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Creator Kai Cenat broke the record for the highest subscriber count on Amazon‘s Twitch during a nonstop live stream for the entire month of November.

Cenat is a 22-year-old streamer who rose to popularity over the past two years with livestreams focused on comedy, gaming and pranks. He completed a so-called subathon on Saturday, streaming 24 hours a day for 30 days. A subathon is a streaming event where each new subscription or donation extends the stream’s duration, often leading to marathon sessions. 

During the stream, called Mafiathon 2, Cenat surpassed the previous subscriber record on Twitch, reaching nearly 727,700 subscribers by the end of November, a Twitch spokesperson said. Cenat also had 50 million unique viewers during this time.

Twitch subscribers usually pay $4.99 per month for perks such as ad-free viewing, exclusive emotes and access to subscriber-only chats with their favorite streamers. Twitch typically takes a 50% cut of subscriber revenue but reduces its share to between 30% and 40% for its top creators. Cenat’s team did not disclose how much he earned from the subathon, but based on his Tier 1 subscriptions, he may have earned about $3.6 million in revenue, with Twitch taking a cut of that amount.

“I love y’all so much,” Cenat said in the final moments of his 30-day stream at his mansion in Los Angeles. “Without y’all, I am nothing.”

Cenat’s stream doubled the previous Twitch subscriber record set by virtual streamer Ironmouse during a subathon in September, reaching more than 326,250 subscribers. Cenat and Ironmouse’s subathons highlight a trend among streamers to use multiday live streaming events to captivate audiences and significantly boost subscriber numbers and earnings.

During the livestream, many celebrity guests joined Cenat on his stream, including rapper Snoop Dogg, scientist Bill Nye and comedian Kevin Hart. With these guests, Cenat managed to continue his stream overnight uninterrupted while sleeping, eating and using the bathroom. During times he was off-screen, he would have other members from his team take over to entertain the thousands of viewers.

Cenat is now the biggest streamer on the internet, with mass followings across most social media platforms. He has 15.4 million followers on Twitch, 6.7 million on YouTube, 12 million on Instagram and 2.6 million on X.

Cenat said he will be donating 20% of the proceeds made from subscriptions during the stream toward a school he is helping build in Nigeria after visiting a settlement in Makoko.

“I visited Nigeria not too long ago & absolutely loved it,” Cenat said in a post on his Instagram story. “We will be going out of pocket funding this entire project with full staff, classrooms, uniforms etc.” 

The popular live streamer has faced controversy in the past. In 2023, he was charged with inciting a riot after a New York City giveaway turned into chaos. However, the Manhattan District Attorney decided not to prosecute

Twitch has become increasingly popular, attracting more than 105 million active monthly visitors with streaming playing a larger role in the creator economy.

Despite this growth, Amazon, which acquired Twitch for nearly $1 billion in 2014, has yet to see the platform turn a profit, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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Nvidia warns of growing competition from China’s Huawei, despite U.S. sanctions

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Nvidia warns of growing competition from China's Huawei, despite U.S. sanctions

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

BEIJING — Chip giant Nvidia has flagged heightened competition from Huawei, despite U.S. restrictions on the Chinese telecommunications company.

In an annual filing Wednesday, Nvidia listed Huawei among its current competitors, including it in the list for a second straight year. The company, blacklisted by the U.S. for national security reasons, did not feature among Nvidia’s competitors for at least three prior years.

Nvidia listed Huawei among its competitors in four of five categories, including chips, cloud services, computing processing and networking products.

“There’s a fair amount of competition in China,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC’s Jon Fortt Wednesday.

“Huawei, other companies, are … quite vigorous and very, very competitive,” Huang said.

Since 2019, the U.S. has restricted Huawei’s ability to access technology from American suppliers, from advanced 5G chips to Google’s Android operating system.

Nvidia CEO Huang: Revenue in China before export controls was twice as high as it is now

Huawei’s revenue exceeded 860 billion yuan ($118.27 billion) in 2024, state media reported, a 22% jump in revenue from 2023, and the fastest growth since a 32% increase in 2016, according to CNBC calculations of publicly released figures. Huawei typically publishes its annual reports in March.

The company’s revenue barely grew in 2020, and plunged by nearly 29% in 2021. Its consumer segment was hit hard, and even as revenue rose 17% year on year to 251.5 billion yuan in 2023, it was just over half of what the unit generated at its peak in 2020.

