Category: 3. Business

Airports in the Gulf region and Türkiye have experienced a surge in air passenger traffic. As they compete to be key transit hubs and main tourist and business destinations, high-performance Wi-Fi networks have become increasingly important in shaping the overall passenger experience. We use Speedtest Intelligence® data to evaluate the Wi-Fi performance of the busiest airports in the region between January and August 2025. These insights help to inform travelers where they are more likely to have the best online experience while transiting through an airport in the region or waiting at a lounge to embark on an outbound flight. 

Key Takeaways:

• King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh (RUH) achieves top-tier public Wi-Fi download speeds of over 86 Mbps. Wi-Fi performance in airports across the Gulf region and Türkiye varies significantly, with RUH offering strong public Wi-Fi speeds ahead of Hamad International Airport in Doha (DOH) and Dubai International Airport (DXB). Kuwait International Airport (KWI) and Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi (AUH) fall in the mid-range of download speeds, and the two airports in Istanbul, IST and Sabiha Gokcen (SAW), lag considerably. 
• Very few airport lounges provide superior Wi-Fi performance compared to the general public airport networks. The fastest lounges, such as those in IST and DXB, exhibit a substantial increase in download speeds, 5X for the former and 2X for the latter, compared to public airport Wi-Fi. Top lounges in other airports, such as at RUH and Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi (AUH), offer more modest speed gains. Without the ability to demonstrate superior Wi-Fi performance, lounge operators are missing out on a point of differentiation to add to comfort and other amenities.
• Wi-Fi performance differs greatly between lounges, even within the same airport. This suggests that the specific lounge operator plays a crucial role in determining the quality of the Wi-Fi experience. For instance, in Riyadh (RUH), the Al Fursan lounge significantly outperforms the Plaza Premium and HAYYAK lounges. Similarly, in Dubai (DXB), the Marhaba lounge boasts much faster speeds than the Emirates (EK) lounge or the DIH lounge. Lounge operators must address these performance gaps to remain competitive, attract high-value customers, and enhance guest experience and satisfaction.

Wi-Fi performance varies significantly across Middle East and Türkiye airports

Airline passengers today expect seamless connectivity, from check-in to landing. That is why airport operators need to understand how passengers (and staff) access the internet throughout the venue, and ensure their infrastructure meets their connectivity needs. 

In January 2025, Ookla® analyzed the cellular performance at the busiest airport in the Gulf region and Türkiye. We found that Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport (AUH) achieved top-tier median mobile download speeds of over ​​450 Mbps. In comparison, Istanbul Airport (IST) significantly leads in 5G performance, with download and upload speeds of 861.98 Mbps and 101.96 Mbps, respectively.

This time, we used Speedtest Intelligence data to understand whether the public Wi-Fi networks and lounges of the nine busiest airports in the Middle East and Türkiye deliver the kind of internet experience travelers expect—whether that’s for streaming, video calls, or quick file uploads. We compared median Wi-Fi download and upload speeds at each location over a period of eight months (January to August 2025).

Ookla’s data shows that Wi-Fi performance varies greatly from airport to airport. King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh (RUH) has the highest download speed at 86.34 Mbps, placing it at the top of the list, while its upload speed is a more moderate 25.48 Mbps. In contrast, Hamad International Airport in Doha (DOH) and Dubai International Airport (DXB) demonstrate high upload speeds; Dubai leads with 101.86 Mbps, and Doha follows closely at 96.45 Mbps. DXB and DOH also stand out because they are the only two airports where upload speed is higher than download speed.

The two airports in Istanbul, IST and Sabiha Gokcen (SAW), generally have the lowest speeds. IST has a download speed of 22.65 Mbps and an upload speed of 22.20 Mbps, while SAW ranks at the bottom for both metrics, with a download speed of 9.69 Mbps and an upload speed of 9.52 Mbps.

Other airports, like Kuwait International Airport (KWI) and Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi (AUH), fall in the mid-range for download and upload speeds. At the same time, Sharjah International Airport (SHJ) and Muscat International Airport (MCT) show slower, sub-30 Mbps download speeds.

