from the physical environment through videos and spatial data, not just language. A path that, according to LeCun himself, could take a decade to bear fruit. Meta’s problems with AI. Zuckerberg’s reorganization comes after several setbacks. The launch of Call 4 It has not gone as the company would have liked, falling below the most advanced proposals from OpenAI, Google and Anthropic. Additionally, Meta AI, the company’s chatbot, has also not gained traction among users. Meanwhile, Zuckerberg has hired dozens of engineers and competing researchers with pay packages of up to $100 million, creating a dedicated team called TBD Lab to accelerate the development of new versions of its language models. The cost of pivoting. The shift toward practical AI appears to have generated internal chaos. Sources cited by TechCrunch In August they revealed the frustration of new hires when facing the bureaucracy of a large company, while the previous generative AI team saw its scope reduced. In October, Meta laid off 600 people of its AI research unit to cut costs and accelerate product launches. Also in May Joelle Pineau left the companyvice president of AI research, who joined Canadian startup Cohere. What’s coming now. According to two sources Cited by the Financial Times, LeCun’s new project will focus on continuing his work on world models, and he has already started talks to raise funding. His departure, scheduled for the coming months, represents more than the departure of a brilliant scientist: it is confirmation that Meta’s old long-term focus has been relegated by the urgency of competing in the short term with more practical solutions. As Wall Street pressures Zuckerberg to justify an investment in AI that could exceed $100 billion In 2025, the company would be losing one of its most recognized brains along the way. Cover image | Goal and AFP In Xataka | AI was supposed to reduce costs and reduce staff. The Coca-Cola ad illustrates how much we were wrong

For years the white label was the ugly duckling of the super Spanish. Now it is slowly eating up the market

