numbers

We thought we were 8 billion people on the entire planet. Until some researchers started crunching the numbers

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In November 2022, the UN celebrated that we were now 8 billion humans on Earth. They are estimates, of course, but beyond the figure, the really interesting thing is that in 2023 we do not reach the replacement rate and that humanity will reach its peak at the end of the century to, inevitably, start to fall. But… to what extent can we trust these accounts? It is something that has been on the table for some time and, according to a study of 2025, we have made a mistake in counting. So much so that we have left several hundred million people behind. Can we trust the numbers? “Calculating the number of people on the planet is an inexact science.” That was demographer Jakub Bijak’s comment to BBC in mid-2024, just when the World Population Prospects study. Something scientific is something exact, but the researcher also commented that the only thing you can be sure of when predicting population figures is the lack of certainty. That, be careful, does not mean that demographers take figures out of thin air. “It is a difficult thing based on our experience, knowledge and every piece of information we have access to,” said Toshiko Kanera, an expert in demographic forecasts. Demographers draw on the data and trends of each country since 1950, but… what if it had not been counted correctly? We are missing millions. In a 2025 study published in Natureresearchers at Aalto University in Finland show how the data sets handled by demographers “profoundly and systematically” underestimate population figures around the world. The serious thing is that we would be talking about hundreds of millions more people living on Earth. Example of the tools that demographers use in their analysis. Each one corresponds to a different bias Rural areas. Josias Láng-Ritter is one of the researchers in charge of the study and points to the accounts carried out in a specific segment: that of rural population. “For the first time, our study provides evidence that a significant proportion of the rural population could be missing from global population data sets,” he notes. As we say, we are not talking about a few million, but billions. “Depending on the data set used, rural populations have been underestimated between 53% and 84% in the period studied. The results are notable, since these data sets have been used in thousands of studies and have widely supported decision making, but their accuracy has not been systematically evaluated,” comments the researcher. The map shows the location of the 307 rural areas analyzed in the study. The populations reported in the graph were found to be underestimated by between 53% and 84% | Aalto University Biases. Attempts to review this data are not new, but previous research has focused on specific countries or urban areas. Researchers from Aalto University wanted to give a more global picture by comparing the five most used population data sets worldwide. They have used maps that divide the planet into high-resolution grids and have taken something very specific as a reference: resettlement figures from more than 300 rural dam projects in 35 countries. Why this bias of the dams? Because when a dam is builtthe population that lives in the area that will be flooded is relocated and accurate resettlement data is usually available. Comparing that population data from 1975 to 2010, the researchers found that the 2010 maps were more accurate, but still left out between 32% and 77% of the rural population. Between 2015 and 2020 the data sets were updated, but demographers continue to believe that underestimation of the rural population continues to exist and is a problem that persists in all regions of the world. Consequences. And we are talking about a problem whose resolution is complex. According to the researchers, no matter how much the data is reviewed, it is a structural problem. Governments do not have the resources to collect accurate data in these rural regions, there is a huge discrepancy between the real population and that reported on the population maps used to carry out demographic studies and that influences decision making. Average percentage of rural population underestimated (red and orange) and overestimated (blue) | Aalto University And it’s important. Current estimates place 43% of the 8.2 billion inhabitants of the world in rural areas -about 3,526 million people- and if we take into account that it is a percentage that has been underestimated between 53% and 84%, we are not talking about a small population, precisely. And it is essential to know exactly how many we are for a simple reason: the redistribution of resources. No data. The lack of accurate demographic records can affect political decision-making. Ritter gives the example of social decisions. “In many countries, there may not be enough data available at the national level, so they rely on global population maps to support their decisions: Do we need a paved road or a hospital? How much medicine is needed in a specific area? How many people could be affected by natural disasters like earthquakes or floods?” he says. Doing quick math, in the best scenario – that of 53% deviation in the rural population – we would be talking about 1,869 million people who would not have been counted. In the worst case, in that of the 84% not registered, we would talk about 2,962 million people. In the Nature study, they give the example of Paraguay, which in the 2012 census may have left out a quarter of the population. Reviewing the methods. In the team’s analysis, there are countries that fare better than others. They point to Finland as an example of reliable data, even in rural regions, because they began keeping digital records of the population 30 years ago. However, in countries where this thorough digital registration has taken longer to be implemented due to crises of any kind, the differences between the real population and the estimated one can be significant. “To provide rural communities … Read more

“Six. Four. Zero. Nine.” A mysterious radio has been repeating numbers in Iran since the start of the war, and no one knows why