A few airport lounges offer better Wi-Fi performance than public airport networks, but the majority need improvements 

Good Wi-Fi in airport lounges is essential for enhancing the travel experience, especially as their popularity grows. With more travelers seeking comfort and productivity during layovers, the demand for reliable internet access has never been higher.

Airport and airline companies position lounges as distinctive features to cater to the needs of business travelers, families, and leisure travelers. A survey by Airport Dimensions revealed that lounge users enjoy the airport more than non-users. Lounge visits are common among frequent travelers in the Middle East, with 66% of those in the U.A.E. and 60% in Saudi Arabia utilizing lounges during their trips. This trend is driven by various factors, including the desire for a more comfortable environment and the availability of amenities, but also the increasing number of financial institutions that incorporate premium travel-related benefits such as lounge access into their loyalty strategies. 

Lounges typically offer dedicated and faster Wi-Fi than the general airport network, making them an attractive option for business travelers and those looking to maximize productivity. Hamad International Airport in Doha is the exception where a single public Wi-Fi network is deployed and accessible to everyone, including inside the lounges. 

We used Speedtest Intelligence data again to examine the download speed that is typically experienced at different airport lounges, and we selected the venues with the highest number of samples, indicating more popularity. Note that we have excluded Kuwait International Airport (KWI) or Sharjah International Airport (SHJ), as there were no Speedtest samples captured that were associated with lounges in these two locations. We have also aggregated samples from different lounges within the same airport that share the same Wi-Fi Service Set Identifier (SSID). 

Ookla data suggests that the fastest lounge’s Wi-Fi performance in all airports is superior to that of the general public Wi-Fi network. The most dramatic difference is at Istanbul Airport (IST), where the YOTEL lounge Wi-Fi clocks in at 119.46 Mbps, while the public Wi-Fi lags far behind at 22.65 Mbps. Similarly, airports in Riyadh (RUH) and Dubai (DXB) show substantial advantages for Saudia’ Al Fursan and Marhaba lounge users over the free public Wi-Fi, with lounge speeds reaching 120.5 Mbps and 101.98 Mbps, respectively.

The Pearl Lounge in Abu Dhabi Airport (AUH) shows the smallest speed increase over the free Wi-Fi network. At the other end of the spectrum, Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport (SAW) recorded the slowest speeds for lounge Wi-Fi at 25.8 Mbps, lagging the other airports in public Wi-Fi ranking.

Wi-Fi performance across lounges in the same airport exhibits strong variation, emphasizing that the choice of a lounge could be a critical factor for travelers needing a fast internet connection. In Riyadh’s RUH, the Al Fursan lounge delivers a fast median download speed of 120.5 Mbps, contrasting strongly with Plaza Premium and HAYYAK lounges in the same airport, which offer sub-22 Mbps speeds. A similar, though less extreme disparity can be observed in Istanbul Airport (IST), where YOTEL lounges provide a download speed that is more than double that of the iGA lounge at 48.32 Mbps. 

Dubai International Airport (DXB) is another example of substantial intra-airport variability. While Marhaba lounge boasts a speed of nearly 101.98 Mbps, airline Emirates’s (EK) lounges provided slower download speeds of just over 60 Mbps. The Dubai International Hotel (DIH) lounge offers a mere 29.16 Mbps download speed at the same location.

Airports like Abu Dhabi (AUH) and Muscat (MCT) exhibit more consistent, albeit moderate, speeds across their lounge offerings in the 40-55 Mbps range; still, it is faster than the public airport Wi-Fi. The Plaza Premium Lounge in Istanbul (SAW) offers slightly better Wi-Fi than the public Wi-Fi but still lags behind the other lounges, except its sister lounge in Abu Dhabi.

The surge in air passenger traffic and growing demand for seamless connectivity underscore a critical need for airport operators and lounge managers to prioritize and invest in their Wi-Fi infrastructure to enhance their overall experience and gain a competitive edge. Our analysis of the busiest airports in the Gulf region and Türkiye shows that while some locations offer high-performance Wi-Fi networks, the variability in speeds across different venues and even within the same airport’s lounges highlights significant opportunities for improvement. 

