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Young Chinese are trading Shanghai for small cities. Brands like KFC are following them with thousands of stores.
David Gray/Reuters
China's workers are migrating from megacities to smaller towns because of economic challenges.Big domestic and international brands, like Starbucks, are expanding in these smaller markets.Migrants to lower-tier cities have disposable income that they're happy to spend on pricier coffee.China's megacities are losing their appeal with some young workers, who are leaving them behind for smaller towns. Big chains like KFC and Luckin Coffee are following them.
Shanghai and Shenzhen both saw a net outflow of people in 2023, according to data Bloomberg cited on Tuesday from MetroDataTech, a Shanghai-based consultancy. MetroDataTech did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for data.
High-stress work environments and greater costs of living are pushing people back to their hometowns, Bloomberg reported. They're struggling to make it in big cities as the world's second-largest economy suffers from a flailing property market and slow post-pandemic consumption recovery.
Smaller cities' lower costs of living give reverse migrants more disposable income. Both Chinese and international fast-food businesses are eager to help them spend it.
It's a potentially lucrative move for the companies: When brand names like Starbucks open in small cities, people are willing to stand in line for hours and fork out over double the usual amount for specialty coffees, according to local media reports.
Going big on smaller cities
China's smaller cities aren't exactly an untapped market.
Around one-third of Starbucks' 6,800 outlets in China are already located in small markets, a local media outlet reported last year, citing Canyandata, a Beijing-based food and beverage data platform.
KFC and Pizza Hut operator Yum China, which plans to add 6,000 stores in China by 2026, is also betting big on small cities. Chinese cities are unofficially categorized into "tiers" based on gross domestic product, population, and political administration. The four first-tier cities — the biggest type of city — have over 15 million people each.
"Over half of our new stores have been in lower-tier cities in recent years," Joey Wat, the CEO of Yum China, wrote in a shareholder letter earlier this month. "A good share of our future growth should come from the growing pool of consumers in such markets."
Domino's operator DPC Dash, which operates in 30 cities, said this month that more than half of its 835 restaurants in China are outside Beijing and Shanghai.
Local food joints are cashing in, too.
About half the total stores operated by some of the country's biggest fast food chains, such as burger joint Fuzhou Tastien and bubble tea chain Mixue Bingcheng, are located in third-tier or lower cities, according to Bloomberg, which cited Canyandata. Third-tier cities have 150,000 to 3 million residents.
The cost of living crisis driving young people out of China's big cities is a trend that echoes across continents. Some young people in countries including the US, UK, and Korea are finding that they can no longer afford to move out of their families' homes. Others are giving up on hubs like New York City and London because they feel lonely, stressed, or unsafe there.
Saudi Arabia's oil giant boss speaks up for China, saying its massive production of solar panels and EVs helps affordability
Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters
Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser praised China for making solar panels and electric vehicles affordable.The West has recently stepped up criticism over China's dumping of cheap green products on the global markets.Saudi Arabia is fostering closer ties with China and wooing Chinese investments and business partnerships.China's green industries have an unlikely ally in Saudi Aramco — the world's largest oil company — who praised the world's second-largest economy for making solar panels and electric vehicles affordable.
"China really helped by reducing the cost of solar energy," Amin Nasser, the CEO of state-owned Saudi Aramco, said at the World Energy Congress in Rotterdam on Monday, according to the Financial Times.
"We can see the same now in electric vehicles. Their cost is one-third to one-half the cost of other electric vehicles," Nasser added, as he called for globalization and collaboration, per the FT.
Because China has made these green products so affordable, they will help the West achieve its target of cutting carbon emissions to a net zero level by 2050, said Nasser.
The West has hit out against China's overcapacity
Nasser's comments came amid the West's criticism that China has been dumping cheap solar panels and EVs on the global markets.
Earlier this month, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen slammed overcapacity and overproduction in China during a visit to the East Asia nation.
"China is now simply too large for the rest of the world to absorb this enormous capacity," said Yellen. She warned China against repeating its actions over a decade ago when it dumped products like steel on the global markets, decimating industries and communities.
Last week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, too, echoed Yellen's concerns during a visit to China when he called for fair competition.