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The short waves They were for decades one of the strangest territories on the radio planet: anyone with a cheap radio could hear metallic voices reciting meaningless numbers, repetitive melodies or absurd phrases that seemed straight out of a spy movie. During the Cold War, thousands of radio amateurs recorded these emissions mysterious things spread all over the world, many of them active for years without anyone officially knowing who was behind them. Some disappeared after the fall of the Soviet bloc. Others, surprisingly, they never left altogether. A voice in the middle of the war. I told the story this morning the financial times and begins shortly after the United States and Israel They will start their attacks against Iran on February 28. Then a sound began to be heard strange transmission on short wave directed at the country: a male voice in Persian that bursts through the static repeating “Tavajjoh” (attention) three times before reciting long sequences of numbers with an almost mechanical cadence. The emissions, detected by radio amateurs and signal trackers, apparently come from somewhere in Western Europe and are repeated twice a day for about an hour and a half. Although its exact origin has not been confirmed, former US intelligence officials consider it very likely that it is a emergency communication system to maintain contact with agents inside Iran at an especially sensitive time, when the war has raised the risks for any informant and the Iranian government has restricted access to the internet and other international communications. What the V32 station really is. The mysterious emission has been identified by observers like V32a call “number station”a type of shortwave transmission historically used by intelligence agencies to send encrypted orders to spies on the ground. The system works in an extremely simple way: the agent only needs a radio and a code book (the so-called one-time pads) to convert the figures heard into understandable messages. The station began broadcasting in Persian exactly coinciding with the start of the war and has already tried to be interfered with through electronic noises which probably come from Iranian jamming systems, but the mysterious voice has been limited to change frequency and continue with his reading of numbers. These types of broadcasts are almost impossible to completely neutralize, because anyone can tune in and because counterintelligence can only act if it detects a spy transcribing the message or if the operators make mistakes. The shadow of the Cold War. The pattern that this station follows is directly reminiscent of one of the most disturbing elements of 20th century espionage: the digital radios that proliferated during the cold war. For decades, services like the CIAthe KGB or the Stasi emitted metallic voices that recited numbers, letters or even melodies followed by coded sequences aimed at agents infiltrating enemy territory. These transmissions could heard around the world and yet its meaning was indecipherable to anyone who did not possess the proper key. Some stations became famous among radio amateurs for its peculiarities (childish voices, strange music or seemingly absurd phrases), but its logic was always the same: to offer an untraceable and extremely secure communication system. The method survived for decades because it was cheap, discreet and resistant even the most sophisticated espionage systems, and although the phenomenon decreased after the end of the Cold War never disappeared full. The Cold War Morse/Voice Generator is a machine that has been used in many well-known number stations Old, but it works. The reason why these stations continue to be useful in the 21st century is precisely their simplicity. If the internet goes down, if phones are tapped, or if digital communications are blocked, a simple shortwave radio still works and allows orders to be transmitted without leaving an electronic trace. For the secret services, it also offers additional benefits: The recipient can listen to the message in seconds, destroy their codebook immediately afterwards, and disappear without leaving any evidence. That simplicity makes even a single person well located can receive instructions capable of causing enormous consequences, from sabotage to more complex intelligence operations. By the way, messages are usually repeated several times to minimize the risk that the agent in question will have to expose himself for too long listening to the transmission. What could the mysterious voice be saying. Although they are all hypotheses and no one outside of their operators knows the real meaning of the sequences, former intelligence officials they point to several plausible possibilities. Emissions could serve to activate agents who remained waiting inside Iran, order evacuations to meeting points or even coordinate operations covered up during the conflict. There is also another more strategic interpretation: that the station is deliberately designed to sow doubts within Iranian counterintelligence, suggesting that there are high-level infiltrators awaiting instructions from the West. In that case, even without transmitting specific orders, the very existence of the station would force Tehran to mobilize cryptographers, researchers and resources to try to decipher a message that may never be understood. Weird, but still alive. Number stations are one of the few times when the normally invisible work of intelligence services becomes audible for anyone with a radio. Although they are much less common today than during the confrontation between blocs of the 20th century, they still there are transmissions regulars associated with countries such as Russia, Poland, Taiwan or North Korea. Some even preserve an almost ceremonial style, such as the Taiwanese station known as New Star Broadcastingwhich begins with a flute melody and ends by wishing “health and happiness” to its listeners before issuing coded numbers intended for agents on extremely sensitive missions. Iran and the difficulty. For the United States, maintaining intelligence networks inside Iran has always been especially complicatedpartly because it does not have an embassy in the country and because the Iranian security apparatus is one of the most vigilant in the world. That forces Western services to retain emergency communication methods capable of working when all else fails. … Read more

Ouigo has presented record numbers (and profits) in Spain. Renfe’s response is clear: they do not believe it