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The white marks continue to get stronger in the retail Spanish. And clearly, with resounding growth both in the ‘short assortment’ chains that have traditionally opted for them (Mercadona, Lidl or Aldi) and among others that have chosen to adapt their offer and give them greater prominence, in the case of Alcampo, Eroski or Carrefour. The trend as such has been seen since some time agobut the latest data published by Worlpanel by Numerator (advanced today by elEconomista.es) are especially forceful. What does the data say? That in recent years the weight of its own brands has clearly grown in the country’s main supermarkets, including Mercadona, the chain that owns higher quota of market in the sector. If in 2023 Mercadona’s white brands (with Hacendado at the head) represented 72.9% of its sales, the latest data from Worldpanel show that this percentage now stands at 77.8%. It is a high figure, but not the highest in the sector. It is surpassed by Lidl, where private labels account for 80.7% of sales. In your case, yes, a slight drop has been recorded: the percentage improves on that of 2023 (79.7%), but reveals a slight decline when compared to that of 2024. Chain % of white label sales 2023 % of white label sales 2024 % of white label sales 2025 Lidl 79.7% 81.9% 89.7% Mercadona 72.9% 74.5% 77.8% aldi 68.8% 69.1% 74.5% Day 54.2% 56.3% 65.1% consumption 33% 35.9% 37.4% Carrefour 29.3% 31.4% 33.3% Eroski 25.6% 28.4% 31.2% Alcampo 21.5% 24.3% 23.8% And the rest of the chains? They have also seen the white label imprint grow. Let’s see. In Aldi it has gone from 68.8% in 2023 to the current 74.5%, in Dia from 54.2% to 65.1%, in Consum from 33% to 37.4%, in Carrefour from 29.3% to 33.3%, in Eroski from 25.6% to 31.2% and in Alcampo from 21.5% to 23.8%. Its quota has not only expanded, it has also done so in a practically sustained manner. The only chains that have recorded a decline or stagnation between 2024 and 2025 are Lidl and Alcampo. The latter is also the only one that remains below 25%. Is there data from the entire sector? Yes. The latest data from Worldpannel by Numerator allows us to go into detail about the main chains, but the picture is not very different if we analyze the sector as a whole. another report Recent research by the consulting firm NIQ shows that, if we talk about food, the market share of distribution brands is around 54%. That was the data at least for September. That of the annual accumulated (first nine months of the year) marks 53.5%. The percentage is interesting because it shows a clear growth trend and is at values ​​never seen before. What is the reason? As is usually the case, the rise in private labels does not respond to a single factor. Multiple causes come into play, although there are two particularly interesting ones. The first is the growth of those known as short assortment chainssupermarkets with a limited selection of products and a strong commitment to their own items. The clearest example is Mercadona, which has managed to achieve a market share of more than 27%but there are others, such as Lidl or Aldi, which according to Worldpanel bring together a 6.9% and 1.9% of quota. And the other reason? The commercial strategy. Supermarkets have been laying the groundwork for years to promote their brands. This is what I suggested in 2024 a Kantar study. Their data must be handled with caution because they are presented by Promarca, a representative of manufacturers and therefore an interested party, but they are curious: according to the report, between 2018 and 2023 the supply of private label products increased by 13% on shelves while that of external items decreased by 23%. That is the general data, if we go down to detail and analyze chain by chain, noticeable variations are observed. In the case of Mercadona for example the study reveals that the presence of manufacturer brands was reduced by 45% in just five years. In the case of Dia the collapse was 42% and in that of Eroski it was almost 31%. An analysis by Kantar and The Battle Group also shows that this loss of footprint was accompanied by an increase in rates: third-party items are sold at prices between 5 and 160% higher than those of private labels. Are there more factors at play? Yes, there are. The prices, the offer and especially a cultural change which has favored private label brands, stripping them of the stigma that weighed on them for years. Mercadona once again sets a good example: Hacendado competes with premium brands and has some products that customers demand, prioritizing even other brands. The big question is how far brands like Hacendado, Auchan or Seleqtia (to name three examples) will be able to expand their share, as they find it very difficult to compete in certain niches in which traditional brands succeed. It is something that Worldpanel already warned about in one of your latest reportsin which he pointed out a certain “slowdown” in the growth of the value share of own brands. Images | Eroski Group (Flickr) Via | elEconomista.es In Xataka | Action supermarkets have gone from being unknown to conquering half of Europe. In Spain they will not have it easy

Thousands of people have been drinking apple vinegar for years before eating to lose weight. The fault has an erroneous study

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A couple of months ago, the last viral trend of social networks was taken on an empty stomach in the morning recently raised: the “morning sucks.” There were all kinds: apple vinegar, of grass Or even A tablespoon coconut oil. Everyone promises the same: flat bellies, express detox and accelerated metabolism. Under the appearance of natural remedy, the illusion of a quick solution was really sold. In particular, apple vinegar stands out as the biggest protagonist, since a study endorsed it, but it was a misinterpretation. The origin of the myth. We have always heard that phrase of “speaking people understand”, although quite simplistic it is that misunderstandings are the order of the day and in science they are usually given. To get to the origin of that study, the tracking takes you to a study published in BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health. This research became popular to ensure that apple vinegar helped lose weight. However, According to Sciencedailythat study has been retracted after detecting inconsistencies in data and serious errors in statistical analysis. In science, a retraction is an exceptional mechanism: it means recognizing that the results are not reliable and, therefore, that the study should no longer be cited as evidence. It is a guarantee of self -correction, but it is late when the finding has already traveled media and viral videos. The viralization of myth. The networks did the rest. Under hashtags like #guthealth or #morningritual, vinegar It settled In morning routines with other “shots” that promise express benefits: ginger, turmeric, teas detox. As we detail in Xatakathis phenomenon is understood in the framework of the culture of immediacy: we live at a time when rapid and visible results are sought. A morning drink fits perfectly with that promise of instant change. The problem is that neither vinegar nor any of these mixtures fulfill what they promise. And in some cases They can have adverse effects: Excessive consumption of fasting vinegar can irritate the stomach and esophagus, damage tooth enamel and cause digestive discomfort. More studies. Beyond the retracting study, there are research that has analyzed the effect of vinegar on metabolic health, although scientific evidence remains low. A systematic review, Posted in Pubmed Central in 2021evaluated clinical trials on this product. According to this work, vinegar can have modest effects on the reduction of blood glucose and total cholesterol. But the same review warns: there is no solid evidence that it causes clinically relevant weight losses. In other words: vinegar is not a burning, much less a magical solution to lose weight. The mirage of detox. The rise of these “morning shots” also relies on the language of the detox. However, experts Remember that Detoxification does not work like this: the body already has organs such as the liver and the kidneys that fulfill that function continuously. Chupitos do not “clean” the organism, but they do perpetuate the idea that there are miraculous shortcuts to compensate for excesses. An even greater paradigm. The history of apple vinegar is, in the background, a lesson on how health myths are built in the digital age. A study with methodological errors, amplified on social networks, became a global ritual. And although today we know that there was no evidence behind, the practice was already installed in millions of morning routines. The lesson is clear: easy solutions are rarely, and health is not built with shortcuts. Image | Freepik and Pexels Xataka | There are people taking a “sucking” apple vinegar in the morning. Science has an opinion about it

