empire Archives - Page 3 of 3

The world’s largest cars laundry empire

June 18, 2025 by usatoday24

80 years ago, German businessman Joseph Enning set up a business he discovered after spending a year studying in the United States. A car laundry. That tunnel-car-wash that saw in New York had only a conveyor belt, a couple of groups of brushes and a blower to dry the cars. In 1964, he decided to inaugurate the first car wash under the name of MRW-Uuto-Service GmbH. And from there, the rest is history. At that time, Europe had nothing similar. The laundries were completely manual, scarce and expensive. It imported a concept that the United States had been using since the 1950s and, for practically 20 years operating in practically alone, it had hardly any competition. Since then, MR.Wash has opened more than 30 locations in Germany, and Clean more than 8 million cars a year. They are numbers that compete with the laundries installed in the gas stations of the main fuel distributors. The German group is currently considered as the largest automatic laundry operator by center volume (How many cars washed a single center per day), attending up to 5,000 cars per day, 300 every hour with about 100 workers per center. For more context it is convenient to know that in Spain, One of Norauto’s longest tunnels (50 meters)accompanied by a total of 24 boxes, manages to make about 30,000 washes per year. To achieve this volume of daily washes, the company needs unusual laundry. Some of them, Like the open in Bonn in 2021They have a total of three floors and carry a cost of 20 million euros at their opening. An area of 5,800 square meters in which plants construction is key to taking advantage of spaces. In Spain, one of Norauto’s longest tunnels (50 meters), accompanied by a total of 24 boxes, achieves about 30,000 washes per year. A volume of washing remarkably lower than that of a single MR.Wash center. There is also nothing similar in Europe or outside it: the maximum capacity usually is around 1,000 daily washes. This ends up translating into an annual turnover, with 2023 figures, 140 million euros only in washes. To which we must add the adjacent service stations of the group itself (110 million) and another 40 for its oil change services. The business and customer service model goes far beyond car washing. In the facilities there is cafeteria to wait while they wash in the car There is library service (in this case, free) In addition to automated washing services, facilities include manual washing boxes Basic maintenance services are offered, such as oil changes If you wonder how much it costs to wash the car in such a place, the answer is … it depends. The basic programs start from 12 euros, which include interior washing up to 40 euros, and the most premium washing rises to 75 euros including tires, shine and waxed. As a curiosity, in some of the MR.Wash centers, the manager himself manually ends the service if the client is not satisfied. Image | MR.Carwash

Sam Altman is building an empire with Openai. One with some lights and with many shadows