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“Renfe is today the only high-speed operator in Spain that manages to close the year with profits, while the rest of the companies in the sector continue in the red” The phrase is clear and the content clear: Renfe continues to be considered the only company in Spain that presents benefits in high speed. We could consider the statement valid but it has only been a few days since Ouigo put another piece of information on the table. “For the first time,” they noted in the presentation of their results that the company “managed to generate positive EBITDA for the first time.” And yet, both may be right even if the data seems contradictory. A fight that doesn’t stop From March 15, 2021the Spanish railway sector lives two realities. The first is that Ouigo operates on Spanish railways, standing up to Renfe. The second reality is that both companies maintain an open war in an exchange of statements that does not seem to end. Although a low profile was maintained in the first two years, in 2024 the Government arrived to support Renfe in a fight that they consider unequal. Then, Óscar Puente, Minister of Transportation, already stated that Ouigo operated through unfair competition. According to the Government and Renfe, Ouigo can offer lower prices than them because it is supported by France from the other side of the border. Months later, Puente raised the bar and said that I would report the French to the European Commission for unfair competition. Then it was pointed out that Ouigo was operating in Spain because it was losing money. But, in addition, France would be torpedoing its arrival to new lines in the country that could confront them in the local market. That is to say, Spain had ended up opening doors that France closed to them. Since then, we have not had news of the complaint but it is certain that Ouigo and Renfe maintain an open battle that has presented us with various chapters. We have seen disputes over prices but also over the type of repairs Ouigo was doing in the Renfe workshops (Renfe has to offer them its space but considered that these exceeded the current permits) or statements from the French making it clear that for the particularities of high speed spanish It would be impossible for them to compete in Madrid-Galicia. The last battle of this war has to do with the financial results. January 26, 2026the SCNF group, owner of Ouigo, presented a press release in which it boasted that it had achieved a 44% increase in passengers on its Spanish trains. And, in addition, he pointed out that for the first time they achieved a positive EBITDA. This has been read as if, for the first time, the French company was making profits in our country, although the truth is that the accounts were not detailed and only that financial term is pointed out. The point is that the EBITDA It refers to the operating income of the business and certain expenses but does not take into account taxes on profits, financial expenses such as interest on loans or amortizations. At the moment, Ouigo has not provided these data, but we do know that the companies that operate in our country at high speed they were losing money. This has been a constant since the arrival of Ouigo and Iryo and, in fact, both have had to receive new investments to be able to face the losses that have come upon them in the last four years. This difference between the EBITDA and the net result is what Renfe uses to proclaim itself as the only company that operates on Spanish high speed and making profits. “At the end of 2025, the Renfe division dedicated to passenger transport obtained a net profit of 70.2 million eurosa figure clearly higher than the previous year (5.4 million)”, points out in his statement. Therefore, both companies are right, neither is lying. But none of them tell the whole truth. And Ouigo, everything indicates, will continue to give net losses this year but it is true that it has years left to amortize the investment it had to make to bring its trains to Spain. Collecting a positive EBITDA is a good sign because it indicates that you are moving towards profitability but you will not be able to obtain it until you meet the interest on the requested loans and the amortizations. Renfe, on the contrary, with a consolidated network in Spain and the experience of working in the field since before becoming a company with private capital, has a clear advantage over rivals. It is true that, as Transport Minister Óscar Puente has complainedis also obliged to provide a public service that does not always have to be profitable. Photo | Wayback Machine and Cheng-en Cheng In Xataka | The overwhelming success of the train in Spain: when they gave us a choice, we chose to flee the airports