Beijing has hit back against the West's accusations of dumping, framing the criticism as a tactic to limit China's economic development.
China, the world's second-largest economy, is undergoing a painful transition from its previous growth drivers of real-estate and lower-end manufacturing to the hot new sectors of EVs, solar cells, and lithium batteries.
Saudi Arabia looks to foster closer ties with China
Nasser's praises of China also came at a strategic time for Riyadh's relationship with Beijing.
Unlike the West, Saudi Arabia is cozying up to China.
In January, Faisal Alibrahim, the Saudi Arabian minister of economy and planning, told the Nikkei that his country thinks it's "very wise" to strengthen its relationship with China, among other partners.
"There are lots of opportunities for China to invest in Saudi Arabia," Alibrahim told the media outlet. "At the same time, we are prioritizing, investing all around the world, including China in terms of the opportunities there."
Saudi Arabia is trying to attract Chinese investors to pump money into its Neom megacity project on the Red Sea, which aims to drive the kingdom's economic diversification away from oil to sectors including tech and tourism.
As a key contributor to Saudi Arabia's economy, Aramco has good reasons to build closer ties with China amid the West's commitment to reduce fossil fuel consumption.
On Monday, Aramco announced it's in talks to acquire a 10% stake in China's Hengli Petrochemicals — the latest in a string of deals with Chinese refiners in less than 12 months. The deals are poised to expand Aramco's footprint in China.
In March last year, China brokered a détente between Saudi Arabia and Iran, prompting concerns over waning US influence in the Middle East.
Despite Saudi Arabia and China's developing relationship, the Chinese aren't quite present on the ground in Saudi Arabia, Jon Alterman, the director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in a testimony before the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission on Friday.
"It is clear to Saudis that the country needs a robust relationship with China," said Alterman. "Even if China doesn't replace the United States, Saudi Arabia sees China as an important check on the United States, and an important supplement to what the United States is willing to provide to China."
2 navy helicopters were seen colliding in midair during a military parade rehearsal, killing 10 people
Bomba Bahagian Korporat/Facebook
Two helicopters in Malaysia crashed into each other in midair during a parade rehearsal on Tuesday.Footage posted by local media showed the rotors of one of the choppers striking the other vehicle.Local authorities said 10 people, all naval staff, died in the crash.At least 10 people have died after two Malaysian navy helicopters struck each other in midair during a parade rehearsal on Tuesday morning, local authorities said.
Footage posted by Malaysian media shows both choppers flying low over a parade formation before one of the vehicle's rotor blades collides with the other. Both fall to the ground as shredded parts separate from the choppers.
The Royal Malaysian Navy confirmed the incident in a statement on Tuesday, saying that a maritime operation helicopter and a Fennec had crashed at a base in Lumut at 9.32 a.m. local time.
Seven crew members from the maritime operation helicopter died, while another three from the Fennec were killed, the statement said.
The Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia wrote that both helicopters were taking part in flight training for a ceremonial parade and that firefighters responded to the scene at around 9.50 a.m.
The department said it deployed 21 firefighters from two stations. All victims were naval staff and declared dead by base army hospital staff, fire officials said.
The Malaysian navy said an investigative board will be set up to identify the cause of the incident.
Photos of the crash site posted by authorities show that at least one of the helicopters landed in a track and field training area, its body crumpled and mangled.
Rescuers work on one of the crashed helicopters.Bomba Bahagian Korporat/Facebook
The Royal Malaysian Navy has used the Fennec, a lightweight French-made attack helicopter, for several decades. An online listing for its assets includes one of the 36-foot long choppers, which says it was launched in 2004.
One Fennec can go for about $5 million on the market, per some aircraft tracking sites.
The other crashed helicopter, a Leonardo AW139, was manufactured by Anglo-Italian manufacturer AgustaWestland. These are typically used for transport purposes, and prices for the AW139 can vary between $5 million to $10 million on the commercial market.
A US Air Force version of the helicopter, the MH-139 Grey Wolf, costs more than $39 million per unit, per the Air & Space Forces Magazine.
The AW139 typically sits up to four crew, and the Malaysian navy says it inaugurated three of the choppers in 2004.