May 26, 2025 by usatoday24

Sam Altman is a master of empathy. He listens to you as if you were the most interesting person in the world, learn what he needs about you and his speech fits what you want. And so convince you. It is one of the first conclusions that Karen Hao arrives in her new book ‘Empire of ai’. In it we are narrated OpenAI origins and its evolution Thanks to hundreds of interviews with employees and former employees of the company, in addition to those made to professionals from other companies in the artificial intelligence industry. Altman is loved or hated, there is no middle ground We actually know the story – in Xataka We have been Speaking of Openai – but what Hao proposes to us is a visit to what happens behind the scenes, contributing many details that help us understand the past, present and perhaps the future of the company. Many of those details focus on the figure of Sam Altman, which does not go especially well stopped. Brilliant as a seller of apparently impossible projects, Altman is sparse in words in his communications with other colleagues. Write emails with a single word, “Meet”to arrange appointments, and sometimes use a simple “?” Because who writes less seems to win the game. Of that Jeff Bezos knows a lot. That, of course, when I wrote something, because according to Hao Altman leaves almost nothing written. Everything is verbal, something that allowed him to argue after people did not remember well what he had talked to him. The opinions of those who talk about him in the book are significant. One of them commented that “it is so attentive. But partly uses it to find out how to influence you in different ways.” Others commented how Altman avoids expressing negative emotions and also confrontation. He dodged the word “no” in conversations with other people. “Others began to see him as someone diabolically capable of beating situations in his favor.” Ilya Sutskever, one of the co -founders who came after her differences with him, left A disturbing statement: “I don’t think Sam is the right person to be the one who has your finger on the AGI button.” OpenAi lives his own ‘Game of Thrones’ Paul Graham, his mentor in Yc Combinator, left two citations that leave a clear idea of what Sam Altman is like. In the first commented that “you could throw in parachute to an island full of cannibals, return in five years and he would be the king.” In the second reinforced That vision of his protégé: “Sam is extremely good when it comes to becoming someone with power.” It is something that Hao often mentions in the book and that makes it clear that Altman does very well one thing: win the battles for power. There are two clear examples, also known. The first, when managed to snatch Musk The direction of Openai at the beginning of that unique adventure. The second, when After his scandalous dismissal He returned more force than ever as the almighty CEO of OpenAi. Those two moments in the history of this company are actually reflecting what happens in any empire: the view seen is usually impeccable, great, powerful. The hidden face is full of internal conflicts and wars, battles for power, and rivalries and differences of criteria that end badly. In all these battles an Altman was imposed again and again that according to Hao used a singular tactic: he changed his speech according to the interlocutor. What he had told A was often what he had told B. The problem arose when A and B were talking about what Altman had told both of them. That also happened with Openai’s original vision. Created as a laboratory for the development of a beneficial for the world, The approach would change soon. To share knowledge and details about its models, the company became a secretism bunker. Seeking to be the AI monopoly Like Oppenheimer, Altman Believe That “technology occurs because it is possible”, and like others before him – including one of his mentors and friends, Peter Thiel – his goal (such as his competitors, of course) is clear according to Hao: What he wants is to create an AI monopoly. We have seen that with the evolution of their models, increasingly powerful, and that They were there to earn money. That was the vision that has ended up winning. The other, to try to develop a safe and “aligned with the objectives of the human race” has been in the background. In fact Hao reflects it well in the book. If Openai is leading the AI career today it is not only for having been the first to launch a chatbot like Chatgpt, but for its apparently disproportionate climbing. He has invested more than anyone from the beginning. To start, to capture talent. When the project began to create OpenAi Ilya Sutskever, I worked in Google Brain and was already considered a superlla of this segment. The rest of the founding members were offered a salary of $ 175,000 and shares of YC Combinator or Spacex. But Sutskever was offered almost two million dollars annuallybut Google counteroffierted on a bid whose final figure is not known. What is known is that Sutskever ended up abandoning Google to sign for Openai –And then leave it-. In 2016 of the 11 million that Openai spent, seven were for salaries. Initially the company “did not really know what I was doing,” explains Hao: few of the things they worked worked, and those who did it “seemed little original or something someone had already done.” There were more ambitious bets. It is demonstrated by the famous demo of that kind of “GPT 2.5” that made Bill Gates in April 2019. Until then those who investigated the development of foundational models of AI did so training those models with a few dozen gpus. Darío Amodei – who ended up leaving Openai to co -confound … Read more

Ozores was a day the most important person in Spain. To the point of delaying the premiere of ‘The Empire Contraataca’