Openai not only dominates in ia. Now the App Store in the United States with Sora and Chatgpt is also “eating”

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Getting to the podium of the most popular free applications of the App Store is the dream of any developer. It is not just about adding downloads: it means achieving a massive user base and enviable visibility. For many, the reasoning is automatic: “If this app has come here, something must have.” In that scenario, Openai is marking a milestone. The company of Sam Altman barely has two applications and both They occupy the highest positions of the ranking in the United States. It is a direct reflection of the interest that arouses among users and the influence that the firm has acquired in a matter of months. A surprise launch. On Tuesday, after announcing with just a couple of hours in advance, an event, Openai presented a new version of its video generator. But the real surprise came later: An application with a spirit of Tiktoklaunched at the moment in the United States and Canada under invitation. A brilliant rise. Although its access was limited, the app began to add downloads quickly. In just one day it reached 56,000 facilities, According to Appfiguresand this Friday had already become the most unloaded application in the country. An immediate irruption reminiscent of the viral phenomena of other times. The success of Sora by OpenAi It soon reflected in Apple’s official data. The app has reached the first place of the section “Top Charts”surpassing a GeminiGoogle’s chatbot, already Chatgptthe other application of Openai itself. Besides, it also dominates The photo and video category. Much more than download. Being up in the App Store does not depend only on the volume of facilities. Specialists in the field They point out that Apple uses an algorithm that, in addition to downloads, values ​​the retention of users, reviews, the stability of the app and other decisive factors. The details of the algorithm, however, are unknown. The viral factor. Sora’s proposal has met expectations: becoming a viral content factory. Its dynamics encourages users to star in their own memes and share them in a social environment That, in turn, multiplies its reach. The result is an addictive experience that is gaining ground at high speed. OpenAI in front of the usual giants. Today, the place that once occupied WhatsApp, Facebook or Messenger is claimed by OpenAi applications. In the United States general list, the first finish applies appears in the fourth position with Threadsand it is not until the 13th place that we find WhatsApp. What we are seeing is an OpenAi settlement in the digital life of millions of people. The company not only marks the step in artificial intelligence: it is also conquering one of the most influential platforms in the world, the App Store. Images | Screen capture In Xataka | Openai is demonstrating to be able to overcome the goal in virality. His mission was not supposed to be that

In Spain, eating chocolate is becoming a luxury. And that has begun to take its toll on your consumption

