Tesla tries new advertising effort, expands online ads
Tesla has been apparently dipping its toes in advertising over the last few months – and now it has expanded into a new medium, airport advertisement, on top of broadening its online ads.
Earlier this year, CEO Elon Musk announced a reversal of his longstanding strategy that Tesla not spend on advertising but instead spend money to improve the products – counting on owners to spread the word.
Tesla investors have often suggested to the CEO that some advertising to highlight certain features and benefits of Tesla vehicles could be worth it. At Tesla’s annual meeting last week, Musk obliged for the first time. The CEO said that Tesla would “try a little advertising” and see how it goes.
In June, we reported that Tesla officially kicked off “a little advertising” with a few Google ads.
The automaker has since greatly expanded the effort and has tried about 300 different ads on Google:
Tesla seems to be primarily trying a bunch of different ad headlines related to pricing in the US after incentives, but the automaker is also looking at some targeted ads highlighting “built in Texas” and its vehicle safety rating.
Now Tesla also appears to be dipping its toes in a more visual form of advertising.
Travelers in Japan have spotted a prominent Tesla advert running on displays at the Haneda Airport in Tokyo:
The ad, which runs on an entire wall of displays, features Tesla’s Model Y, Supercharger network, and Autopilot features.
It shows a new willingness for Tesla to invest in advertising in specific markets where it has room to grow.
Japan is a tough market to penetrate for foreign automakers as it generally prefers domestically built vehicles, but Japanese automakers have also been reticent to go all-electric, and therefore Tesla has an opportunity to capture the market of current buyers willing to go electric.
It will be interesting to see if Tesla sees an impact from this new advertising effort in Japan and if it can convince the automaker to expand it further.
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Tesla has launched a limited version of its Full Self-Driving features in China to mixed reviews as it’s still far from what was promised.
After many delays, Tesla has now pushed an update that brings some of the advanced driver-assist features sold under its Full Self-Driving package in North America to the Chinese market.
The features are being pushed through the ‘2024.45.32.12’ update, and Tesla wrote in the release notes (translated from Chinese):
- Autopilot automatic assisted driving on urban roads (optimizing the existing NOA automatic assisted navigation driving function): Using Autopilot automatic assisted driving on controlled roads (main roads where road users enter and exit through ramp entrances and ramp exits) and urban roads will guide the vehicle to exit ramps and intersections according to the navigation route, and identify traffic lights at intersections to go straight, turn left, turn right, turn around, etc. It will also automatically change lanes according to speed and route. When the navigation route is not set, the optimal road will be selected according to the actual road conditions.
- Cabin Camera: The cockpit camera above your rearview mirror can now determine whether the driver is paying attention and remind you to focus on the road through an alarm when the intelligent assisted driving system is activated. The cabin camera video is processed inside the vehicle. No one (including Tesla) has access to it.
- Map package version updated: CN-2025.8-15218.
*The implementation time and effects of some functions may vary depending on the vehicle model and configuration.
The update has received mixed reviews from Tesla owners in China. Some of them are happy with the progress, while others are disappointed that it falls short of the self-driving capabilities Tesla promised and of the capabilities of the competition, which offers more advanced driver-assist systems for less.
Lu Panpan, a Tesla owner in China’s eastern Zhejiang province who bought a Model 3 in 2019, told Reuters:
“We can tell Tesla has no choice but to deliver a knowingly restricted system. It is hard for Tesla to catch up with the smart-driving capabilities in Chinese cars, which even makes less sense given its high pricing.”
Lu paid 56,000 yuan ($7,720) for Tesla’s FSD package. Tesla promised to deliver self-driving capability that would enable to turn your car into a robotaxi.
Instead, 6 years later, owners are getting the capability that other Chinese automakers offer in their vehicles for a fraction of the cost.
A recent report from Bloomberg claimed that Tesla plans to release another update later this year in China with better capacity, and CEO Elon Musk has claimed that he believes Tesla will release full self-driving capability in most markets within the next year – though he has been staying that every year for the last 6 years.
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At PayPal‘s first investor day in four years, CEO Alex Chriss will deliver a clear message to shareholders: Venmo isn’t just an easy way to split the dinner tab.
Chriss, who took the helm in September 2023, is trying to spur a turnaround at the payments company, and Venmo is a key part of his effort. The company told investors in New York on Tuesday that Venmo can top $2 billion in revenue by 2027. The last time PayPal provided an annual revenue figure for Venmo was 2021, when it was about $900 million.
For Chriss, Venmo expansion is all part of a broader push to restore consistent, profitable growth after years of turbulence that saw the company’s market cap dwindle by more than 80% from mid-2021 through late 2023.
With 90 million U.S. users, Venmo has been a cultural staple for years and has become a verb that’s synonymous with sending money to a friend or family member. But monetization has remained a challenge because those transactions generate little revenue.
Meanwhile, competitors like Block‘s Cash App, Zelle and Apple Pay have been gaining ground, offering simple bank integrations and an expanded range of financial services. On Tuesday, PayPal is outlining its strategy to deepen user engagement and position Venmo as the default app not just for peer-to-peer transactions, but for spending, saving and becoming what the company is calling the “go-to money movement app.”
That includes more focus on its debit card, encouraging in-store purchases, getting more merchants to use “Pay With Venmo” and rolling out features designed to keep funds within the app. Ultimately, greater business use means higher transaction volume and more profit. And for consumers, offering them increased value within the app raises the likelihood they’ll use Venmo to pay at checkout and to keep higher balances in their account.
The company has already been headed down that path. Monetized monthly active users increased 24% in 2024, and the company expects mid-single-digit annual growth in Venmo’s user base through 2027. Over that stretch, Venmo debit card total payment volume is projected to rise at a more than 20% compounded annual growth rate, while “Pay With Venmo” is expected to expand at double that rate.
Chriss has prioritized transaction margin dollars, reversing a decline that saw margins contract in 2022 and 2023 before rebounding in 2024. At investor day, he’s outlining long-term financial targets, including high single-digit growth in transaction margin dollars and per share earnings growth in the low teens by 2027.
To push Venmo beyond the consumer market and into the world of business transactions, PayPal has partnered with companies including DoorDash, Starbucks and Ticketmaster. In its fourth-quarter earnings report earlier this month, PayPal said the number of merchants using Pay with Venmo increased 50% from a year earlier.
The company said Instacart and MoonPay joined as partners in the latest quarter and that JetBlue became the first airline to allow use of Venmo for booking flights.
“While we are still early in monetizing Venmo, we have a proven playbook that is resonating with customers,” Chriss said on the earnings call. “This gives us confidence as we move to 2025 and beyond.”
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