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The people with the most followers on Twitter, for example, have a massive platform to spread their messages, while those with large, engaged followings on Instagram are an advertiser’s dream sponsor partner. Social media can also be an equalizer of power. It’s true that many celebrities boast large followings across platforms, but social media has also enabled previously unknown personalities to turn YouTube or TikTok fame into veritable star power and influence....

The recent gains can be attributed to a surge in Microsoft’s stock price, after the tech company surprised the market by winning a $10 billion cloud contract from the Pentagon. This also pushed Gates past fellow Seattle billionaire Jeff Bezos, who currently holds a $108.7 billion fortune. With these numbers topping a hundred billion dollars, they can be difficult to comprehend. Luckily for us, Twitter user @betty__cam put together a short animation that simplifies things....

Trading Forex: A Large and Liquid Market An alternative to trading on the stock market is trading currencies on the Foreign Exchange Market (Forex). Although trading currency may not be a sexy as trading stock, it certainly has its merits. Since the market is international, investors can trade at any time of the day and are not confined to the hours of Wall Street trading. Furthermore, the daily market for Forex trading is in the trillions....

Video: 35 Years of World Economic Evolution in 20 Seconds Watch GDP for the world’s countries change over decades We previously have posted similar Voronoi diagrams in the past showing a breakdown of global GDP by country, as well as $60 trillion in world debt. Today’s video takes a similar approach, but focuses on the evolution of the global GDP breakdown over time. It does not show GDP in absolute terms, but instead illustrates changes to each country’s contribution using annual data from the IMF....

We recently stumbled across this motion graphic on the history of drones by Mashable, and had to share it. This video helps bring anyone up to speed on the emergence of drones and some of the questions they have raised on foreign policy. The era of drones has started, but the real question is on the coming implications and ethic dilemmas of this sea change. Drones are now ubiquitous. They can be found in many places: killing hundreds of people overseas, spying on your neighbour, taking pictures or video of events, delivering medicine to remote locations, spraying and watering crops, and helping monitor animal conservation efforts....

Virtual and Augmented Reality: The Players and the Game Virtual reality has been exiled to the dreaded trough of disillusionment for years, but it is finally on the path to escape. Products such as Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive are continuously wowing both users and investors, and these technologies will clearly play a significant role in the future of movies and gaming. Despite this emergence, it is another related technology that has shown even more potential....

They were the first form of life to appear on Earth almost 3.8 billion years ago. They make up the second most abundant lifeform, only outweighed by plants. And most interesting of all: they exist in practically every environment on our planet, including areas where no other lifeforms can survive. As a result, bacteria exhibit a wide variety of appearances, behaviors, and applications similar to the lifeforms we see in our everyday lives....

The Space Race started during the Cold War, and early on the Soviet Union dominated when it came to the amount of devices and objects launched into our atmosphere. But a few years ago, the U.S. took back that title with Elon Musk’s SpaceX helping lead the charge. This visual, using data from Our World in Data, breaks down the amount of objects launched into space by country over time....

Without the right context, however, it can be difficult to properly interpret these figures. To help you understand your chances, we’ve compiled data from the National Safety Council, and visualized the lifetime odds of dying from various accidents. Data and Methodology The lifetime odds presented in this graphic were estimated by dividing the one-year odds of dying by the life expectancy of a person born in 2020 (77 years). Additionally, these numbers are based on data from the U....

But did you know there’s a way to get even more out of Visual Capitalist, all while helping support the work we do? New to VC+ in July 2020 VC+ is our members program that gives you exclusive access to extra visual content and insightful special features. It also gets you access to The Trendline, our new members-only graphic newsletter. So, what is getting sent to VC+ members in the coming weeks?...

What’s the Difference Between the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq? When stock market pundits talk about market outlook and performance, they’ll often look to the movement of three benchmark indices: the S&P 500, The Dow Jones Industrial Average, or the Nasdaq. In this infographic, the key differences between these are outlined. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is the oldest of the three, dating back to 1896, and tracks the movement of 30 large, public US companies....