May 21, 2025 by usatoday24

He has died Mariano Ozoresone of the best known and box office directors in the history of Spanish cinema. Although his cinema has always been despised by critics, his films were infallible blockbusters that put on his competitors on his competitors. Including ‘Star Wars’, whose first sequel had to give in to the overwhelming power of Pajares and Esteso. Long live ozores. Mariano Ozores was one of the main exponents of the Spanish popular comedy since the sixties. His ability to connect with the public was notable thanks to a style that balanced the accessible and the irreverent: as Bruguera of flesh and blood bruguerahis films were simple in the form, but corrosive in what was navigating below. The costumbrista typology, the Spanish scenarios, the explosive humor: key was its style, for example, to strengthen what was known as’Landism‘, pure Hispanic anthropology with the best comedy deals of the time. Great successes. In addition to the films with Alfredo Landa, without a doubt his greatest successes were the ones he signed at the service of Andrés Pajares and Fernando Esteso. With them he signed the legendary ‘Los Bingueros’, sociological phenomenon and more grossing film of that year in Spain, but also ‘The Energy’, ‘Los Liantes’ or ‘Father there are nothing more than two’, up to a total of nine. The 96 films of his vast filmography They were seen for about 90 million viewers. He was the authentic author of the Spanish commercial cinema, when those things made no sense in our industry. Fast, quickly. In 1980, Pajares, Esteso and Ozores had collaborated three times: ‘Los Bingueros’ took the cinema to million and a half spectators and their immediate continuation, ‘The Energy’, of that same year, also went from one million audiences. In both cases they were very short -term films, as usual in the cinema invoiced at infernal speed at the time: ‘Los Bingueros’ was shot taking advantage of the legalization of bingos in Spain; ‘The energy’ was inspired by A nuclear accident in Pennsylvania that horrified the world. The following, take advantage of the international success of ‘Rocky’ in 1976 and ‘Rocky II’ in 1979. Roque III, our Rocky. In just twenty days, Esteso, Pajares and Ozores have their parody, ‘I did Roque III’, where Pajares gives life to Roque Third, a sparrow who lives at a friend’s house, a former Jockey come less. To remove it from Enmedio, the friend decides to take advantage of Roque’s past as an amateur boxer and convinces him to face the national welter champion, Kid Botija. By the way, this boxer named Mortadeliano gives life nothing less than Dum Dum Pacheco, champion of the time whose life, between excesses, fame and prisons, gives for several chronicles and It is currently claiming. Darth Vader reculates. The journalist Juan Sanguino tells it in the documentary ‘Pajares & Cía‘: The power of Pajares and Esteso at a box office to Fox, who decide to delay the premiere of’ The Empire counterattack ‘on the planned date, so as not to coincide with’ I made Roque III ‘. This premieres on September 19, 1980 and the ‘Star Wars’ movie, October 3. “They were the real phenomenon, the real Blockbuster“Sanguino says. Ozores can boast of being the only Spanish filmmaker who has bent to the almighty franchise. In Xataka | The Spanish box office cling this year to a phenomenon: the safe and ‘father there is only one 4

A Norwegian company is building an empire buying Spanish software startups for SMEs. With patience and without mergers

May 5, 2025 by usatoday24

Norway houses one of the biggest Spanish software startup buyers, although not well known beyond the niche niche. With five acquisitions since 2021 and more than 250 million euros invested in Spain, Visma has become a fundamental actor in the national technology and entrepreneuraccording to a long analysis of EcoTechers. Operational independence as a management model The Nordic giant broke into the Spanish market in 2021 with The acquisition of HoldedBarcelona business management software, which disbursed more than 190 million euros. Since then, has incorporated to declaring, woffu, quaderno and, The most recent, Tugesto, A Valencian startup that was participated by Angels, Juan Roig’s investment society, president of Mercadona. “I would expect something more this year for own ambition and project ambition. 2025 and 2026 are going to be years of many outings of Private Equity who entered the year 2021 and 2022. We are already beginning to see movements, “says Miguel García-Paredes, responsible for mergers and acquisitions for Spain and Portugal of Visma, according to EcoTechers. The most striking of its strategy is that, unlike other corporate buyers, Visma maintains companies acquired as independent entities, retaining their brands and management teams. “The idea of visma is to set up an ecosystem rather than also from entrepreneurs and conserve the entrepreneur,” said García-Paredes. This philosophy was evident after the recent purchase of Tugesto. As reports The economist“It will continue to operate as an independent company under the same name and address.” Manuel Fandos, CEO of Tugesto, said That this union represents “a unique opportunity to revolutionize business management together, especially in a market such as payroll software, where much remains to be achieved and innovate in Spain.” Who is visma: the discreet multinational Founded in 1996 by merger It was privatized by the HG capital fund. Currently, its shareholding is distributed mainly between HG Capital (70%) and the Sustain Fund of Singapore GIC (14%). The company has closed the year 2024 with 2.8 billion euros of income, a growth of 17%, and 893 million EBITDA (+26.6%)according to data provided to EcoTechers. In Spain, where it has more than 400 employees, it hopes to reach 60 million billing this year. “Spain is one of the highest growth for visma,” said Merete Hverven, CEO of the group, to The economist In 2023. “From our landing in 2021, we grow at a rate of 70%.” Visma has perfected its acquisition strategy after More than 373 completed operations worldwide. Only between 2023 and 2024 closed more than 70 purchases. In Spain, its focus is on SME -centered software startupsan easy pattern to detect seeing your history. According to García-Paredes, they look for companies that meet or approach the “40 rule” for software, that is, the sum of the percentage of income in income and the Ebitda margin is equal to or greater than 40. The company, which has a presence in 27 countries in Europe and Latin America, sees in Spain a strategic market for its size – almost 50 million inhabitants – and for the “growing advance of digitalization”, factors that predict that there will be more acquisitions in the future. Outstanding image | VISMA In Xataka | The technological basis of quantum computers developed in Europe: what happened so that in the long term we lost the race