do not pick up calls from numbers I do not know

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The phone rings, you look at the screen and pick it up thinking “who is it?” or worse yet “let’s see if it’s the electrician.” What you receive on the other side is a recorded voiceover, silence for response or perhaps a person willing to sell you something you don’t need. You hang up. Nothing would happen if it weren’t for the fact that the same thing happened to you the day before yesterday. And last week. So one day I made a decision: I would only take the call if I knew who was on the other end. For great evils, great remedies. This decision came after years of enduring unwanted calls and trying everything. Yes, I’m in the Robinson list and I also signed up for the list Stop Advertising the same day I discovered its existence. For trying, let it not be. The problem is that although they work, They are not infallible: If the company that is going to launch the advertising campaign in question doesn’t even look at it, you’re in the clear. Or if you hire a third party that uses unreliable databases. Or if directly, they don’t care: these lists are subscription services to which the company may not be signed up because it costs them to assume the risk. But there is already legislation against spam. Have them, haylas and without going any further, now there are prefixes that serve as an alert or established schedules. However, the reality is that although you may receive some less, you continue to receive them because well, once the law is done, the trap is done: many companies find loopholes through which to sneak in, some as simple as outsource the service to a foreign companywhere state law does not apply. Or that the service in question is considered “of public interest.” Or because you have unsubscribed and they can pick you up. Or the most common and that falls on the consumer’s side: because we have authorized it at some point. That damn check you marked without reading. Yes, it is true that technically you could dedicate yourself to searching and searching among the services you have contracted to deactivate that option (without going any further, I did it with Vodafone and Penélope Seguros), but it involves thinking about what services you have, going to the apps, searching through the menus and marking while crossing your fingers so that you don’t leave anything out. Deactivating that option in Vodafone, the telecom company of which I am a customer Bombing and security. It is true that taking a call in isolation is not that big of a deal. It is not the first time that the typical demoscopy service has called me and I spend a quarter of an hour answering. The problem is when a company calls you several times in a short period of time. And not just one company, because this siege operation can be followed by several corporations. They call, you answer and another operator from the same company calls again to offer the same thing a few days later. But there are two potential cases that are worse: that you answer “yes”, that short and innocent word is recorded and then it is used to sign you up for services, such as the police warned a couple of years ago. Given this possibility, you can consider the option of remaining silent, but not even then: if a telemarketing company uses auto dialing softwarewhen you pick up the system, it registers the answered call event and your number is marked in its database as active, as told by cybersecurity expert and head of Cybersecurity at GMV Paula González in Damn. Isn’t it killing flies with cannon shots? Maybe when faced with this decision not to answer calls from unknown numbers, someone will throw their hands up thinking about the calls you miss: that call from the doctor, the electrician who never arrives, or from a delivery person. The reality is that it has not come alone: ​​Google It has a great call filter. on Android and in my case, as an iPhone user, I have found my best ally in the live voicemail function of iOS 26 with the option to request a reason. When a call comes in from an unknown number, the phone asks you to explain the reason for the call from the beginning. And here it depends on who is calling: when the call is blatant spam, they usually don’t leave a message and if they do, they will never receive my response. If you have any interest (for example a delivery person), leave me a message. Being a live mailbox, I can even pick up the call instantly, when the call is no longer unknown. In Xataka | Apple introduced the SPAM call filter as the star feature of iOS 26. It took me a week to deactivate it In Xataka | If you are tired of receiving spam calls every day, good news: MasOrange is tired too Cover | Ivan Linares

Blue Origin’s space tourism numbers have been leaked and they are crazy

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A few years ago I saw a Spanish civilian cross the Kármán line leaving our planet was a generational event. Today, space tourism is about to normalize what was extraordinary and we have the clearest example in Alberto Gutierreza 42-year-old businessman from Valladolid and founder of the platform Civitatis who this Thursday managed to be the fourth Spaniard to theoretically reach space. His story. He did it on board the NS-38 mission from Blue Origina flight of just ten minutes that takes off and lands in Texas, but which represents another milestone in the private space race and consolidates the profile of the “tourist-astronaut” with a high heritage behind him. Because the truth is that it is not something very economical. 10 minutes. Takeoff took place at 10:26 CST (16:26 Spanish peninsular time) from the Blue Origin Launch Site One in Van Horn, Texas. The ship used was, once again, the reusable New Shepard system, a rocket designed specifically for suborbital tourism. All this with a plan that has followed the “Swiss clock” script to which we are accustomed in these missions. At the moment of launch the ship’s engine accelerated until it exceeded the March speed 3, and when it was already at a good altitude, the capsule was undocked and continued to ascend up to 106 kilometers above sea level, exceeding the Kárman line which is located at 100 km altitude. Weightlessness. But the experience sought with this type of attraction is to experience the phenomenon of weightlessness for a few minutes. Specifically, there were 3 minutes in which Gutiérrez was able to unhook himself from his seat belt to observe the curvature of the Earth while he was literally floating in space. It hasn’t been cheap. Although Blue Origin maintains official secrecy about the dynamic prices of its tickets, the sector has quite clear figures. And to enjoy these three minutes of weightlessness you only have to pay $150,000 just for admission to reserve your seat. But it does not logically stop here, since industry sources and leaks Previous estimates place the total cost of the ticket at around one million dollars. A price that not only pays for experience, but also for status. More and more difficult. With this type of space excursions aimed at the richest on our planet, the truth is that an interesting debate opens up about the label of “astronaut.” Although technically the Kármán line has been crossed with this trip, the FAA modified its criteria in 2021 to narrow it down much more. In this case, it no longer provides commercial astronaut wings to space tourists, but opts for a simple registration on its website. That is why for the agency, being a passenger is not the same as being an operational crew, although surely for all those who participate here it is a great life experience that is undoubtedly spatial. It’s not the first. As we have said, with this flight, Alberto Gutiérrez puts his name on a very short list. Before him, only three Spaniards had crossed the space border: Pedro Duque, Michael López-Alegría and Jesús Calleja. Although it is clear that this is an experience that is quite limited to those people who have a large wealth and decide to invest it in a unique experience. Last minute surprise. The NS-38 mission has not been without logistical setbacks. The original crew of six underwent a change just three days before launch, as Andrew Yaffe had to retire due to illness on January 19, being replaced by Dr. Laura Stiles. And there was luck with this replacement, since its inclusion allowed the launch date to be maintained, which had a very limited launch window, in order to guarantee its safety. Images | POT In Xataka | Manufacturing materials to produce chips in space is not science fiction. It is a very real plan that is already underway