Books are obviously a huge source of information for the world’s best investors – and we’ve looked at their book recommendations in the past – but perhaps even more telling is what they read on a day-to-day basis. Today, we get a snapshot of the morning reading of top notch venture capitalists to see how they get the perspectives, inspiration, and insights that help drive their investments. Morning Reading for Tech Investors Joe Hovde, from the Ramen Profitable blog, collected data from the interviews of every venture capitalist and entrepreneur featured on the popular Twenty Minute VC podcast....

Both companies and governments take advantage of this resource wealth. More of the world’s largest companies work in the oil patch than any other industry. At the same, entire government regimes are kept intact thanks to oil revenues. The only problem when an industry becomes this lucrative? Eventually, everybody wants a piece of the pie – and they’ll do anything to get their share. The Black Market in Fuel Theft Today’s infographic comes from Eurocontrol Technics Group, and it highlights the global problem of fuel theft....

[Video] The European Debt Crisis Visualized Greece continues to vigorously deny allegations that they are preparing to default if they cannot reach a deal with their debtors. Today, S&P downgraded Greece’s bonds to junk status, prompting even more ministers to opine on the negotiations. “Given the we have lost a lot of time, I am skeptical,” said Peter Kazimir, Slovakia’s Finance Minister. “Greece is moving ever closer to the abyss.” This is all while, as we showed yesterday, that the Eurozone Crisis is still far from over....

While those odds might seem high, the truth is nearly everyone in the U.S. hails from someplace else if you look far back enough. Visualizing U.S. Immigration Today’s intriguing visualization was created by professors Pedro M. Cruz and John Wihbey from Northeastern University, and it depicts U.S. immigration from 1830 until 2015, as rings in a growing tree trunk. The researchers turned registered U.S. Census data into an estimate for the total number of immigrants arriving each decade, and then the yearly figures in the visualization....

Urban areas provide a combination of network effects and economies of scale that are referred to as “economies of agglomeration”. That’s why countries around the world rely on cities as engines of growth, and the United States is no exception. Today’s map animation comes to us from Max Galka’s Metrocosm blog, and it helps us to visualize the economic impact of metropolitan areas in the United States. The animation uses a map known as a cartogram which distorts the size of each county based on its relative economic contribution to GDP....

Asia to Add 5,000 New Centimillionaires Over Next Decade [Chart] The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays. Where in the world should a speculator go to make it big? Back in the old days, the plan was to follow the gold rushes. Your travels may have taken you to California, Colorado, or maybe even the Klondike. Today, the places to go are arguably the emerging markets, or as we recently detailed: the “emerging” emerging markets....

In Egypt, an astonishing 95% of the population lives alongside the mighty Nile, which is the world’s longest river at 4,258 mi (6,853 km) and also the only major source of freshwater in an otherwise arid desert landscape. The World’s Watersheds The Nile isn’t alone in creating the right conditions for life. Rivers of all sizes help form the world’s watersheds, and together they comprise a “circulatory system” that pumps life into every corner of the globe....

By This Measure, the U.S. has the 2nd Highest National Debt USA is #7 in debt to gdp, but #2 in debt to revenue In absolute terms, the United States is the most indebted country in the world, accounting for 29% of the world’s $60 trillion of sovereign debt. However, this is not really a fair comparison in some ways because it does not account for the relative wealth of the country in contrast to poorer economies....

on Over recent decades, farmers have been able to more than double their production of crops thanks to fertilizers and the vital nutrients they contain. When crops are harvested, the essential nutrients are taken away with them to the dining table, resulting in the depletion of these nutrients in the soil. To replenish these nutrients, fertilizers are needed, and the cycle continues. The above infographic by Brazil Potash shows the role that each macronutrient plays in growing healthy, high-yielding crops....