Last year, Ukrainian media service MEGOGO maintained its investments in Ukrainian-language dubbing at UAH 38 million, having created 3,825 hours of content at its own studio and in cooperation with partners, the press service of the media service reports.
“The company continued to invest heavily in Ukrainian-language dubbing, allocating UAH 38 million for this purpose, as in 2023. At its own MEGOGO VOICE studio and in cooperation with partners, 3825 hours of Ukrainian dubbing were created for film, TV series, children’s and other content,” the MEGOGO press service said in a statement on Thursday.
The year 2024 was a year of significant achievements for MEGOGO, the statement said.
The service became the official broadcaster of UEFA EURO 2024, broadcast the Olympic Games in partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery with commentary in Ukrainian, and showed two fights between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury. In addition, MEGOGO launched the MEGOGO SPORT TV channel in T2 (the abbreviated name for the DVB-T2 (Digital Video Broadcasting – Second Generation Terrestrial) standard), entered into a partnership with the Netflix streaming platform and the international sports channel Setanta, the statement said.
During the year, the MEGOGO library was replenished with 6 thousand units of new content in VOD and LIVE.
Users spent an average of one hour a day with MEGOGO, i.e. 365 hours a year. Smart TV became the most popular viewing device, and the most used emoji on interactive TV was the flag of Ukraine, the MEGOGO press service reported.
Last year, the service updated its functionality by launching its own recommendation system, updating games on Smart TV and the MEGOGO VR app, and expanding interactive features on TV channels.
As part of the service’s ecosystem development, MEGOGO BOOKS, an online bookstore with paper books, was opened.
MEGOGO’s anti-piracy department excluded 527 thousand pages of pirated websites from Google search results, removed more than 140 thousand pirated copies of content and transferred more than 195 thousand links to pirated copies of content to its partners for blocking.
In addition, the media service’s specialists removed 14 outlets from the marketplaces, closed 75 groups and channels in messengers and 303 communities in social networks. More than 19 thousand unique links to pirated football broadcasts were removed. They also removed over 1.3 thousand links to pirated martial arts broadcasts. MEGOGO specialists performed the largest amount of work during two championship fights between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury, the statement said.
Earlier it was reported that MEGOGO entered the Romanian market.
Megogo media service was founded in Kyiv in 2011. The service’s media library includes TV channels, movies, TV series, cartoons and games, educational and blogging content, audiobooks, podcasts and radio. In Ukraine, Megogo offers 390 channels with shows, series, and programs, 15 thousand movies, and 900 audiobooks. The content is available on popular iOS, Android, Smart and Android TV platforms, players and set-top boxes with Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, XBOX One, and Sony PlayStation. Before entering Romania, the media service was available in 14 countries. In February 2023, the company entered the Polish market.
Steelmaker ArcelorMittal reduced its net loss and increased its revenue in the fourth quarter, while its EBITDA exceeded analysts’ forecasts.
According to the company’s press release, in October-December 2024, its net loss amounted to $390 million, or $0.51 per share, compared to a loss of $2.97 billion, or $3.57 per share, in the comparable period of the previous year. Excluding one-time items, earnings were $0.52 per share versus $1.18 a year earlier.
The earnings adjustment includes a one-time tax expense related to the change in the tax rate in Luxembourg ($0.4 billion) and a provision for tax litigation ($0.2 billion).
The company’s EBITDA in the fourth quarter increased by 13% to $1.65 billion from $1.45 billion a year earlier, while the consensus analysts’ forecast, presented earlier by the company itself, envisaged an increase to $1.53 billion.
ArcelorMittal’s revenue in the reporting quarter increased to $14.7 billion from $14.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Steel production in the fourth quarter increased to 14 million tonnes from 13.7 million tonnes a year earlier, while steel supplies rose to 13.5 million tonnes against 13.3 million tonnes.
The company expects global steel consumption (excluding China) to grow by 2.5%-3.5% in 2025 compared to 2024.
Shares of ArcelorMittal are up 3.5% in trading on Thursday.
In January 2025, the volume of foreign currency purchases by the Ukrainian population exceeded the volume of its sales by $1 billion 479.8 million, which is 34.1% higher than in January 2024 and 13.6% higher than in December 2024 and is the highest figure since December 2012.
According to the NBU’s website, compared to December, cash currency sales decreased by $157.1 million, while purchases decreased by only $63.4 million to $2 billion 430.9 million, resulting in an increase in the negative balance to $1 billion 290.3 million.
In addition, in January of this year, the sale of non-cash foreign currency decreased by $69.1 million, while its purchase increased by $14 million to $460 million, which led to an increase in the negative balance to $189 million.
At the same time, it is worth noting that in the first half of January, when the hryvnia was weakening, the volume of purchases was higher, and by the end of the month, after the national currency strengthened, the daily negative balance was reduced, and only on the last day of the month and in early February was a significant increase in demand recorded again.
In the legal entities market, after a jump in purchases of foreign currency by bank clients in December to $8.41 billion from $6.22 billion in November, in January, purchases decreased to $5.56 billion, which is only 10% higher than in January last year.
At the same time, the sale of foreign currency by bank clients also fell significantly in January this year, to $3.78 billion from $4.96 billion in December, which is 10% less than in January last year.
As for the volume of transactions between banks, it also decreased compared to December – from a record high of $7.96 billion since the beginning of the war to $6.12 billion. However, this figure is 40.8% better than in January 2024.
As reported, the official hryvnia exchange rate in the first half of January fell from 42.0295 UAH/$1 to a new all-time low of 42.2841 UAH/$1, but in the second half of the month it strengthened to 41.8242 UAH/$1.