A San Francisco neighborhood threw a mini-festival to celebrate a public toilet that cost $200,000 instead of $1.7 million
San Francisco Recreation and Parks
San Francisco celebrated a new public loo with a mini-carnival complete with games, lemonade, and a live band.The public toilet initially cost $1.7 million with a multi-year deadline but had its price slashed to $200,000.Its installation marks the end of a yearslong controversy over the rising cost of public works.The scandal over a public toilet in San Francisco that cost $1.7 million has ended in celebration after the new loo opened on Monday with a much-discounted price tag of $200,000.
That's according to The New York Times, CBS News, and The San Francisco Chronicle, who sent reporters down to the toilet's launch in the Noe Valley Town Square.
Residents held a small festival next to the public potty, replete with a live band, toilet-themed carnival games, lemonade, and chocolate cupcakes decorated like poop. Three local politicians attended.
People took turns to try the new stainless steel toilet, and NYT interviewed a man dressed as a human-sized roll of toilet paper. CBS captured footage of a performer dressed as the "Super Mario" character Luigi dancing with a plunger.
"This whole thing got so ridiculous, so why not be ridiculous?" Leslie Crawford, who organized the event, told The SF Chronicle.
The over-the-top celebration reflects the yearslong controversy that emerged when people discovered in October 2022 that San Francisco planned to build the toilet over two years for $1.7 million — even after plumbing had already been laid.
People actually wanted the toilet in the plaza; an assembly member meant to celebrate the launch of the loo plans that month but canceled after the cost was revealed, per The SF Chronicle.
The expensive toilet was soon lampooned on national headlines, and became a lightning rod for concerns about wastage in US government projects and rising construction costs for public works.
City officials said they were weighed down by high construction costs in San Francisco, as well as the need for environmental reviews and checks from multiple commissions.
Under intense scrutiny, the plans for the toilet began to unravel. California Gov. Gavin Newsom pulled the $1.7 million from the city, telling officials to figure out how to reduce the toilet's cost before they could touch the funds again.
Then Chad Kaufman, owner of the Nevada-based Public Restroom Company, offered to donate a modular toilet to the city, saying he would help pay for engineering and architecture work to install the loo. Per NYT, his friend Vaughn Buckley, CEO of Pennsylvania-based Volumetric Building Companies, chipped in.
With help from Kaufman and Buckley, the city only had to pay $200,000 to install the town square toilet.
With the toilet controversy drawing to a close, San Francisco Mayor London Breed is seeking to avoid a repeat event by announcing new legislation this month allowing city officials to pool small project budgets for group discounts on construction and equipment.
San Francisco has in recent years drawn attention for its quickly rising cost of living, with one modern wealth survey saying in 2022 that the average resident needs a net worth of $1.7 million to live comfortably in the city.
Russian state TV has found itself a fur-clad, 'demonstratively heterosexual' GOP 'beauty' to fawn over: Marjorie Taylor Greene
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Margarita Simonyan, RT's editor-in-chief, called MTG a blond, fur-wearing "beauty.""She is demonstratively heterosexual," Simonyan said of Greene on Sunday.The Georgia Republican has been a vocal critic of US support for Ukraine.Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has just won herself some new admirers.
The GOP congresswoman was painted in glowing terms during a broadcast on Russian state television on Sunday.
"Marjorie Taylor Greene, you've just shown is a beauty. She is one of a few members of the US Congress who is trying to look like a person in an old-fashioned sense of the word," Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT, said of Greene.
"She is a blonde, who wears white coats with a fur collar. She is demonstratively heterosexual," Simonyan continued.
Meanwhile in Russia: head of RT Margarita Simonyan praised Marjorie Taylor Greene as "a real beauty," who wears white coats and furs. Simonyan asserted that only Russia can stop this war and it will do so only after Moscow achieves whatever it wants.https://t.co/GDoJnX539d
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) April 21, 2024Simonyan lavished praise on Greene during an appearance on the Russia-1 talk show, "Evening With Vladimir Solovyov." Greene, Simonyan said, had been treated unfairly by the US media.
"Who is Majorie Taylor Greene? She is a 'conspiracy theorist.' She has 'extreme right views,'" Simonyan said, per verified translations by Russian Media Monitor. "As soon as a person says something that shows they are normal, America's enormous media behemoth declares them a conspiracy theorist and a person of extreme right views."