While Madrid becomes the “European Miami”, a group has grown to historic numbers: Venezuelans

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In the streets of Madrid every time it’s easier hear Latin American accents, but there is one in particular that stands out above the rest: Venezuelan. The number of Nicolás Maduro’s compatriots has skyrocketed in recent years in the community. So much so that the latest data from the INE show that they have already overcome the barrier of 200,000 peoplewell above the 120,400 of just five years ago. In fact, there are those who already refer to part of the capital as the “Little Caracas” or see one in Madrid “European Miami” which attracts immigrants of all kinds, including rich people who want to buy. The data shows that they are not wrong. The “Latin American” Madrid. That the Latin American population and specifically the Venezuelan has been growing for years in Madrid, it is nothing new. A year ago The Country revealed that the region had for the first time surpassed the symbolic figure of one million immigrants arriving from Hispanic America, a milestone achieved largely due to the increase in Venezuelans. Now the latest data from the INE They confirm that, far from reversing, the trend continues. And clearly. Community of Madrid Venezuelans Romanians Moroccans 2025 210,408 111,309 100,939 2024 184,387 115,911 98,360 2023 158,422 117,274 94,631 2022 130,779 123,834 92,563 2021 120,434 128,793 92,279 One figure: 210,408. The figures They speak for themselves. In 2021, the INE counted 120,434 people born in Venezuela in the Community of Madrid, the following year there were 130,779, in 2023 there were 158,422, in 2024 there were 184,387 and this year the figure has taken another rise until reaching 210,408. In short, a growth of almost 75% in a matter of five years. If we look back a little further and go to the last decade, the growth is even clearer. In 2020, 115,289 people born in Venezuela resided in the community, in 2019 there were 90,254 and in 2018 the indicator marked 66,421. A collective at the head. Beyond the percentages, there are two other approaches that demonstrate the extent to which the Venezuelan population has grown in the region in recent years. The first is that right now it is the most abundant foreign group in Madrid, significantly above the other most populous groups: Colombians (199,760), Peruvians (164,786), Ecuadorians (140,794), Romanians (111,309) and Moroccans (100,939). What’s more, The Confidential remember that Venezuelans in the region now exceed the sum of Romanians and Moroccans. The other clue is obtained by looking beyond Madrid and analyzing the Venezuelan diaspora in Spain as a whole. According to the INEIn our country there are 692,316 people born in Venezuela, of which 210,408 (almost a third) live in the Community of Madrid. The capital’s figure far exceeds that of any other region. In fact, the other two with the largest volume of population from Venezuela are the Canary Islands and Catalonia and in none of them do Venezuelans even reach 90,000 people. In Andalusia, there are barely more than 47,000. Year Population born in Venezuela registered in Spain 2025 692,316 2024 599,769 2023 518,918 2022 440,953 2021 411,996 One question: Why? At this point the big question is: Why? What is the reason for this migratory flow to Madrid? There are several factors at play. One (crucial) is the Venezuelan diasporathe volume of people who have left the country in search of better opportunities or as exiles. UNHCR estimates that 7.9 million of people have left Venezuela in search of protection or a better life. In 2024, Nicolás Maduro himself assured that between 2013 and 2023 2.5 million Venezuelans They emigrated from the country, although at that time he maintained that half (1.2) had returned between 2020 and 2023. The Trump factor. Beyond the dance of figures, the undeniable thing is that Spain has long been one of the main destinations of Venezuelans who choose to pack their bags as immigrants, refugees or asylum seekers. Years ago many of them headed to the US, but with Trump’s return to the White House “the American dream became a nightmare” for a large part of that diaspora refugee in the US, such as recognized in May Saray Díaz The Country. He knows well what he’s talking about. She is Venezuelan, she had resided in the US since 2024 thanks to a humanitarian permit and basically dedicated herself to cleaning houses. After Trump activated his policy anti-immigration Saray received an email from Department of Homeland Security inviting him to “leave” the US. A few days later he was on a flight to Barajas. It is not a unique case. During the first trimester 23,724 Venezuelans They requested asylum in Spain, a record. But… Why Madrid? That so many Venezuelans choose to settle in Spain and more specifically in Madrid is not a coincidence. Influences the open arms policy applied for yearsthe presence of relatives who have already migrated to Spain (this is, for example, the case of Saray, who had relatives here) to help them upon their arrival and of course the cultural ties with the country. Like other cities in the country, Madrid has also welcomed protests of critics of the Maduro regime and in defense of the opposition María Corina Machado. “There are several ingredients to take into account. The political and economic crisis in Venezuela is worsening. Trump’s immigration policies, together with a possible military intervention, with this situation of insecurity, also have an impact. And we must take into account that in other Latin American countries the entry of Venezuelans is being rejected,” comment to The Confidential Elisa Brey, expert in international migrations and professor at the Complutense University. “In Madrid there are already many Venezuelans and more arrive through contact and support networks.” Beyond the statistics. The influx of Latin Americans and specifically Venezuelans is felt beyond the statistics, in society, the economy and even in the residential market, as explained in 2024 the BBC network, which reminded that not only people in difficulties come to the capital. In fact, … Read more