Airport authorities and lounge operators must actively monitor and enhance their Wi-Fi capabilities to meet and exceed traveler expectations and differentiate their offerings in a competitive market. By doing so, they can unlock new growth opportunities, improve customer loyalty, and strengthen their position as major global travel hubs.

Please contact us for more details on how tools such as Speedtest Intelligence can help provide actionable insights into network performance and become Speedtest Certified™ to publicly demonstrate your commitment to delivering top-tier internet experiences for every traveler. 

Ookla retains ownership of this article including all of the intellectual property rights, data, content graphs and analysis. This article may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed or published for any commercial purpose without prior consent. Members of the press and others using the findings in this article for non-commercial purposes are welcome to publicly share and link to report information with attribution to Ookla.

About the Author

Karim Yaici

Karim Yaici is the Lead Industry Analyst at Ookla covering the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. Previously, he directed Analysys Mason’s MEA research program, where he was responsible for telecoms forecasts, market reports, consumer surveys, and custom research.

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Investment banking revenues at Wall Street’s biggest banks are expected to top $9bn in the third quarter for the first time since 2021, as dealmaking finally shows signs of flourishing under the Trump administration. 

Analysts expect quarterly revenues reported this week from advisory work and equity and debt underwriting at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to total $9.1bn, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

That would mark an increase of 13 per cent from a year ago, and a 50 per cent improvement on the lows of 2023, although it is still well down on the $13.4bn the banks pulled in during the final quarter of 2021’s boom.

The third-quarter forecast reflects the growing optimism on Wall Street that the surge in new corporate takeovers, leveraged buyouts and stock market listings, predicted after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, may now be coming to fruition. 

Investment banking fees have sagged since the Federal Reserve started lifting interest rates in early 2022, while the Biden administration’s restrictive antitrust policies created a chilling effect on mergers. 

Although bankers anticipated Trump’s return to office in January would unleash a boom, trade policy uncertainty and deep government cuts instead stunted dealmaking in the early part of the year.

That has faded in recent months, adding to optimism that the upturn in fortunes for investment banking may at last be coming to fruition. Dealmakers see the Trump administration as more willing to approve deals and allow greater industry consolidation.

Jason Goldberg, a banking analyst at Barclays, said the “pro-growth” environment and lighter regulatory touch were boosting sentiment, adding: “And what’s going on with AI, whether it’s a need to invest or adapt, is certainly contributing as well.”

The recently announced $55bn leveraged buyout of Electronic Arts is emblematic of the pick-up in activity, even if the banks that worked on the deal — JPMorgan and Goldman — will not collect most of their fees until the transaction eventually closes. 

Banks’ trading businesses have picked up the slack during the downturn in advisory work. Following a period of lacklustre returns in the 2010s, trading units have generated consistently higher revenues during five years of heightened market volatility.

Analysts had expected volatility — and trading revenues — to settle down. However, they forecast that third-quarter equities and fixed-income trading across the five banks will be about 8 per cent higher than a year earlier at close to $31bn. 

“Trading activity . . . has hung on better than we would have thought following the market sort of settling after ‘liberation day’ earlier this year,” said Scott Siefers, a senior analyst at Piper Sandler. 

Quarterly net income at the six largest US banks by assets — which includes the five investment banks and Wells Fargo — is overall forecast to have risen by about 8 per cent from a year earlier. JPMorgan, Goldman, Citi and Wells report results on Tuesday, followed by Morgan Stanley and BofA on Wednesday.

“Banks have become just a means through which investors can express a view on either macroeconomic health or interest rates,” said Siefers. “Both of them seem like they’re in pretty good shape so consequently inventors have gravitated to the group.”

Banks have signalled relative calm about the health of US borrowers despite elevated interest rates. The four largest bank lenders — JPMorgan, BofA, Wells and Citi — are forecast to collectively provision about $8bn for potential loan losses, which would be roughly unchanged from a year earlier. 

However analysts said results would be carefully scrutinised for signs of weakness in US households.

“Consumer will certainly be an area of focus. There’s been a lot of mixed trends in the consumer numbers,” said Gerard Cassidy, banking research analyst at RBC Capital Markets. 