The telecommunications company started to make a comeback in the smartphone market in 2023 with the release of its Mate 60 Pro in China. Reviews indicated the device offers download speeds associated with 5G — thanks to an advanced semiconductor chip.

Just over a year later, Huawei launched the Mate 70 smartphone series that uses the company’s first fully self-developed operating system, HarmonyOS NEXT.

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Meta says it fixed ‘error’ after Instagram users report a flood of graphic and violent content

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Meta says it fixed 'error' after Instagram users report a flood of graphic and violent content

Illustration of U.S social network Instagram’s logo on a tablet screen.

Kirill Kudryavtsev | Afp | Getty Images

Meta apologized on Thursday and said it had fixed an “error” that resulted in some Instagram users reporting a flood of violent and graphic content recommended on their personal “Reels” page. 

“We have fixed an error that caused some users to see content in their Instagram Reels feed that should not have been recommended. We apologize for the mistake,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement shared with CNBC. 

The statement comes after a number of Instagram users took to various social media platforms to voice concerns about a recent influx of violent and “not safe for work” content in their feeds. 

Some users claimed they saw such content, even with Instagram’s “Sensitive Content Control” enabled to its highest moderation setting.

According to Meta policy, the company works to protect users from disturbing imagery and removes content that is particularly violent or graphic. 

Prohibited content includes videos “depicting dismemberment, visible innards or charred bodies,” as well as content that contains “sadistic remarks towards imagery depicting the suffering of humans and animals.” 

However, Meta says it does allow some graphic content if it helps users to condemn and raise awareness about important issues such as human rights abuses, armed conflicts or acts of terrorism. Such content may come with limitations, such as warning labels.

On Wednesday night in the U.S., CNBC was able to view several posts on Instagram reels that appeared to show dead bodies, graphic injuries and violent assaults. The posts were labeled “Sensitive Content.”

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Teladoc shares tumble on wider-than-expected loss, disappointing revenue guidance

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Teladoc shares tumble on wider-than-expected loss, disappointing revenue guidance

Teladoc Health Inc. signage on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 31, 2024.

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Teladoc Health shares fell in extended trading on Wednesday after the company reported a wider loss than analysts expected and issued disappointing quarterly guidance.

Here’s how the company did, compared to analysts’ consensus estimates from LSEG:

  • Loss per share: 28 cents vs. 24 cents expected
  • Revenue: $640.5 million vs. $639.6 million expected

Revenue at the telehealth company decreased 3% in the fourth quarter from $660.5 million during the same period last year, according to a release. Teladoc’s net loss widened to $48.4 million, or 28 cents per share, from a loss of $28.9 million, or 17 cents per share, a year ago.

Teladoc is in the middle of a deep slump, with its stock price dropping in each of the past four years due to hefty competition in remote health, challenges at mental health division BetterHelp and high operating costs.

When Teladoc acquired digital health company Livongo in 2020, the companies had a combined enterprise value of $37 billion. Teladoc’s market cap was around $1.9 billion as of market close on Wednesday.

“As we look forward in 2025, execution will continue to be a top priority as we advance efforts to unlock growth opportunities and position the company for long term success,” Teladoc CEO Chuck Divita said in the statement. “We will also remain focused on our cost structure, building on the significant improvements achieved in 2024 over the prior year.”  

Teladoc reported adjusted earnings of $74.8 million in its fourth quarter, a 35% decrease from a year ago. Adjusted earnings for the company’s Integrated Care segment declined 5% to $53.2 million, and BetterHelp saw adjusted earnings drop 63% to $21.7 million.

For the first quarter, Teladoc said it expects revenue of between $608 million and $629 million, while analysts were expecting $632.9 million. The company said adjusted earnings will be between $47 million and $59 million for the period.

Earlier this month, Teladoc announced it will acquire preventative care company Catapult Health in an all-cash deal for $65 million. Teladoc said its outlook includes the anticipated contribution from the deal but not the effect of potential impairments or purchase accounting. Teladoc said the acquisition should close at the end of the month.

Teladoc will host its quarterly call with investors at 4:30 p.m. ET.

— CNBC’s Bertha Coombs contributed to this report.

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