Transport habits ‘back to normal’, says Uber data
City travel is back to pre-COVID patterns – except for in Melbourne – according to new data from Uber.
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12.50pm: Transport habits ‘back to normal’
Australian transport habits are almost back to pre-COVID patterns, with the demand on Friday and Saturday nights mirroring this time last year, with the exception of Victoria, according to new data from Uber.
Uber‘s Movement Index, released Friday, found that in Australia, Uber trip volumes are 77 recovered from its lowest point during COVID.
July 2020 data shows early indications of intrastate domestic travel, with shifts in year-on-year Uber request patterns in smaller cities — travel patterns in Byron Bay in the NSW north coast, saw the biggest year on year change.
The company also said pick-up orders have increased rapidly since January with increases observed across all metropolitan cities, while July had the highest volume in lunchtime orders in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney compared to any other month in 2020
Overall, Australian transport habits are almost back to pre-COVID patterns, with the demand on Friday and Saturday nights mirroring this time last year, with the exception of Victoria.
The company also said the afternoon commute peak shifted earlier in all capital cities in April 2020, indicating the impact of flexible work policies. Sydney-siders were the last to leave around 5pm. With working from home and after-work activities becoming non-existent, Australians moved towards an earlier dinner time of 6pm.
“By comparing shifts in rider behaviour, the Index shows that, for most of the country, Australians are starting to get back to their pre-COVID lives, ordering dinner later and heading out on the weekend,” the company said in a blog post.
6.30am: Samsung announces $2.75bn ‘super plant’
Australian transport habits are almost back to pre-COVID patterns, with the demand on Friday and Saturday nights mirroring this time last year, with the exception of Victoria, according to new data from Uber.
Uber‘s Movement Index, released Friday, found that in Australia, Uber trip volumes are 77 recovered from its lowest point during COVID.
July 2020 data shows early indications of intrastate domestic travel, with shifts in year-on-year Uber request patterns in smaller cities — travel patterns in Byron Bay in the NSW north coast, saw the biggest year on year change
The company also said pick-up orders have increased rapidly since January with increases observed across all metropolitan cities, while July had the highest volume in lunchtime orders in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney compared to any other month in 2020
Overall, Australian transport habits are almost back to pre-COVID patterns, with the demand on Friday and Saturday nights mirroring this time last year, with the exception of Victoria.
The company also said the afternoon commute peak shifted earlier in all capital cities in April 2020, indicating the impact of flexible work policies. Sydney-siders were the last to leave around 5pm. With working from home and after-work activities becoming non-existent, Australians moved towards an earlier dinner time of 6pm.
“By comparing shifts in rider behaviour, the Index shows that, for most of the country, Australians are starting to get back to their pre-COVID lives, ordering dinner later and heading out on the weekend,” the company said in a blog post.
6.30am: Samsung announces $2.75bn ‘super plant’
Samsung’s drug-manufacturing arm is betting that the already-booming market for biologic drug ingredients will only get hotter, thanks to industry shifts sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.
Key to that bet is a nearly $US2 billion ($2.75bn) drug making plant that, when completed in 2022, will be the largest of its kind in the world. Dubbed the “Super Plant,” Samsung Biologics fourth factory will have around 230,000 square meters of floor space, making it bigger than the company’s three existing plants combined and slightly larger than the Louvre.
Samsung’s goal is to capture what the company has said is an unprecedented increase in demand spurred by the pandemic, and to take advantage of the simultaneous reckoning it is creating for global drug production.
Demand for new and increasingly complex medicines has skyrocketed since the pandemic began. The situation has exposed how reliant conventional drug production has become on China and India, potentially threatening supply chains. That uptick in demand has been beneficial to Samsung Biologics, which specialises in the production of complex medicines for rare diseases. This year, the business has expanded into potential COVID-19 antibody treatments.
The firm makes biologic drugs for some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Roche.
The company’s chief executive, Kim Tae-han, told The Wall Street Journal the new plant was originally planned to be far smaller. But he pushed for a bolder expansion this year after seeing how the pandemic created a new product category, COVID-19 treatments, and prompted drug developers and national governments alike to find new manufacturing sources.
“COVID-19 is giving us more opportunity than crisis,” said Mr Kim, who has led Samsung Biologics since 2011 after helping pitch the venture to Samsung’s top leaders.
The Wall Street Journal
6.15am: Facebook to limit political ads in US election campaign
Facebook will prohibit new political advertisements in the week before the US presidential election in November and seek to flag any candidates’ premature claims of victory, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg says.
The steps are meant to head off last-minute misinformation campaigns and limit the potential for civil unrest, Mr Zuckerberg says.
“This election is not going to be business as usual,” he says, noting both the difficulties of voting during a pandemic and likely attacks on the credibility of the results.
“I’m worried that with our nation so divided and election results potentially taking days or even weeks to be finalised, there could be an increased risk of civil unrest across the country,” he says in the statement, adding that “our democracy is strong enough to withstand this challenge and deliver a free and fair election.”
The US intelligence community has warned of attempts at foreign interference and President Trump has levelled a sustained attack on the integrity of the vote, raising concerns about a social-media-fuelled dispute over the election’s outcome. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security and intelligence agencies have asked Facebook and other social media companies to plan for such volatile circumstances.
Mr Zuckerberg cited likely delays in tallying election results due to an expected pandemic-driven surge in absentee voting as a concern.
“It’s important that we prepare for this possibility in advance and understand that there could be a period of intense claims and counterclaims as the final results are counted,” he wrote. The Trump campaign criticised Facebook’s decision Thursday.
The Wall Street Journal
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