Representatives for Greene didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.
It is unsurprising that Russian media outlets favor Greene. The Georgia Republican has been a vocal critic of US aid to Ukraine.
Besides trying to delay a foreign aid bill to Ukraine, Greene also pushed for an amendment that called for lawmakers to enlist in Ukraine's military if they voted for the aid package.
"If you want to fund the endless foreign wars, you should have to go fight them," Greene wrote on X on April 18.
Greene also threatened to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson after he managed to pass the aid bill to Ukraine on Saturday. The move, Green said on Monday, was a "total betrayal of Republican voters."
"Mike Johnson still hasn't shown Congress or the American people the proof that Russia intends to invade the rest of Europe after finishing its campaign in Ukraine," Greene said in an X post on Monday.
To be sure, Greene isn't the only US politician that Russian media has lauded.
Back in 2022, Russian state television reporter Denis Davydov commended Rep. Matt Gaetz and Rep. Lauren Boebert's behavior when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed Congress in December 2022. Gaetz and Boebert, Davydov said, were the "brave ones."
"Congress members Gaetz and Boebert didn't clap. They demonstratively remained seated and didn't jump up. You can feel the fatigue in Washington over the boundless aid to Ukraine," Davydov said of the two GOP politicians.
Russian state TV relies on Tucker Carlson, Josh Hawley, Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert to promote their talking points that America is sick and tired of supporting Ukraine. https://t.co/GNu7y2UTGn
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) December 25, 2022The Russians, meanwhile, have managed to keep the war machine going and boosted their army's size despite sustaining heavy losses while invading Ukraine.
Earlier this month, US Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli said in a House Armed Services Committee hearing that the Russian army "is actually now larger — by 15 percent."
"Regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine, Russia will be larger, more lethal, and angrier with the West than when it invaded," said Cavoli, who is also NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.
Trump's all-caps, high-octane rage posting is even more intense than it was during his 2016 campaign: report
Scott Olson/Getty Images
A Washington Post analysis found that Donald Trump is Truthing up a storm this election cycle.The Post found Trump drafted 760 all-uppercase screeds in the 487 days of his 2024 campaign.Trump's Truth Social posts have gotten him into trouble during his criminal trials.Donald Trump has always been a high-energy poster, but a new analysis from The Washington Post shows just how online the former president is.
The Post analyzed all of Trump's online posts during his 2016 campaign and his 2024 campaign and found that Trump is posting more frequently now. Between June 2015 and March 2016, the president posted 18 times a day on Twitter. During his current campaign, which began in November 2022, he posts around 29 times a day.
His current Truths contain many all-caps screeds, per the Post, which found that Trump drafted 760 all-uppercase posts in the 487 days between November 15, 2022, and March 15. In the same timeframe, he drafted 570 posts insulting political opponents like President Joe Biden, and the prosecutors and judges working on his cases.
"President Trump uses Truth Social — which is as hot as a pistol — to speak truth to power and get his message out unfiltered," Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told the Post.
Cheung did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Trump's posts tend to be about his brimming legal docket of four criminal cases, multiple civil cases like the ones brought against him by writer E. Jean Carroll and New York Attorney General Letitia James, and his persisting belief that he is the victim of a political witch hunt.
In Trump's Manhattan criminal trial, he's also pushed the limits of a gag order that instructs him not to post "threatening, inflammatory, denigrating" remarks on his social media about witnesses, court staff, and jurors. Trump's also been accused multiple times of inciting violence with his posts — he faced a similar accusation for his Twitter posts before the January 6, 2021, riots.
District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought a 41-count indictment against the former President in the Georgia election interference case, has also felt the wrath of Trump's posts. The DA faced racist abuse and calls for violence after Trump posted about his case.
The Washington Post's analysis also found Truth Social has become an effective bubble for Trump — the king of the castle on his majority-owned conservative social media site — to foster his rage. The former president shared hundreds of links from right-wing sites, with 407 links to Right Side Broadcasting Network and 318 links to Breitbart News, to name a few.
While Trump is deeply entrenched in his social media site, which he launched in 2022 after being banned from social media sites like Twitter, the company continues to experience financial troubles.