There he learned everything he needed to build Microsoft’s empire

April 20, 2025 by usatoday24

Microsoft is, without a doubt, the greater professional success of Bill Gates. However, not many people know that the secret of their success was based on some failures that the millionaire committed Before founding the technological. In his autobiographical book, ‘Code Source: My beginnings’Gates reveals how this first business experience, when he was barely a teenager, was decisive to mold his vision about What Microsoft should be. This episode of Gates’s life shows that even the brightest and most successful businessmen have had to stumble learn from your mistakes. Traf-o-Data: Gates and Allen’s first attempt In the summer of 1972, Bill Gates was attended by his last year of high school, while Paul Allen was already in college. Both had met at the school computing club. They were inexperienced and have barely done a few programming projects for the school or to collaborate in projects with their teachers. However, they were presented with the opportunity to code and process telemetry data of the Alburquerque traffic using perforated paper ribbons, so both friends joined for efforts and founded Traf-O-Data. Gates himself is described in the book as a “spoiled know -allotodo” that often responded with sarcasm and disdain with a: “That is the most stupid thing I have heard.” A phrase that, who have worked with the tycoon At some point in his career at the head of Microsoft, he has surely heard on more than one occasion. Having that in mind, the experience provided by Traf-O-Data, although failed, served as learning For someone who has defined himself as self -taught. Both schoolmates created a machine equipped with a Intel 8008 microprocessor of 360 dollars that allowed to automate the reading of the paper tapes that contained the traffic data to digitize that information. Although the idea seemed promising, the company failed to be profitable. As Paul Allen remembered In an article De Newsweek, “Traf-O-Data was a good idea with a poor business model. We had not occurred to market studies and we did not know how difficult it would be to get financing from the municipalities.” In 1975, they managed to bill almost $ 17,000. Which was not bad in the case of an inexperienced young people. According to Paul Allen, he remained operational until 1980, when he already registered annual losses of $ 3,494. This first business failure, far from discouraging them, served as a test laboratory where They learned important lessons on the marketproject management and the importance of constant innovation. “Traf-o-Data is still my favorite mistake because it confirmed that each failure contains the seed of the next success,” Allen recalled. Gates assured in his book that he learned that it is not enough to have a good idea, but it is crucial to have a solid business model and a well -defined business objective. The experience with Traf-O-Data taught them to identify the real market needs (the digitalization of the data of the paper tapes) and to develop solutions that really made the difference (the machine that processed the information), skills that would forge the foundations on which Microsoft would be built. Learning to be the boss The adventure of Traf-O-Data, was also a personal level learning for Gates, somewhat awkward in terms of social skills. Before developing the machine with the processor, Gates and Allen They hired a group of students of lakeside younger than them to transcribe by hand the data of the tapes. They paid fifty cents for each tape. Then, Gates and Allen went to the Library of the University of Washington and used The university computer to process this data and generate the traffic patterns graphics that the tapes had been recorded. That He taught them to work as a teamto make quick decisions and adapt to the changes in the environment to stay in your target. Later, they created their own processing system, which allowed them to collect two dollars daily for the digitalization of the data, as well as expand their business area to other government agencies of the neighboring states to Seattle. Gates himself explained to young peoplethat they were going to graduate at the University of Arizona del Norte that errors are a fundamental part of the learning process and that you should not be afraid to commit them. Traf-o-data was the seed of What is Microsoft today. In Xataka | Bill Gates is clear about the habit of his childhood that has helped him succeed in his career: get bored In Xataka | Steve Ballmer has become a Milmillonario without founding a single company: some of his advice to achieve it Image | Flickr (World Economic Forum)