More and more people are accusing Spotify of artificially inflating their listeners. There is no way to check the numbers.

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The doubts about the listening figures that Spotify handles They have always been there, but they have increased in recent times, when the possibility has been put on the table that some of their most listened to artists are actually the result of bot farms. At the moment there is nothing firm on the table, but we do have something indisputable: between this and the artists fleeing in a pack Spotify is going through one of the biggest reputational crises in its history. The demand. In early November 2025, rapper RBX, Snoop Dogg’s cousin, filed a class-action lawsuit against Spotify in California that has opened an uncomfortable debate for the music industry. streaming. According to the court document, between January 2022 and September 2025 an unspecified but “substantial” amount of the almost 37 billion views accumulated by Drake on the platform they would have been generated by botsautomated accounts (who listen to Drake 23 hours a day, something implausible) and traffic from, for example, Türkiye, masked with a VPN. Drake is not to blame. The Canadian artist not listed as accused (the lawsuit points exclusively to Spotify), but it appears to be an indirect beneficiary of this ecosystem where supervision is, to put it mildly, very relaxed. What is relevant is not whether Drake knew about these anomalies or not, but rather an issue that, if revealed as true, would reach the level of structural embezzlement: transparency about listening on Spotify is practically zero. How Spotify (doesn’t) work. The main problem with Spotify’s system lies in the opacity that surrounds its systems to detect fraud. The company has never publicly explained the exact thresholds that trigger its alarms, nor the criteria that distinguish an organic spike in activity from artificial manipulation. This lack of transparency generates detailed situations in this article: while emerging artists see their income blocked by a few thousand reproductions considered suspicious, statistical anomalies of colossal dimensions can persist for years. A lot of fraud. An analysis held in France in 2023 estimated that between 1% and 3% of all streams in the country were fraudulent. If these percentages were extrapolated globally, the losses would exceed $510 million. But Beatdapp, a company specialized in detecting fraud in streaming, dramatically raised that estimate in 2024: at least 10% of all reproductions would be artificial, which implies annual losses of between 2,000 and 3,000 million dollars. Other cases. These demands are not born in a vacuum. During 2024 and 2025, several cases have confirmed that the manipulation of streams and opaque commercial influence are common problems at Spotify. For example, in 2025, the Turkish Competition Authority opened a formal investigation against Spotify for alleged anti-competitive practices. The trigger was allegations from several top Turkish artists that certain performers were getting disproportionate visibility in exchange for direct payments to Spotify editors, all combined with the use of bots to artificially inflate national chart positions. Spotify has launched an internal investigation in what is the first case of editorial corruption reported by relevant artists. On the other hand, in September 2024, a 52-year-old musician living in North Carolina was accused of artificial inflation of streams through AI. Specifically, up to $10 million in fraudulent royalties through hundreds of thousands of songs created with AI that it played with up to 10,000 bot accounts. Smith strategically dispersed the fake wiretaps among tens of thousands of topics to prevent any of them from accumulating suspicious numbers. Spotify admits the fraud operated for years undetected. Header | Amber on Flickr / Alexander Shatov in Unsplash

Correos is desperate to find the business that will save it from the red numbers. And that has led her to selling insurance