Since Trump Media & Technology Group — the company that owns Truth Social — went public at the end of March, the company's shares have continued to fall, going from over $70 a share to about $36 as of Friday, BI previously reported.
Trump's net worth initially jumped to $7 billion — making him richer than billionaire George Soros. Following the loss in value of the company's stocks, the former president lost $3.3 billion and is set to lose more.
The company also reported a net loss of $58.2 million in 2023, per an SEC filing from Trump Media.
Céline Dion says she goes to therapy 5 days a week and trains 'like an athlete' as part of her treatment plan
Dave J Hogan/Getty Images
Céline Dion, who has stiff-person syndrome, told Vogue France she's undergoing therapy five days a week.The singer last toured in 2020 and says she doesn't know when she'll perform again. "I want to be the best I can be. My goal is to see the Eiffel Tower again!" Dion said.Céline Dion might not know when she'll next return to the stage, but her goal right now is to manage her illness well enough that she can visit the Eiffel Tower again.
The "My Heart Will Go On" singer, who revealed in 2022 that she was diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome, spoke to Vogue France about her recent life and her thoughts on when she'll be able to perform again.
"I don't know... My body will tell me. On the other hand, I don't just want to wait," Dion told Vogue France. "It's hard, I'm working very hard and tomorrow will be even harder. Tomorrow is another day. But there's one thing that will never stop, and that's the will. It's the passion. It's the dream. It's the determination."
Dion last toured in 2020, performing 52 shows of her Courage world tour in North America before rescheduling the remaining dates due to the pandemic. She eventually canceled the rest of the dates because of her health in May 2023.
"I haven't beat the disease, as it's still within me and always will be. I hope that we'll find a miracle, a way to cure it with scientific research, but for now I have to learn to live with it," Dion said.
Stiff-person syndrome is a neurological disorder that can cause symptoms such as muscle stiffness and spasms. It is a very rare disease that affects one in a million, according to one estimate.
While there is no cure for stiff-person syndrome, there are ways for patients to manage their condition. This includes medication as well as non-medication interventions such as stretching and massage therapy.
Dion shared in the interview that she undergoes "athletic, physical, and vocal therapy" five days a week as part of her treatment plan.
"I work on my toes, my knees, my calves, my fingers, my singing, my voice," Dion said.
Although it was initially difficult for her to come to terms with her diagnosis, the singer says she is learning to live with stiff-person syndrome.
"The way I see it, I have two choices. Either I train like an athlete and work super hard, or I switch off and it's over, I stay at home, listen to my songs, stand in front of my mirror and sing to myself," Dion said.
"I've chosen to work with all my body and soul, from head to toe, with a medical team. I want to be the best I can be. My goal is to see the Eiffel Tower again!" she added.
Celine Dion is one of the many celebrities speaking openly about navigating very difficult medical diagnoses.
Earlier this month, Shannen Doherty, 53, spoke about dealing with her Stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis on her podcast. The "Beverly Hills, 90210" star said that she was getting rid of her material belongings so that she could focus on spending quality time with her mother.
"The cancer, for me, has really made me take stock of my life and shift my priorities, and my priority at the moment is my mom," Doherty said. "I don't want her to have a bunch of stuff to deal with."
Last week, Olivia Munn, 43, spoke to People about what it was like to undergo a double mastectomy due to breast cancer.
"I saw myself for the first time and I was in shock. It was incredibly hard," Munn said. "And the doctor was telling me how fantastic it looked, which made it even harder because 'fantastic' is top. You don't get better than fantastic, so I thought, 'This doesn't get better.'"
A representative for Dion did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.
A new version of TikTok that rewards you with Amazon vouchers and gift cards for watching videos is facing a crackdown in Europe
Matt Cardy/Getty Images
TikTok's spinoff app, TikTok Lite, is under fire from European officials for its rewards program.The app doles out points for watching videos and logging in, which can be used on gift cards and vouchers.The rewards hub is for users over 18, but officials say TikTok isn't doing enough to stop minors from using it.Digital regulators in Europe are clamping down on a new feature by TikTok that rewards users for consuming videos and interacting with creators, citing addiction concerns among children.
