Welcome to Nightpixels, a data-driven visual blog about investing, business, and technology.

Nightpixels is published each week by Nightview Capital Research Analyst Cameron Tierney. Follow him here on X.

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    YouTube ads are catching up to streaming

    Google’s user-generated video content platform YouTube is catching up to Netflix’s revenue numbers with its ads business. Although these businesses feature contrasting video models, their revenues are converging in magnitude, proving YouTube is a formidable video platform in the streaming era.

    Source: Nightview Capital chart, Bloomberg data

    AWS revenue per quarter has grown at a 37% CAGR since 2014

    Amazon released its Q1 2024 earnings this past week. AWS revenue growth reaccelerated reaching $25 billion and exceeding sell side consensus estimates. Although the 10-year CAGR will likely not maintain due to the size of AWS today, executives on the earnings call noted gen AI tools as a major source of growth for AWS going forward, already reaching a multi-billion dollar run rate.

    Source

    The S&P 500 probably employs less Americans than you think

    Although the S&P 500 is dominated by the largest companies in not only the U.S. but also the world, its constituents do not employ the majority of Americans. The entire S&P 500 employs just 18% of Americans. This is another stark reminder that the market is not the economy as many Americans are employed by smaller companies, private companies, and the public sector.     

    Source

    The number of publicly listed companies in the U.S. is down 43% from 1996

    You might have seen headlines that companies’ life spans are shrinking. According to the chart above, the number of companies available to invest in public markets has also shrunk dramatically since the peak in 1996.

    Source

    Zillow’s monthly unique visitors rival Spotify, Pinterest, and Netflix

    According to Zillow’s February 2024 investor presentation, the company’s monthly unique visitors are 105 million. This places their monthly visitors at over a third of the total U.S. Internet population, and more than Netflix.

    Source

    One third of S&P 500 trades are executed within 10 minutes of the closing bell

    As passive investing has risen in the investment sphere, more and more trading volume is executed near market close. Passive ETFs typically place trades at the end of the day.

    Source

    Taking stock of humanoid robots around the world

    This visual compares humanoid robot projects across vendors around the world. Through two of our portfolio companies we have exposure to Agility’s Digit and Tesla’s Optimus programs. Technologists are looking to humanoid robots as a plug and play form factor for robotics to interface with the built-for-humans industrial world.

    Source