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Despite price swings And that the tablets no longer take the deficated rhythm of A few months agothe chocolate market continues to cross turbulence. The latest IPC data show that eating chocolate today comes out 19% more expensive that a year ago, which threatens to convert the chocolates and chocolates into (almost) a luxury. Consumption is not falling to the same extent in which prices rise, but the industry begins to understand a reality: demand, even the very very chocolate, It is not immune to inflation. The big question is now … Will prices continue to upload? A percentage: -13%. They do not run good times for cocoa and chocolate lovers. It is something that We have been saying. Your crisis responds to A mixture of factors that transcend Spain, but still the data that are coming from the national market help to better understand its evolution and perspectives. One of the last clues is the INE in your price index August. It shows that both chocolate and cocoa powder continue to make more expensive. The first is today 13.1% more expensive than in January and 18.8% more than a year ago. In the case of the second, the product that is marketed in dust, the percentages are respectively at 10 and 11.8%. They are not as strong increases as those of a few months ago, when the interannual chocolate climb touched 25%but still far exceed General Food CPIwhich barely grew 1.8%. Consumption, in retreat. The price is not the only clue we have to understand the chocolate situation in Spain. Moreover, there is another equally important (or even more) indicator that is directly related to the evolution of costs: demand. And this is also far from moving in positive values. As the price of chocolates, tablets, nougat and other cocoa products rose, its demand was contracted. And what, how has you denounced Facua, at least part of the sector attempted to compensate for raw materials through a strategy of “Redouflation”which basically consists in reducing the size of the product without touching its price. At the end of 2024, for example, the organization detected that practice in Christmas sweets. And how does demand evolve? If we talk about chocolates, cocoa and their derivatives, the data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food draw a negative curve. Your study ‘Food consumption in Spain’prepared with data from 2024, shows that last year we buy less than the previous one. The fall was 4.4%, although in the specific case of per capita consumption the setback was higher, 5.6%staying at about 3.03 kilos per individual and year. “In the long term, the purchase of these products by Spanish households decreases, because 4.7% less chocolates/cacaos are bought than with respect to 2008,” Precian From map, which clarify in any case that this setback does not affect the entire sector equally. In fact, it is concentrated in derivatives, which retreat 10%. Chocolates grew 6.2%. Four of the 2024 food report published by the Government. Are there more updated data? Yes. And although the figures change the sign, negative. Updated data The Ministry on Food Consumption shows that in the mobile year at the end of the first quarter (March 24-March 25) the demand for chocolates and cocoa in Spain had reduced 6.1%, leaving per capita intake by 2.96 kg. A year earlier that indicator was greater: 3.19 kg. Now, that fall leaves a positive reading for the industry: chocolate is enduring the price increase well. Or at least he is not suffering as much as he could. It is reflected by another report published in July by Nielseniq, which esteem That the demand for sweets in general has contracted 2.6%, that of chocolate 3.2%and that of cocoa 1.7%. It may seem a lot, but it shows an amazing resistance of the product if one takes into account that in a few years it reached take up 30%. Less consumption, more expense. The Data from the Ministry of Food They show a curious trend in the chocolate sector, one that is probably explained by that decoupling between the rhythm to which prices rise and to which demand lowers. In 2024 we might have bought less chocolate, cocoa and derived products, but if we talk about the money moved in the market the data is superior. “In terms of value, the category closes with an increase of 6.4%, which means a gain of 86.5 million euros for the industry,” Confirm the mapwhich has also found the increase in ounces throughout the year 2024. “The average price of these products is € 10.11/kilo, a figure that is 11.3% greater than last year, an increase of € 1.02/kilo.” Year (Tam March) Consumption (kg/per capita) of chocolates/cacaos/dirt 2O25 2.96 2024 3.19 2023 3.21 2022 3.54 2021 4.03 2020 3.57 2019 3.57 Millions of millions (which). The Photo of the year included between the months of March 2024 and 2025 is similar. The millions of kilos of chocolate that moved in the industry fall, but the millions of euros of billing rise. To be precise, the first indicator retreated 6.1%. The second grew by 7.1%. In fact it is one of the greatest increases between the categories identified by Map in its latest report. Only the prepared dishes (10.8%), olive oil (11.8%), frozen potatoes (11.9%), some fresh fruits (8%) and part of the wine industry, although with lower billing levels, are exceeded. How does the industry respond? Recently, coinciding with the World Chocolate DayEfe published a balance that shows that (despite everything) the chocolate industry is maintaining its sales and enduring the guy. It does so in thanks to exports. According to the data it manages, in 2024 consumption grew by 7.5% in value while its volume was reduced by 3.9%. I wish They stand out That data and remember that in 2023 the difference between spending and volume was more pronounced. “There is an effort, since profitability is reduced by the cost of raw material.” For the Spanish industry … Read more