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There was a time (not so long ago) when Correos was basically an intermediary, a company you went to to send letters, postcards or packages. That’s how it grew. And thus he strengthened his brand for decades. The changes in demand and fierce competition in the logistics sector have, however, forced the public company to reinvent yourselfan endeavor in which he has been engaged for years without this having allowed him to abandon the red numbers that weigh down their accounts. What has altered is its relationship with users. The last (and most revealing) example is left the decision of Correos to market insurance taking advantage of its vast network of offices and postmen, which has already earned it the union reproach. What has happened? That Correos has led a curious movement in its efforts to diversify income and leave behind the red numbers. a few months ago reached an agreement with the company AXA to market its private insurance. The alliance was announced in spring, when it was applied in 32 offices with a view to expanding to more than 800 branches throughout the country over the months. At that time, the Post Office detailed which would initially be dedicated to distributing policies for vehicles, homes, health and life and death insurance, although without closing the doors to expanding that offering to “any product” from AXA. Why is it news now? The agreement It closed in February and Correos began to market AXA insurance in mayupon registration as exclusive agent. The initiative has now made headlines again for a reason that has more to do with form than substance, although it gives an idea of ​​the extent to which the public company is committed to diversifying its services. CCOO has denounced that the company is entrusting postmen in rural areas with the task of selling policies, “a function completely unrelated to their traditional delivery work.” “Instead of strengthening the public service and hiring more staff, the management is dedicated to improvising and diverting work towards commercial tasks that have nothing to do with Correos’ mission,” ditch CCOO, which warns from its office in Castilla y León: “The viability of the company cannot be reduced to the sale of insurance by rural postmen. Correos cannot become a network of street vendors. Its function is to communicate, connect territories and guarantee rights, not do business with private insurance.” Why is it important? Because of the context, which is as or even more important than the measure itself. Insurance is not the public company’s first bet to strengthen its accounts in a challenging context, marked by the collapse in postal demand and an increasingly disputed parcel sector, in which it has to compete with multinationals and is losing market share. It’s nothing new. Years ago the company already launched one of its bets more ambitious: Post Marketa space of its own e-commerce who aspired to become ‘Amazon Post Office’. The objective: to take advantage of the boom in online commerce with a differentiated commitment to mark distances from giants such as Amazon or eBay, a “market for local products in which national producers and artisans (…) come together with online buyers.” In the presentation of the platform, in 2020, in fact focused on those two concepts, “local” and “artisan”. Today in Post Market It can be found from food and drinks to beauty, home, toys, fashion and pharmacy items. Have there been more initiatives? Yes. A few. In an attempt to find its place again, the company has opted for prepaid cardsthe telephony and fiber or the marketing of O2 servicesfrom Telefónica. In recent years he has also experimented with such ambitious projects as Correos Cargoan air parcel transport service in the Latin America-Europe-Asia axis, and even studied launching to commercial rail transport with the help of Renfe. Why this effort? Because Corres is very big. A lot. And the scenario in which he has to deal has changed. A lot too. With more than 50,000 employees and 2,000 offices it is usually said which is the largest public company in Spain. And how recently recognized to elDiario its strategy director, José Miguel Moreno, the company has been faced with the delicate situation of reinventing itself or disappearing. “Society is transforming and postal operators either do it or die.” It’s not just theory. According to the data revealed a few months ago by ABCLast year, Correos recorded losses worth 95 million euros, a hole that widens the carryover in previous years and that even has taken its toll to the accounts of the State Industrial Participation Company, to which it is linked. And how to turn it around? The million dollar question. That is what Correos has sought in part with its Strategic Plan 2024-2028, validated a little over a year ago by SEPI and that aspires to “transform, recover and reposition” the company to “change its business model.” With this purpose, it aims to reinforce its weight in the postal sector, give a boost to parcel delivery and “increase and diversify income” through “new activities, such as financial services, administrative procedures, insurance marketing or logistics services.” If in 2023 the postal business represented around 66% of income of the public company, followed by 24% from parcel delivery and 10% from “diversification” (“new lines of business”), the idea for 2028 is to turn the tables by making these quotas represent (respectively) 49, 35 and 16%. The goal: “Reverse the losses to end the period with an Ebitda margin of 6%, a consolidated profit situation and a healthy financial position.” Are they all challenges? No. The scenario may be complicated, as demonstrated by the fact that Correos can’t quite find the key to gain market share or the challenges it has encountered in its commitment to insurance marketing, but the company still has two good assets. Both closely interconnected. The first is its geographic penetration and vast network of operators and offices. The second, its focus as a “provider of essential services.” … Read more