The recent collapse of subprime auto lender Tricolor, which is facing fraud allegations, has also raised concerns about the financial health of lower-income Americans.

“There’ll be a little bit more scrutiny or focus on credit quality given the recent news that we’ve seen from the likes of Tricolor and First Brands,” said Baird senior analyst David George. “Needless to say that will be I’m sure an intense focus.”

Rabat — The Expand North Star 2025 conference kicked off today in Dubai Harbour, drawing thousands of entrepreneurs and investors from around the world. The four-day event brings together startups and venture capitalists eager to forge connections and secure funding for innovative projects.

Morocco’s tech industry has a presence at the summit, with companies working in various sectors within modern technology, including artificial intelligence and cloud services.

Alongside nearly 2,000 other startups from more than 100 countries, which Expand North Star asserts is the highest showing of growth and late-stage startups anywhere. Within this fold, Moroccan startups are set to display their innovations in front of investors who manage combined assets exceeding one trillion dollars.

The Bayt Mal Al Qods Acharif agency, which operates under the Al Qods Committee chaired by King Mohammed VI, set up an institutional pavilion at the summit.

The agency also created the BMAQ Innovation Hub, a dedicated space that features six Palestinian startups. This hub gives emerging Palestinian companies access to networks and funding sources they need to grow.

The Dubai Digital Chamber first organized Expand North Star in 2015 as part of the broader GITEX Global technology conference. This 2025 edition will mark the startup and investor event’s tenth-year running. 

Startups at the event will present solutions across multiple domains, including mobility, healthtech, logistics, and finance, creating a hub where companies will seek out partnerships and investment capital for their projects.

For the most ambitious edition yet, Expand North Star has introduced the ScaleX platform, which features 50 of the world’s fastest-growing tech companies. A new section called North Star Green Impact focuses specifically on startups tackling climate change and environmental challenges through innovation.

The conference also features the Deeptech MEA Summit, which promotes artificial intelligence and robotics breakthroughs in the Middle East and Africa. A separate Digital Assets Forum addresses crucial questions about the future of global finance and digital currencies.

Starting Monday, adjacent to the innovative energy at Expand North Star, the GITEX Global 2025 tech show will open its doors at the Dubai World Trade Center. The broader summit will exhibit advances in artificial intelligence, fintech, healthtech, and smart city solutions, among others, and is expected to bring in a strong showing of almost 200,000 people from over 170 countries. 

The immunotherapy success rate for breast cancer has become an increasingly important question as immune-based treatments continue to reshape oncology. While chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and targeted therapies have long been standard approaches, immunotherapy has emerged as a transformative option, particularly for aggressive types like triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Patients and clinicians alike now ask: How effective is immunotherapy for breast cancer, and who benefits the most?

Read More About Triple-Negative Breast Cancer on OncoDaily

Understanding Immunotherapy in Breast Cancer

To evaluate the immunotherapy success rate for breast cancer, it’s essential to understand how these treatments work. Immunotherapy activates the body’s immune system to detect and destroy tumor cells. However, breast cancer cells often evade immune detection by exploiting inhibitory pathways such as PD-1 and PD-L1, which suppress immune responses. Drugs that block these pathways, known as checkpoint inhibitors, restore immune activity and enable the body to attack cancer cells.

Among the breast cancer subtypes, TNBC is considered the most responsive to immunotherapy because it tends to have higher levels of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and PD-L1 expression. These immune characteristics make TNBC more immunogenic compared to hormone receptor–positive (HR+) or HER2-positive tumors.

FDA-Approved Immunotherapy Treatments

The most notable breakthroughs defining the immunotherapy success rate for breast cancer come from trials involving atezolizumab and pembrolizumab. Atezolizumab (Tecentriq) was the first immune checkpoint inhibitor approved for breast cancer. In the landmark IMpassion130 trial, atezolizumab combined with nab-paclitaxel extended progression-free survival in patients with PD-L1–positive metastatic TNBC compared to chemotherapy alone. Median progression-free survival increased from 5.0 months to 7.5 months, representing a 38% reduction in disease progression risk (Schmid et al., New England Journal of Medicine, 2018).

