In the wake of soaring IPOs for DoorDash and Airbnb last week, Wish parent company ContextLogic turned in a more modest public debut on Wednesday.
The mobile e-commerce platform saw its shares fall 5 percent at the open and ended the day at $20 per share, down 16 percent from the $24 starting price.
CEO and founder Peter Szulczewski is taking the news in stride, however.
"If I just watched the stock price all day, I think I would drive myself crazy," Szulczewski told Cheddar. "In all seriousness, we expect a certain degree of volatility in the first few days, if not weeks of trading, but we're very much focused on the long-term vision of utilizing the capital that we just raised and unlocking commerce for consumers that we feel have been largely underserved."
Founded in 2010, the company specializes in connecting buyers with sellers of low-cost, mass-produced goods, such as clothes, electronics, and kitchenware.
Notably, Wish does not hold inventory and works with a number of international sellers, which can mean longer shipping times than other e-commerce platforms.
This is partly built into the business. Szulczewski said the company offers more of a "discovery-oriented shopping experience," in which 70 percent of customers who use the app on a daily basis and end up buying something never initiate a search query.
"It's not necessarily products that the customer needs immediately," he said. "Therefore we kind of get away with longer shipping times."
The company also targets "value-conscious" buyers, he added, who may be more concerned with a compelling price point than getting a package delivered quickly.
Wish has faced some criticism for its quality control. In response, Szulczewski said the company leveraged its user base to submit 85 million reviews and ratings in the first nine months of the year. In addition, he said the company is steadily taking control of the logistics network. In 2016, it controlled none of its shipments. Now it controls 90 percent, which helps with keeping an eye on quality.
"I think we're still in very much our growth phase," Szulczewski said. "One of the reasons to go IPO is we think we have a robust business model, especially after solving some of the logistics challenges as a necessity of going through this year, which was interesting to say the least."
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
Tesla, the car company run by Elon Musk, reported Wednesday that it sold more vehicles in the past three months after boycotts hit hard earlier this year, but profits still fell sharply. Third-quarter earnings fell to $1.4 billion, from $2.2 billion a year earlier. Excluding charges, per share profit of 50 cents came in below analysts' estimate. Tesla shares fell 3.5% in after-hours trading. Musk said the company's robotaxi service, which is available in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, will roll out to as many as 10 other metro areas by the end of the year.
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