The Drum’s Daily Briefing: Asda sales soar, Grindr lawsuit & Tesla struggles
Our quickfire analysis of the brand, marketing and media stories that might just crop up in your meetings and conversations today.
Tesla’s travails continue / Photo by Austin Ramsey on Unsplash
Asda latest supermarket reports profit rise
UK supermarket chain Asda is reporting a rise in sales and profits – the latest after Tesco announced a rise in sales and profits two weeks ago – driven by a boost in sales during the cost of living crisis.
Latest figures released by Asda owners the Issa brothers show adjusted earnings after rent rose 24% to £1bn in 2023, from £867m the previous year.
Overall revenues rose 7.1% to £21.8bn, while like-for-like sales increased 5.4%. Sales momentum, however, slowed down in the second half of the year, with the group reporting a 2.2% in its fourth quarter, down from 2.8% in the third quarter and 7.8% in the first.
Michael Gleeson, Asda’s finance boss, said the group’s low-cost range, ‘Just Essentials,' and the launch of its loyalty app helped drive higher sales in 2023.
Despite the surge in sales, Asda has consistently underperformed its bigger rivals Tesco and Sainsbury’s, monthly industry data has shown. It has a 13.8% share of the UK grocery market, according to research group Kantar.
Grindr to face legal claims around sharing user data
LGBTQ dating app Grindr is facing legal action by hundreds of its users who are accusing the app of sharing sensitive personal information with advertisers, in some cases information as personal and sensitive as their HIV status.
The claim that Grindr has breached British data protection law is being filed today in London’s High Court by law firm Austen Hays.
The firm alleges that thousands of UK Grindr users had their information misused. So far 670 people have signed up to the claim, and the firm said “thousands” more people had expressed interest in joining.
The law firm says the claim will be focused on the periods before 3 April 2018 and between 25 May 2018 and 7 April 2020, meaning newer users are unlikely to be able to join. Grindr changed its consent mechanisms in April 2020.
Grindr said it would respond vigorously to the claim, which it said relied on a mischaracterization of past policies.
Tesla slashes FSD software prices
Elon Musk’s Tesla brand continues to come under pressure as the company slashes the price of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver assistant software from $12,000 to $8,000 in the US.
This move was positioned as a further commitment to self-driving technology by Musk, who is betting that the tech will become a major source of revenue for the carmaker despite it continuing to come under growing regulatory and legal scrutiny.
Tesla has also been cutting vehicle prices in major markets as it fights against falling EV sales. In China prices have been reduced by $2,000 across the range, similar to price cuts made in the US.
X and Soundcloud face drugs post allegations
Adding further weight to claims that social media platforms simply aren’t doing enough to protect users from potentially dangerous content, social platforms X and SoundCloud have both been accused by the BBC of running posts that contain ads for potentially deadly drugs known as Nitazenes.
Nitazenes are more deadly than heroin and have recently been linked to nearly three UK deaths a week on average.
After the BBC alerted SoundCloud, it removed the posts. X, formerly Twitter, took down hundreds, but many listings remain. SoundCloud said it had been “targeted by bad actors” while X did not respond to BBC requests for comment.
Nitazenes, which are illegal in the UK, are synthetic drugs produced in laboratories. They are similar to heroin and morphine, but can be several hundred times more potent.
Nearly 3,000 posts on SoundCloud, some dating back a year - posts on the music streaming service contained brief audio clips, often lasting just a few seconds, with the drug’s name and contact details appearing as the title of the track. More than 700 posts on X - the oldest had been on the platform for more than 18 months, but the vast majority of posts had been published since the start of 2023.