The European Commission said on Monday that it had opened formal proceedings against TikTok Lite, a spinoff version of the TikTok app that uses less mobile data and launched in Spain and France in March.
A key draw to the new app is its "Task and Rewards" program, which allows users 18 or older to earn points by logging in daily, watching videos, liking posts, and inviting friends to TikTok.
Users can earn such points on the Lite app by watching videos for up to 85 minutes daily.
The points can be converted into rewards like Amazon vouchers, gift cards, or TikTok coins — an internal currency that can be spent to send gifts to streamers and content creators.
But the commission said TikTok hasn't done enough to ensure minors can't access the rewards hub, and is concerned it can get kids addicted to the Lite app.
"We suspect TikTok 'Lite' could be as toxic and addictive as cigarettes 'light,'" said Thierry Breton, commissioner for the internal market in the EU.
TikTok has until Wednesday to submit its defense, which the commission said it would consider as it seeks to suspend Tiktok Lite's rewards program in the EU.
The platform was also told to provide a risk assessment of its spinoff app by Tuesday. European officials previously asked for it to be submitted by April 18, saying that TikTok should have already completed the assessment before launching the Lite app. However, TikTok didn't meet the original deadline.
"Unless TikTok provides compelling proof of safety — which it failed to do until now— we stand ready to trigger #DSA interim measures including the #suspension of the TikTokLite 'reward program,'" Breton wrote in a post on X.
In a statement to AFP, a spokesperson for TikTok said the platform was "disappointed with this decision."
"The TikTok Lite rewards hub is not available to under 18s, and there is a daily limit on video watch tasks," the spokesperson said.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
The commission said it was most concerned about the mental health of young TikTok users.
Breton said the app provides "endless streams of short and fast-paced videos" that may increase the risk of anxiety, depression, and addiction among kids, echoing similar worries among lawmakers elsewhere in the world, including those on Capitol Hill mulling a TikTok ban in the US.
TikTok is already facing a separate set of proceedings from the EU aimed at its main app, also based on concerns that its algorithm and video feeds could produce adverse mental health effects.
The double crackdown was launched under the European Union's new Digital Services Act, which compels internet companies to regulate their online content on their platforms.
TikTok, owned by Chinese company Bytedance, is subject to the DSA's strictest rules because it's been designated one of 22 "Very Large Online Platforms," which are classified as those with more than 45 million users.
The platform has seen sharply rising revenues in Europe in recent years, with annual revenue increasing 164% from $990 million to $2.6 billion in 2022, per its latest report from September.
Tesla is playing a brutal price game of 'how low can you go' with its Chinese EV rivals
Brandon Bell via Getty Images
Tesla slashed prices for its Model 3, S, X, and Y in China by $1,930 each over the weekend.The wave of price cuts come amid declining sales and heightened competition from its Chinese rivals."Tesla prices must change frequently in order to match production with demand," Musk said on Sunday.Tesla, eager to hold on to its market share in China, is amping up its price war against its Chinese rivals amid declining sales.
The EV manufacturer slashed its vehicle prices in multiple markets over the weekend. In China, Tesla has reduced the price of its Model 3, S, X, and Y by 14,000 yuan, or $1,930. The Model Y now costs 249,900 yuan — yet another cut from its January price of 299,900 yuan.
A similar cut was also applied in the US last Friday, where the Model S, X, and Y were given price cuts of $2,000 each. Prices for Tesla's new Cybertruck and Model 3 remain unchanged in the US.
Tesla's moves didn't go unnoticed by Chinese automakers, who responded in kind. On Monday, Li Auto introduced price cuts of between $2,485 to $4,144 across all its models.
Chinese automaker BYD also slashed prices back in March when it launched a cheaper version of its Yuan Plus car. The vehicle was sold at $16,600 and was about 12% cheaper than its predecessor.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk defended his company's pricing strategy on Sunday, writing on X that "Tesla prices must change frequently in order to match production with demand."
"Other cars change prices constantly and often by wide margins via dealer markups and manufacturer/dealer incentives," Musk wrote.
The wave of price cuts comes at a tough time for Musk's car company, which laid off more than 10% of its staff globally last week. Musk told staff in an internal memo that the layoffs were necessary to keep Tesla "lean innovative, and hungry for the next growth phase cycle."