The new economy values ​​the story more than the numbers

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The risk capital always has something perverse in its arithmetic. Nothing has closed a 200 million dollar round that triggers its valuation up to 1.3 billion. Its total sales since 2020 are barely 1,000 million, so Tiger Global, who leads the round, is paying in tomorrow what the company has not yet billed throughout its history. More than investment seems theology. Because Carl Pei does not sell phones but the promise of being the anti-establishment. That transparent design, with LED guts flashing like a mechanical heart, is marketing that disguises itself as a message and cause. Each nothing sold is someone saying “I am not like you, user of iPhone”, “I am not like you, who has an android without personality.” It is a rebellion against technological conformism, despite the fact that the mobile leaves the same Chinese factories financed with the same risk capital. But it works because Investors do not buy market share (Nothing does not reach 1% world), but narrative. Same reason why a telephone more sanitized that is never worth half than before: he Storytelling Milagros work. And Nothing’s is that perhaps the technological David can, someday, stagger Goliath. Carl Pei’s genius is, rather than in his narrative, in his Timing narrative: Launches the company just when OnePlus, its previous creationit was becoming predictable and one more. Promises be Ai first When the rest promise the same. Talk about smart glasses, humanoid robots and electric cars before demonstrating a profitable smart watch. He is the perfect entrepreneur for the era of the business fomo: credible enough not to look like a charlatan, ambiguous enough For each investor to project their own fantasies “X100”. In addition, the cast of investors says everything. Tiger Global leads, but there are all the usual suspects: Is patient capital disguised as Intelligent capital. They know that nothing probably never justifies that assessment with a balance in hand, but in the casino of the SeeNTURE CAPITAL You just need a file to fall into the correct number. The interesting thing is that PEI has built something real. Its products are at least competent. Some even good. Not everyone can say the same. He has created a brand that has fitted in that group with Apple-Samsung duopoly, to whom the Pixel leaves them cold and felt as a stab the rise in xiaomi prices. Careful, History is repeated. PEI has shown that a hardware company can be built from London: there is life beyond Silicon Valley, Suwon and Shenzen. The problem is not nothing, it is a system in which the history that you tell about your company is worth more than the company. Where “disruptive potential” is a blank check and where numbers are only for accountants. The lesson here is to understand that In the economy of attention, memorable design and narrative COhere they are worth more than the market share. Nothing has converted statistical inconsequence into cultural relevance. And that, in 2025, is quoted at 1,300 kilos. Outstanding image | Nothing In Xataka | Nothing Phone (3), Analysis: it was very bored of the usual mobiles. Until the first high -end nothing arrived

Nvidia has become hostage of her own success. His record numbers know little when the world expects miracles

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Nvidia has presented her Results of the second fiscal quarter. Technically beat all forecasts: Adjusted benefits of $ 1.05 per share compared to the 1.01 expected. Revenues of 46,740 million dollars against the projected 46,230 million. The company has also projected income of 54,000 million for the current quarter, slightly above the consensus of 53.4 billion. Why is it important. These seemingly solid numbers have not been enough for a market that has turned Nvidia into the fire test definitive of boom of the AI. The action has fallen 3% in the operations after closing, a reaction that reveals to what extent the expectations about the most valuable company in the world – with 4.4 billion capitalization – have reached almost impossible levels of satisfying. China’s problem. The great shadow on the results has been the total absence of sales of the H20 chip To China during the quarter. Nvidia has not included any sales forecast to China in its guide for the third quarter, despite the fact that the financial director, Colette Kress, has mentioned that they have between 2,000 and 5,000 million dollars in ready -to -send orders to send if geopolitical issues are resolved. The company is waiting for the Trump administration to clarify the regulations on the 15% cut they want to impose to Chips sales to China. Jensen Huang has been unusually direct during the Call with analysts: “The Chinese market estimates that represents about 50,000 million dollars of opportunity for us this year.” He added that half of the world’s researchers are in China … And that it is “quite important” that American technology companies can access that market. Between the lines. Huang’s frustration with the geopolitical situation is palpable. His comment that “we just have to continue advocating” before the Trump administration makes us glimpse a more tense negotiation than the official statements say. The CEO has suggested that they are working in a modified version of their Blackwell chips for China, with reduced performance, indicating that Nvidia is willing to make weight concessions so as not to lose that market. Striking in a company Today as powerful as Nvidia. Data centers disappoint. The data centers segment, which represents 88% of total income, has generated 41,1 billion dollars, slightly below the expected 41,290 million. It is the second consecutive trimester that this important segment does not reach expectations, a worrying signal when large technological ones such as goal, Google and Microsoft are investing tens of billions each quarter in AI infrastructure. “Everything is sold”. Huang has said during the call that “everything is sold”, referring so much to the Hopper chips current as the new Blackwell. Has added that the production of Blackwell Ultra It is “progressing at full speed” and that demand is “extraordinary.” However, these statements contrast with the fact that the income growth of 56% year -on -year is the slowest in nine consecutive quarters of growth greater than 50%. Growing pressure. The market reaction tells an uncomfortable truth: Nvidia has become hostage of its own success. With a weight of 7.5% in the S&P 500 – 3% in December -, Any stumbling block has the potential to drag the entire market. An important Nvidia failure would be a detonation for half -world bags. The contrast. Huang has promised that AI infrastructure spending will reach between 3 and 4 billion dollars for the end of the decade, but the immediate reality is that NVIDIA cannot freely access the second largest computer market in the world. The repurchase of 60,000 million dollars in shares approved by the Council – one of the largest in American business history – seems more an attempt to sustain the price of the action than a real confidence signal in the future without regulatory mosquadillas. In Xataka | Deepseek has suggested that Nvidia chips no longer needs. We believe to know who is buying them Outstanding image | Nvidia

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