An empire of 44,000 million is trembling

April 16, 2025 by usatoday24

The protectionist measures imposed by the Trump administration against Chinese products They threaten Shein’s business model in the United Stateswhich represents 28% of its global turnover,, precisely when the company was preparing its IPO in London, and once had already received green light from British regulators. Evil Timing. Why is it important. The Shein model is based on ultra -grape production in China with very tight margins. Tariffs will force you to choose between raising prices – losing your great claim and competitive advantage – or absorbing the cost and seeing your margins, which do not have much idem, drastically reduced. In figures. Shein billed around 12,500 million euros in the United States last year, which represents more than a quarter of its total income estimated at 44,000 million euros, 55% more than in 2023. The latest. The Trump government has eliminated a key tariff exemption for Shein’s business model. Until now, the company could send products from China to US consumers without paying tariffs provided that the order was less than 800 dollars, known as rule “of minimis” that was threatened Since Trump was re -elected. As of May, these shipments must pay a fixed rate of $ 75, which will increase to $ 150 in June. Between bambalins. According to Reuters, Shein is encouraging her biggest suppliers to move her production to Vietnam to dodge tariffs, although Shein denies it. They would not be the first to take a similar step. According to the testimonies collected by the agency, some Chinese manufacturers have seen their reducted orders up to 50% since the Chinese New Year, a few weeks ago. Several factor owners in Guangzhou, an area known as “Shein villages“They confirm that their orders are decreasing. A manufacturer named Li, who has been working with Shein for five years, says his orders have fallen in half. Yes, but. Shein continues to grow in other key markets such as: Germany (6.6% of its turnover) United Kingdom (6%) France (5.4%) ¡Spain! (3.6%, approximately 1,580 million euros) And now what. Shein must now convince investors that she can maintain her business model and growth prospects despite the coup in her main market. The IPO in London, which still requires the approval of Chinese regulators (already has that of the British), will be the definitive proof of market confidence in their ability to adapt. The contrast. While Shein invests 10,000 million yuan (1,370 million dollars) in industrial projects in southern China, including a logistics center of 500 million dollars in Guangzhou, according to Reuterssimultaneously seems to be diversifying its production towards Vietnam. The Cut He informs that Shein will implement “price adjustments” as of April 25, recognizing that “due to the recent changes in the rules and tariffs of global trade, our operating expenses have increased.” In Xataka | Boeing, trapped in the commercial war. China paralyzes the deliveries of its airplanes and Airbus gains ground, according to Bloomberg Outstanding image | APPSHUNTER.IO in Unspash

Every day thousands of people make fun without knowing about an empire when they have breakfast. THE RESPONSIBLE: THE COUPASAN