Threads is eating the toast to X. He is doing it without making noise and with some data that already starts to weigh

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Not all the mountain is oregano and not all text -based social networks are X. After the Elon Musk arrival at xthen Twitter, there were few users who fled from the bird’s social network in search of more green pastures. It was then that Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO, opened the doors of his: Threads. Two years They have passed Since then and the platform has grown to become a powerful X rival, one that already begins to stand up. The data. As confirmed yesterday Zuckerberg and Adam Mosseri (Instagram CEO) In its official profiles, Threads has managed to reach 400 million monthly active users. It is a significant figure, especially considering that they closed 2024 with Something more than 275 million users that in April the amount amounted to 350 million. 23 Twitter tricks – This social network is completely dominated! Monthly active users (MAU) are a key indicator to quantify the performance, state and health of, in this case, a social network. This metric measures the number of unique users who have visited the platform at least once during the past month. That the Mau grow is a good sign. And what about X? The only information related to X we have in some of the latest statements by Linda Yaccarino, which until a few weeks ago was the CEO of X. According to YaccarinoAs of April 2025 x, it had 600 million monthly active users. The growth was, however, softer. In September 2024 X it had 570 million Mau that, in January, became 586 million. That is, in general terms X it has more monthly active users than Threads, but the growth of Threads is much higher. On the other hand, it is also evident that Threads has more growth capacity than X, a social network that Elon Musk apart, already showed signs of having touched the roof when it was Twitter. Anyway, they are data that must be taken with tweezers because in both cases the source are the ceos of the platforms and, therefore, interested parties. A matter of use. However, there are more third -party data that support the growth of Threads. According to SimilarWebThreads and X have a very similar amount of daily active users (Dau) in their mobile apps: as of June 2025, the X and Android apps had 132 million Dau (15.2% less than the previous year), while Threads added 115.1 million (127.8% more than the previous year). The photo is very different if we look at the use of the websites, with X adding 145.8 million daily visits and Threads only 6.9 million. On the other hand, and according to Apptopia data Shared by Sheel MohnotThreads wins X in another key metric: the engagement. Threads users enter the app 6.6 times a day and each session lasts 190 seconds, while those of X enter 7.3 times and 150 seconds pass. This, in other words, means that Threads users spend 21 minutes daily using the app, while X spends 18 minutes. Threads has fewer users, but those who have them retains them for longer. Threads has a large user tractor: integration with Instagram THE ALMENDRUCO trick. It is no secret that goal has made Threads grow based on integrating it with one of the great titans of the industry of the industry of the doom scrolling: Instagram. IG users see some THREADS posts in their feeds, they can interconnect both profiles and even receive Instagram Push notifications with Threads content. Goal has its weapons and is using them quite intelligence. And Bluesky? Another of the most popular alternatives is Bluesky. After growing greatly at the end of last yearthe platform currently adds 38.2 million registered users, although its real activity is much lower than that of X and Threads users. According to the data of your own API, you have between 600,000 and 700,000 users publishing content and around 1.2 million interacting with the posts. At the moment, it still does not shade the proposals of Meta and X. Cover image | Xataka In Xataka | Bluesky and Fediverso want to stand up to the goal. These are the alternatives to Instagram that are already on the table

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