61SOTHEBY’SAuctioning
digital gems
The 278-year-old
auction house sold a
record $7.3 billion worth
of art in 2021, thanks in
part to its willingness
to plunge into the hot
nonfungible token
(NFT) business. Most
of Sotheby’s sales still
involve more familiar
forms of art, like works
by Botticelli or Banksy,
but $100 million in
NFTs were sold at
Sotheby’s auctions
last year, from cartoon
monkeys known as
Bored Apes to the source
code of the World Wide
Web. While Christie’s
and other auction
houses also showed
interest in this new
tech, Sotheby’s became
the first major auction
house to open a virtual
gallery in the metaverse,
helping it stand out from
rivals as a technological
revolution upends
centuries-old norms of
bidding and selling.
—Andrew R. ChowSONY
ENTERTAINING
THE WORLD
If there was ever any doubt that Sony
is a global entertainment behemoth,
the past few months have erased it.
Spider-Man: No Way Home, a joint
Sony Pictures–Disney mash-up that
came out in December, featuring three
different Spider-Men from three different
universes, grossed $1.9 billion worldwide
and had the second biggest U.S. opening
weekend ever. Meanwhile, supply-chain
issues mean the company’s gaming
wing can’t make enough PlayStation 5
consoles to meet the huge global
demand, but analysts still expect sales to
handily outstrip those of chief rival Xbox
this year. —Eliana DocktermanREDDIT
R/GOINGPUBLIC
Once freewheeling “internet homepage”
Reddit has grown up, with 100,000
active communities serving 50 million
daily visitors. “People come to Reddit
with intention and i nd spaces for
camaraderie and conversations that can
spark change that extends beyond the
online and into real life,” says CEO Steve
Huffman. Reddit, which also served
as the catalyst for last year’s “meme
stock” investment craze, now hopes
to cash in—last valued at $10 billion,
it i led to go public this year even as it
struggles to i ght hate speech. —A.R.C.REVOLUT
REFUGEE
ACCOUNTS
Revolut—Britain’s biggest i nancial-
technology startup, worth $33 billion—
has captured global attention amid
Russia’s war in Ukraine by allowing
refugees from the region to sign up
for accounts without the usual
documentation, like proof of European
citizenship. “We felt it was imperative to
help those most affected by providing
a service that gives them easy, quick
access to their money,” says co-founder
and CTO Vlad Yatsenko, whose company
offers money transfers, prepaid cards,
and currency swaps. While drawing
widespread praise, the gesture has failed
to paper over high staff turnover amid
accusations of a cutthroat corporate
culture, not to mention a balance sheet
that remains i rmly in the red.
—Charlie CampbellAIRBNB
OFFERING SHELTER
When the Taliban’s rapid takeover of
Afghanistan led tens of thousands of
residents to ee the country last year,
lodging rental company Airbnb stepped
up to provide temporary shelter to more
than 20,000 refugees via nonproi t
Airbnb.org. Now, as Russia’s invasion
of Ukraine triggers yet another refugee
crisis, Airbnb and CEO Brian Chesky
are redoubling those efforts by offering
free short-term housing to as many as
100,000 people eeing the violence.
Many hosts, meanwhile, have also been
opening their doors. —Alex FitzpatrickDOORDASH
DELIVERING RELIEF
At the end of 2021, more than 25 million
people were using DoorDash to order
from over 550,000 merchants, totaling
nearly $30 billion in transactions and
representing a 23% annual increase.
Business success aside, DoorDash and
its CEO Tony Xu have been working to
help resurrect the ailing restaurant
industry and feed the hungry: over the
past year, it launched an accelerator for
minority- owned businesses, established
a $1 million Restaurant Disaster Relief
Fund, and facilitated over 1 million
food-bank deliveries. —Jared LindzonWALGREENS
BEYOND PRESCRIPTIONS
To administer the 60 million COVID-19
vaccinations and 26 million tests that
Walgreens has given to date, the company
had to revamp its technology, worker
training, and community outreach. Now
those investments are accelerating the
pharmacy’s next move: to provide in-store
screenings, health counseling, and other
holistic health care services. Under CEO
Rosalind Brewer, Walgreens is also on
track to open 200 primary- care practices
by 2023, and it plans to have 1,000
locations by 2027—over half of which will
be in medically underserved communities.
—Emily BaroneSOTHEBY’S: TRISTAN FEWINGS—GETTY IMAGES FOR SOTHEBY’S; WALGREENS: J
ASON REDMOND—AFP/GETTY IMAGES