February 23, 2025 by usatoday24

If something has demonstrated over the centuries, gastronomy is that kitchens serve more than elaborate tasty dishes. In the heat of their stoves they usually curdle culinary traditions, legends and mythslike the one that explains that every time we have breakfast a crucisan we are actually participating in a war. Because? Because with that seemingly innocent gesture we make fun of the defeat of one of the empires more influential of history. We explain ourselves. Cruasanos and wars? Yes. The relationship may sound a bit strange, but it comes with Google to find dozens of Blogsforums, magazines and Diaries that tell the same story: how the cross was created to commemorate the defeat of the Ottoman in Vienna at the end of the 17th century. To be more precise, the frustrated siege of the city by the great vizier Kara Mustafa which resulted in Kahlenberg battle and marked the beginning of the Ottoman decline in Europe. A great victory, a great cake to celebrate it. An epic story. There are war deeds that inspire poems, songs, operas, movies, paintings, novels; But … a cake? Why commemorate the siege of a city with a bun that thousands of people have breakfast throughout the world? The answer is quite simple: The legend He says that the Viennese pastries played a key role in the Ottoman defeat of 1683, so the guild wanted to celebrate it as best knew, kneading and baking mass. Of plots and noctámbulos. The story is of course worthy of the great romantic chronicles. Desperate to take Vienna, around 1683 the Ottomans began to think about ways to mock the fortification of the city. Some versions They say they decided to do so by excavating an underground gallery. Others, which set out to open tunnels to Place mines. In any case, the legend tells that, to dodge the vigilance of the Viennese, the Ottomans worked at night, among Quinqués and the moonlight, while their enemies slept. What the Muslims did not tell is that not all the residents of Vienna got into bed at night. There was a guild who worked every day from the sunset to dawn and ended up listening to the noise that the soldiers made with their peaks and shovels, which allowed him to alert the authorities and repel the enemy attack. What noctámbulos guild was that? Correct: The bakers. And the ‘Larousse’ of 1938 arrived. That this romantic dyes has reached us is explained for two reasons: centuries of oral tradition and the pen of the French chef Posper Montagnéwho in 1938 published an iconic work of universal cuisine, the ‘Larousse Gastronomique’. In addition to explaining how the crossings are elaborated, in its pages the scholar recounts the origin of the cake, echoing a version similar to the Viennese legend of the seventeenth century. In the work (at least in which it can Consult online) Montagné tells a similar story, although he places the plot during The Buddha site In 1686, not in the siege of Vienna of 1683. “The Turks besieged the city and to reach their hearts they excavated underground galleries. Some bakers, who worked at night, heard the noise made by the Turks and gave the alarm,” He recounts. But … why is it a mockery? Simple. Because when creating their new commemorative cake the Viennese pastries noticed A symbol From Islam: The growing moon. It is also explained by Montágne’s encyclopedia: “To reward the bakers who had saved the city, they were given the privilege of making a special cake that, in memory of the emblem that decorated the Ottoman flag, had to be shaped like a crescent,” duck The gastronomic encyclopedia. In summary: the new cake served to celebrate the Christian resistance and endurance of the city … and incidentally mocked the Ottoman forces. As Collect National Geographicwhen a Vienne devour one of those tasty cakes that emulated a moon really “ate the Turks.” The story was curious. The story, powerful. And for more inri it appeared ratified in a work of the prestige of the ‘Larousse Gastronomique’. So what was expected to be expected: the myth extended, gained strength and made the crosss become more than simple pastry. In their own way, they became a symbol. But is it true? The million dollar question. If gastronomy is good (in addition to satisfying palates), it is to create Myths and traditions of rigor more than questionable. Italian cuisine, Spanish either Japanese (To name only three examples) leave a few examples. And the Viennese legend of the Cruasan seems to be only that: a legend of truthfulness at least difficult to check. With you, the Kipferl. The story tells that the city’s bosoms elaborated two commemorative breads of the victory: the Kaiseremmela kind of “imperial panecillo”; and Kipferlwith a crescent -shaped. That this is the origin of what we understand today is however more than questionable, Remember From the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE). “He Kipferla baked panecillo from a dough of wheat with yeast, is common in central Europe, ” Clarifies the institution in his blog, in which he remembers that there are records that suggest that he Kipferl He ate already in the thirteenth century. Moreover, there are those who believe that their origins are older and more sweet in a similar way they can be seen in Magreb (Tchareke) or Türkiye itself, where the Ay çöreği. History and stories. “It’s almost certain that these stories are false,” assures Austrian chef Jürgen David. In fact they can be found Other stories that also relate the invention of the Capuchino with the Ottoman siege of Vienna. The popular Dunkin breakfast chain It echoes On its website for the legend that maintains that the famous coffee, with its characteristic color (similar to the habit of the Capuchin friars) it was first served in Vienna after its citizens found the sacks of coffee that the Ottoman had left behind. If true, the breakfast with which thousands of Europeans start their … Read more

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