Latest news with #Verivox
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Survey shows Germans losing taste for US goods under Trump
More than a third of consumers in Germany are increasingly avoiding American products and services due to the policies of US President Donald Trump, according to a survey conducted released on Saturday. In the survey, conducted by the opinion research institute Innofact on behalf of the Verivox comparison portal, 34.3% of respondents said they are already using fewer US goods and services. More than 17% said they want to limit their consumption further. Consumers are particularly concerned about smartphones, with more than a third wanting to or having already reconsidered their purchasing behaviour. Around 30% of those surveyed do not want to use US computer hardware and intend to scale back or stop their usage of social media services like Instagram and X. However, just under 17% of respondents said they could see themselves using an alternative to the messenger service WhatsApp. Meanwhile, nearly 30% of survey participants doubted whether a boycott of US goods made sense, while 36.3% believe that US services such as WhatsApp and Amazon are already so prevalent that they are indispensable. The survey was conducted online between April 30 and May 2, 2025, with a total of 1,015 participants aged 18 to 79. Verivox says the survey is representative of the population in terms of age, gender and geographic distribution across Germany.
Saba Yemen
21-04-2025
- Business
- Saba Yemen
Sharp Rise in Heating Costs for Gas Consumers in Germany
Berlin - Saba: Heating costs for gas consumers in Germany have surged by nearly a quarter this season compared to the previous heating season, according to an analysis by the comparison website "Verivox." The analysis, published on Monday, revealed that gas heating expenses rose by approximately 23% due to weather-related factors and price increases. Meanwhile, heating oil costs saw a 1% rise. A separate analysis by the energy services company "Techem" showed that the average consumption of oil, natural gas, and district heating systems across Germany increased by 23.6% compared to the previous year. Matthias Hartmann, CEO of Techem, noted that efforts to reduce energy consumption in recent years have weakened. "If energy prices remain high, many consumers will face an additional burden in their upcoming heating bills," he added. According to a study by the German Energy and Water Association (BDEW), three-quarters of home heating systems in Germany rely on gas and oil as energy sources. Efforts to phase out Russian gas have contributed to rising fuel prices in Germany, impacting the competitiveness of the German economy, which has long depended on competitively priced Russian gas. Last week, a Reuters report, based on interviews with senior officials at European companies and experts, indicated that some European firms expressed readiness to resume cooperation with the Russian gas company Gazprom. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print more of (International)
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Survey finds German banks steadily raising their charges
German banks are steadily raising their charges, according to a recent survey of bank customers. The survey of 1,003 adults conducted in March for the Verivox comparison site found that 22% of bank customers had seen a rise, whether in account charges or fees for the issuing of a new card, direct debits, standing orders or cash withdrawals. In 2021, the federal court set stricter conditions when it came to requiring banks to seek the approval of customers when changing their terms and conditions, including raising charges. The survey found that around a half of all bank customers enjoyed free services or had to pay annual fees of less than €50 ($57). Free banking is usually linked to regular deposits by the customer. Some 22% of customers faced annual fees of between €50 and €99, while 21% had to fork out more.
