If you're feeling good about the market, you're not alone. Take my hand as we go over some of this week's more uplifting headlines.
1. Hasta la video
Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX ) shares hit a new all-time high this week, after the video buffet operator announced its expansion market for the latter half of this year.
Brazil and the United Kingdom seemed to be the two frontrunners, but Netflix raised the stakes by revealing that it will dive into all of Latin America and the Caribbean. Launching a disc-less streaming service in 43 countries seems daunting, but Netflix will be ready to serve up its site in Spanish, Portuguese, and English.
The near-term hit on the bottom line may sting, but suddenly Netflix's long-term upside seems like a rising ceiling.
2. Killer apps
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL ) hit another chunky milestone this week. The tech giant announced yesterday that its App Store downloads crossed the 15 billion mark. Apple also revealed that it has shelled out over $2.5 billion to its app developers.
The numbers are big, even if the easy division is not. After all, $2.5 billion divided among 15 billion downloads translates into less than $0.17 per download. Then again, this is also proof that free apps rule, where developers can go on to cash in perpetually through mobile advertising.
Hosting 425,000 apps -- and counting -- is huge. Apple also has 200 million iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices out there running Apple's flagship iOS platform. The developers will keep coming, even if the buyers continue to gravitate to free and $0.99 downloads.
3. Video killed the social-networking star
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG ) keeps finding ways to come out ahead of Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT ) .
It's obviously way too early to call Google+ a Facebook killer, especially given the way Google and its search engine peers have faltered in past attempts to gain traction in social networking. However, Big G did score a very public victory over Facebook when it comes to video chat.
Facebook finally added videoconferencing to its website's popular chat feature Wednesday, using the industry-leading Skype as its platform. Microsoft, you may recall, agreed to pay the princely sum of $8.5 billion for Skype two months ago.
Why isn't Facebook getting rave reviews for its videoconferencing move? Well, perhaps it's because video chat is already part of Google+ through its Google Hangouts feature. More importantly, Google Hangouts allows several friends or family members to video chat for free. Facebook? Nope. Skype only lets paying subscribers launch a video chat with multiple participants, so it wouldn't dare let that happen for free on Facebook.
Poor Microsoft. It may have snapped up the otherwise incredible Skype at the worst possible time. Well-played, Google.
4. Golden expansion for the expanding silver screen
IMAX (NYSE: IMAX ) is brushing up on its Portuguese. Fresh from nabbing a new global box office opening weekend record with Transformers: Dark of the Moon this past weekend, IMAX is expanding its widening cinematic reach to Portugal.
IMAX announced a revenue-sharing agreement with a Portuguese exhibitor that will result in the first three IMAX screens going up in Portugal.
Yes, there are still international markets that have yet to sample the premium platform. IMAX has been expanding feverishly in the BRIC nations, so a little European growth spurt was long overdue.
5. You can't spell "Beijing" without B-I-N-G
Microsoft's fledgling Bing search engine is about to get a major boost in China. Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU ) -- the search engine that serves up more than three-quarters of China's online queries -- is turning to Bing to fuel its English-language searches.
We're talking a surprisingly substantial share of volume here, as Baidu estimates that users type English queries into its search box about 10 million times a day. The move will validate Microsoft in China, although I'm not entirely sure what's in it for Baidu. Even if it's far behind in developing search outside of its home language, does it really want to promote a potential rival?
Either way, a questionable move by Baidu is a brilliant one from Microsoft's perspective.
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