On April 2, Tesla said it delivered 386,810 cars in the first quarter of this year, a 20.1% drop from the last quarter. Tesla's performance in the latest quarter was also its worst quarterly performance since 2022.
Besides slowing sales, Tesla has to deal with increased competition from China.
In January, Musk acknowledged the threat posed by Tesla's Chinese counterparts when he said that Chinese automakers "are the most competitive car companies in the world." In fact, Musk went so far as to frame his Chinese rivals as an existential threat to all automakers.
"If there are no trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world," Musk told investors during an earnings call in January.
Representatives for Tesla didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.
Who is Matty Healy dating now? He's been linked to model Gabbriette Bechtel
Erika Goldring/Getty Images; Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Rihanna's Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 4 presented by Prime Video
Matty Healy and Gabbriette Bechtel were first linked in September 2023. Bechtel is a model, dancer, and musician who previously worked with Charli XCX. The pair haven't confirmed their relationship, but have appeared together in a photo posted by Healy's mom.If you listened to Taylor Swift's latest album "The Tortured Poets Department," you might have thought about Matty Healy.
As Business Insider's senior music reporter Callie Ahlgrim wrote, Swift seemed to reference her weeks-long relationship with Healy throughout the album. The pair dated briefly in 2023 after Swift split from Joe Alwyn, her partner of six years. Reports circulated that Healy and Swift broke up in June 2023.
Like Swift, who is now dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, Healy has also moved on from their relationship. He was first linked to Gabbriette Bechtel, a model, in September 2023.
Here's everything you need to know about Healy and Bechtel's apparent relationship.
Bechtel is a model and musician
Highsnobiety reported that Bechtel (whose given name is Gabriella) was born in Orange County, California, in July 1997, to parents of Mexican and German ancestry. Bechtel told Vogue that as a child, she wanted to become a professional ballerina, but ended up dancing in music videos when she moved to Los Angeles. From there, she launched a career as a model.
According to Vogue, Bechtel has appeared in a variety of campaigns for brands including Heaven By Marc Jacobs and Skims. She also walked the runway for Diesel's autumn/winter 2023 fashion show.
Outside modeling, Bechtel also makes cooking content that she posts on Instagram. She told Vogue that her parents influenced her love of cooking.
"Family meals were a big part of our life, we'd sit down together after school without our phones and talk about our day, and the cooking process was always a big part of that," Bechtel told Vogue.
Chloe Chaidez and Gabbriette Bechtel performing with Nasty Cherry.Lorne Thomson/Redferns
Bechtel is also the lead vocalist of the band Nasty Cherry, which was formed by Charli XCX and was the subject of a Netflix original series titled "I'm With The Band." Nasty Cherry hasn't released music since 2021, and Bechtel confirmed that the band had broken up due to challenges posed by the pandemic.
"We couldn't do anything together, we couldn't tour our second EP, and we weren't able to make music together because we were all in different places in the world. So we just decided that it wasn't going to work out anymore," she told Highsnobiety. "I miss it all the time. It ended too abruptly."
Healy and Bechtel were first linked in New York in 2023
In September 2023, People published photos of Healy and Bechtel kissing in SoHo in New York City. At the time, the publication reported that their connection was unclear — but that they both had a mutual friend in Charli XCX.
The pair have been quiet about their speculated relationship, and haven't explicitly confirmed it. However, Healy's mother once interacted with Bechtel on Instagram after Bechtel posted a photo of herself in a thong and a leather apron from her collaboration with R&M Leathers.
"That's exactly how I hope to look in mine when it arrives!!" Healy's mother, Denise Welch, replied, accompanied by three thumbs up and heart emoji.
Bechtel also made a cameo on Welch's Instagram account, appearing in a photo with Welch, Healy, and his younger brother Louis. The three saw Welch's play, "The Gap," and she wrote in the caption of the post that it was "lovely to have the family in to see mum at work."
Bechtel alluded to her relationship with Healy in the March interview with Highsnobiety, saying that she wasn't bothered by the attention.
"I don't give a shit. I think it's hilarious. Go for it. Have fun. People have a lot to say," she told the publication. "You don't know me at all."
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