Local Germany
28-03-2025
- Automotive
- Local Germany
REVEALED: Where SUVs are most - and least
Cars are getting bigger in Germany, as they are also across Europe and in the US and pretty much everywhere. Sometimes referred to as "car bloat" or "autobesity", the average size of passenger vehicles has grown as the popularity of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) has grown. The average new car weighs 1,632 kilograms, according to a recent report by Der Spiegel , which is almost a fifth more than 20 years ago. This is largely due to the fact that the market share of SUVs has increased significantly. Around 40 percent of new German cars on the market are SUVs today. But monster-sized cars are not popular everywhere. In fact, their large size seems to be the primary limiting factor that has kept them (mostly) out of many German cities. Here's a look at where in Germany you'll find mores SUVs, and where you'll find far less. Where are the most SUV drivers found in Germany? A study by the comparison portal Verivox, which analysed more than 400,000 car insurance policies, has revealed where in Germany the majority of SUVs are registered. According to the analysis, the strongest SUV hotspots are the towns of Suhl and Sonneberg in southern Thuringia, some southern Bavarian districts, and districts in the northeast. On the state level, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has the highest SUV quota overall at 19 percent, followed by Brandenburg, Thuringia and then Saxony-Anhalt - all of which were formerly part of East Germany. The cities with the highest rates of SUV ownership were: Bottrop, Ingolstadt, Munich, Wiesbaden, Jena, Bergisch Gladbach, Remscheid, Lübeck, Krefeld and Paderborn. Advertisement Where are fewer SUVs found? The strongest correlation to be found, according to a report by Der Spiegel , was that the share of SUVs tends to be lower in most of Germany's major cities - about 11 percent lower than the national average. Even cities in the aforementioned eastern states, like Dresden, Leipzig or Potsdam, had rates of SUV ownership closer to cities in western states. Verivox found that the ten cities with the lowest rate of SUV drivers were: Minster, Acquire, Salzgitter, Osnabrück, Dresden, Bremerhaven, Gelsenkirchen, Kassel, Braunschweig, and Aachen. The major city states of Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin all have rates of SUV ownership well below the national average as well. Why are SUVs less popular with urban drivers? It would appear that dense urban areas, with limited parking spaces and higher traffic, naturally make larger cars less appealing. "In cities, drivers often don't do themselves any favours with a large traffic is denser and the risk of accidents is increased," Wolfgang Schütz, Managing Director of Verivox told Der Spiegel . Cars sit in traffic on Unter den Linden in Berlin during a two-day BVG strike. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Sebastian Gollnow Especially for cities that already lack parking spaces, or which have many narrow roads, SUVs can pose a number of logistical problems. For these reasons a handful of German cities - such as Koblenz, Cologne and Tübingen - have enacted higher municipal parking fees for SUV owners. One the other hand, people living in rural areas, who are more likely to have their own driveway and spend more time on motorways and less-busy regional roads may not mind the extra space. READ ALSO: Could Germany also introduce parking fees for SUVs? An object of controversy SUV drivers often say they appreciate the extra space the vehicles have. Others say it makes them feel safe, as their vehicle is more likely to be the larger one in the event of an accident. But SUVs have been criticised by environmentalists for their hefty fuel use, and by urbanists for the added danger they pose to pedestrians, cyclists and drivers of smaller cars. Advertisement According to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) , global SUV use amounts to more climate harming emissions than most countries in the world: "If SUVs were a country, they'd be the world's fifth largest emitter of CO2". READ ALSO: Why an anonymous group has been deflating tyres of SUVs across Germany Interestingly, Verivox also was able to determine the profile of the average SUV driver. As opposed to how the vehicles are often marketed - as a family vehicle or for young people who like to go out for outdoor adventures - the vehicles seem to sell the best with pensioners. Verivox found that the group that owns the most SUVs was males over the age of 50, and the proportion of SUV owners was even a bit higher for those over 70.
Reuters
21-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
ProSiebenSat.1 sells Verivox to Italy's Moltiply for $250 million
March 21 (Reuters) - German media group ProSiebenSat.1 ( opens new tab said on Friday it would sell comparison website Verivox to Italy's Moltiply Group ( opens new tab for 231 million euros ($250 million) as it seeks to focus more on its core TV broadcasting business. The German company also said it had adjusted its outlook due to the sale, now aiming for adjusted core earnings of roughly 520 million euros in 2025. The sale of Verivox and other digital assets is closely scrutinised by ProSieben's leading investors MFE-MediaForEurope ( opens new tab and Czech investment firm PPF. Both have repeatedly called on ProSieben to part ways with its digital business and focus on its core TV operations. Selling the digital assets could make it easier for MFE, the TV group controlled by Italy's Berlusconi family, to launch a takeover bid for ProSieben. MFE, which holds nearly 30% of ProSieben, secured a 3.4 billion euro financing package to fund a potential takeover of ProSieben, which it could launch later this year under a push to build an ad-funded European broadcaster. ProSieben on Thursday approved an agreement with U.S. private equity firm General Atlantic on the acquisition of the U.S. firm's minority stakes in dating platform ParshipMeet and internet holding NuCom Group. The deal with General Atlantic made the German broadcaster the sole owner of the digital assets, removing an obstacle to the sales of Verivox and Flaconi. ($1 = 0.9234 euros)