Later, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) achieved FDA approval following the KEYNOTE-355 trial, which combined pembrolizumab with chemotherapy in metastatic TNBC. Among patients with PD-L1 expression (CPS ≥10), pembrolizumab improved median overall survival from 16.1 to 23.0 months, marking a 35% increase in survival (Cortes et al., Lancet, 2022). These findings have made pembrolizumab the cornerstone of immunotherapy in PD-L1–positive metastatic TNBC, greatly influencing the immunotherapy success rate for breast cancer.

Immunotherapy in Early-Stage Breast Cancer

Immunotherapy has shown even greater promise in early-stage disease, where it is used alongside chemotherapy to improve surgical and long-term outcomes. The KEYNOTE-522 trial demonstrated that pembrolizumab combined with chemotherapy before and after surgery improved both pathologic complete response (pCR) and event-free survival in high-risk early TNBC. Patients who received pembrolizumab achieved pCR in 64.8% of cases, compared to 51.2% with chemotherapy alone, while three-year event-free survival improved from 76.8% to 84.5% (Schmid et al., NEJM, 2022). This established pembrolizumab as part of the standard regimen for early-stage TNBC and significantly improved the immunotherapy success rate for breast cancer in this setting.

Subtype-Specific Success Rates

The immunotherapy success rate for breast cancer varies substantially across molecular subtypes. Triple-negative breast cancer remains the leading beneficiary, while other forms show more limited results.

In triple-negative breast cancer, immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy achieves objective response rates between 35% and 40% in metastatic PD-L1–positive disease and pathologic complete response rates above 60% in early-stage tumors. For HER2-positive breast cancer, research combining checkpoint inhibitors with trastuzumab or other HER2-targeted therapies has yielded response rates of 10–15% (Niikura et al., Cancer Science, 2021). In contrast, hormone receptor–positive breast cancer tends to be less immunogenic, and response rates are typically below 10%, though ongoing trials with checkpoint inhibitors and CDK4/6 inhibitors aim to improve outcomes (Emens et al., JCO, 2023).

Read About Breast Cancer Cure Rate on OncoDaily

Combination Strategies to Improve Success

To enhance the immunotherapy success rate for breast cancer, oncologists are exploring combination strategies that target multiple biological pathways simultaneously. Combining immunotherapy with chemotherapy has been the most successful, as chemotherapy can increase tumor antigen release and improve immune system recognition. Other promising combinations include immunotherapy with PARP inhibitors for BRCA-mutated tumors, radiotherapy to induce immunogenic cell death, and HER2-targeted agents to increase immune activation. Each approach aims to make resistant breast cancers more responsive to immunotherapy, thereby improving overall success rates.

Overall Success Rate and Outcomes

Current evidence shows that the immunotherapy success rate for breast cancer depends strongly on disease stage, tumor biology, and biomarker expression. Across all breast cancer subtypes, the average response rate to immunotherapy ranges from 20% to 30%. In PD-L1–positive TNBC, response rates reach up to 40% in metastatic disease and over 60% in early-stage cases when pembrolizumab is combined with chemotherapy. Meanwhile, patients without PD-L1 expression or with hormone receptor–positive disease generally experience limited benefits, underscoring the importance of biomarker-driven therapy.

Factors Influencing Immunotherapy Response

Several key factors influence the immunotherapy success rate for breast cancer. PD-L1 expression is the most reliable predictor of response, with higher expression correlating with better outcomes. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes also enhance immunogenicity, improving the effectiveness of checkpoint blockade. In addition, high tumor mutational burden (TMB) and BRCA mutations increase neoantigen formation, enhancing immune detection. These biomarkers are now routinely assessed to determine eligibility for immunotherapy.

Safety and Tolerability

Although immunotherapy has clear benefits, it can cause immune-related side effects, including thyroid inflammation, pneumonitis, hepatitis, and skin reactions. These events occur in about 15–20% of patients and are usually manageable with corticosteroids. Compared to traditional chemotherapy, immunotherapy tends to offer a more favorable safety profile, especially in long-term use.