The National Bank’s net sale of foreign currency on the interbank market in January decreased to $3.75 billion from a record high of $5.28 billion in December, although this is significantly higher than the January-2024 figure of $2.53 billion.
In total, the volume of foreign currency purchases by the Ukrainian population in 2024 exceeded the volume of its sales by $12.22 billion, which is 2.5 times or $7.43 billion more than in 2023, but thanks to large-scale foreign aid, international reserves increased to $43.8 billion last year.
In 2024, the official hryvnia exchange rate against the US dollar weakened by 10.6%, or UAH 4.02, including 0.9%, or 37 kopecks, in December.
The purchasing power of Europeans in 2024 increased by 3.9% and reached 18.768 thousand euros per capita, according to the research company GfK.
In total, the population of Europe had about 12.9 trillion euros available last year, which could be spent on food, housing and utilities, insurance and pension savings, recreation, mobile communications, and other purchases.
At the same time, disposable income indicators vary significantly among the 42 countries whose data were analyzed by GfK. The highest results were recorded in Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Luxembourg, while the lowest were in Ukraine, Kosovo, and Belarus. As a result, the difference between the incomes of residents of Liechtenstein and Ukraine exceeds 24 times.
16 out of 42 countries exceeded the regional average, while 26 countries had below-average purchasing power.
“The nominal growth of purchasing power in Europe is 3.9%, which is much more moderate than in the previous two years. However, at the same time, the inflation rate has also slowed down,” NIQ-GfK expert Markus Frank said in a statement.
The top three countries in terms of purchasing power have not changed compared to the previous year: Liechtenstein – 70.18 thousand euros per capita (3.7 times higher than the average value for all countries in the region), Switzerland – 52.566 thousand euros (2.8 times higher), Luxembourg – 41.785 thousand euros (2.2 times higher).
The top ten also includes Iceland, Denmark, Austria, the United Kingdom, Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands. At the same time, the UK added three positions at once and took seventh place. The Netherlands rose to 10th place last year from 12th in 2023, pushing Ireland out of the top ten, which moved to 12th place from 6th.
In Ukraine, which rounds out the ranking and has continued to confront Russia’s full-scale military aggression since February 24, 2022, disposable income per capita is 2,878 thousand euros (15% of the European average).
Source: http://relocation.com.ua/purchasing-power-of-europeans/
Schneider Electric Ukraine (Schneider Electric Ukraine, Kyiv), which signed a memorandum with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine last year, plans to train 1 million people in energy management in 2025, CEO Mykhailo Bubnov said.
“The company’s priorities for 2025 include achieving sustainable development goals, including supporting 1000 leading suppliers in halving CO₂ emissions,” he said in a blitz interview withInterfax-Ukraine.
According to him, Schneider Electric views Ukraine as a strategically important market, and the company’s medium-term strategy involves the introduction of digital solutions to optimize energy consumption, reduce costs and ensure energy independence both at the business and household levels.
“One of our key objectives is to create conditions for the widespread adoption of smart technologies. We believe that every household in Ukraine can become independent in energy production and consumption by integrating solutions such as smart transformers or mini-wind turbines,” Bubnov said.
He clarified that as part of its strategy, Schneider Electric Ukraine actively cooperates with vocational education and has committed to modernizing the training facilities of vocational institutions. In addition to supplying training electrical stands and other technical equipment, the company has also created an innovative demonstration and training hub and is working on developing integrated training courses that include up-to-date knowledge of energy management, automation, and digital technologies.
The CEO clarified that Schneider Electric Ukraine is currently a multifunctional enterprise that includes commercial divisions in Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Odesa, and Mykolaiv, a warehouse of equipment and components in Kyiv, a service and information support center, a design bureau, authorized training centers, and a support service. The company employs about 100 people and also has an extensive network of distributors, stores and specialized partners throughout Ukraine.
Bubnov added that in the near future the company plans to expand its product line focused on the development of renewable energy sources, including solar and wind power plants, and will continue to develop the infrastructure of charging stations for electric vehicles.
According to YouControl, in 9 months of 2024, Schneider Electric Ukraine increased its revenue by 12.7% to UAH 1 billion 352.24 million, while its net profit halved to UAH 154.56 million.
Source: https://interfax.com.ua/news/economic/1045984.html
In January, Ukraine increased pork imports, the total volume of which exceeded foreign purchases in October-December 2024, the Pig Producers of Ukraine (PUA) association reported, citing preliminary customs statistics.
“During the first month of the year, Ukraine imported about 323 tons of pork, which is more than twice the total volume of products imported in October-December last year, as well as in January 2024. Although there has been a revival in import activity, the import flow is not so active as to significantly affect the domestic market,” the industry association noted.
The analysts drew attention to the fact that the increased interest of Ukrainian meat market players in imported raw materials has led to an increase in domestic pork prices.
“The average purchase price of slaughterhouse pigs in January increased by 5.5% compared to December, which is an atypical price behavior for the winter period, as it was the market’s response to a decrease in domestic supply. European pork prices, on the other hand, continued their typical seasonal decline. Therefore, although the average customs value of a kilogram of imported pork was higher than it was recorded last year ($2.84 vs. $2.52 per kg excluding VAT on average in 2024), a number of meat processing enterprises took the opportunity to optimize raw material costs in this way,” the experts noted.
They reminded that imports of pork have historically played a role of leverage on domestic prices, but currently its volumes do not put pressure on quotations, as most meat processors do not currently feel the inflow of imported raw materials.
Exports of pig meat in January were slightly lower than imports, amounting to 295 tons. In addition to the main sales markets (UAE, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Liberia), pork supplies to Georgia resumed at the beginning of the year, the USBA stated.