Read About AI in Breast Cancer Detection on OncoDaily

Future Perspectives

The future of immunotherapy in breast cancer looks promising. Researchers are developing new immune checkpoint inhibitors targeting LAG-3, TIGIT, and TIM-3, as well as personalized cancer vaccines and CAR T-cell therapies directed at breast-specific antigens like MUC1 and HER2. Combining these approaches with genetic and immune profiling will likely increase the immunotherapy success rate for breast cancer even further, expanding its use beyond TNBC to other subtypes.

Conclusion

The immunotherapy success rate for breast cancer varies widely depending on tumor characteristics. The greatest benefits are seen in PD-L1–positive triple-negative breast cancer, where pembrolizumab and atezolizumab have shown remarkable results, with response rates of 35–65% depending on disease stage. In early-stage TNBC, immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy has become a standard treatment, significantly improving survival and cure potential. Although results remain modest in HER2-positive and hormone receptor–positive cancers, ongoing research and combination strategies are rapidly expanding immunotherapy’s impact. With continued scientific progress, the immunotherapy success rate for breast cancer is expected to rise, offering new hope to patients across the spectrum of disease.

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Written by Armen Gevorgyan, MD

Friday’s crypto sell-off was a fast, leverage-driven cascade that crushed altcoins while bitcoin held up comparatively better — and the next phase hinges on a handful of signals, according to Wiston Capital Founder Charlie Erith.

In a Sunday post titled “Crypto Crumble,” Erith said the market excluding bitcoin, ether and stablecoins fell about 33% in roughly 25 minutes on Oct. 10 before bouncing to a loss of around 10.6%. He added that about $560 billion, or 13.1%, has been erased from total crypto market value since Oct. 6 and cited $18.7 billion in liquidations during the episode.

He linked the immediate trigger to President Donald Trump’s Truth Social threat of an additional 100% tariff on Chinese imports, but argued the slide was already in motion — equities were still climbing while crypto “felt distinctly frail,” a divergence he took as advance warning.

Bitcoin, he said, “behaved largely as expected.” It fell, but less than the long tail, leaving bitcoin near a long-running uptrend from late 2022 and boosting its market share as non-bitcoin tokens absorbed “immense technical damage.” Erith said his fund emerged “largely unscathed” because positioning had already been defensively tilted.

What Erith is watching next

Erith said he is tracking bitcoin’s 365-day exponential moving average as a line that separates bullish from corrective regimes. He added that a pullback toward the $100,000 area and a touch of that average would not, by itself, overturn his longer-term view provided the level holds — but a sustained break would raise the risk of a deeper reset.

He also pointed to market breadth via bitcoin’s share of total crypto value. According to Erith, the sell-off accelerated a rotation toward higher-liquidity assets, lifting bitcoin dominance. He said a continued rise in that share alongside weak breadth would argue for caution in high-beta tokens until non-bitcoin charts rebuild.

Beyond bitcoin’s own levels, Erith highlighted Strategy’s equity as a proxy for leverage and sentiment in the ecosystem. He noted that roughly four years ago a decisive move below its 365-day average preceded a major bitcoin drawdown. In his view, holding above that trend line would support the resilience narrative; a break below could foreshadow renewed selling pressure.

Volatility is the other gauge. Erith said the VIX — the equity “fear index” — has started to climb and that historically better entries arrive when volatility spikes rather than during the early rise. That framing implies patience on adding risk while equity-volatility stress plays out.

On positioning, Erith said he remains invested but is avoiding leverage and is carrying cash “waiting for the dust to settle.” He said moves of this sort have, in his experience, sometimes preceded broader downturns, which is why he prefers to see the above signals stabilize before increasing exposure.

Erith said the sell-off inflicted heavy damage on altcoins, while bitcoin’s month-to-date decline is modest and comparable to large-cap tech, which he views as evidence of growing resilience.

In recent remarks, John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy, laid out a curious and somewhat baffling narrative: renewables should serve as a transition solution toward expanding natural gas generation. Yes, you read that correctly. After decades of framing gas as a so-called “bridge fuel” to a renewable future, the argument has seemingly flipped on its head. We are now being asked to consider the most rapidly deployable, clean, cost-effective energy sources — wind, solar, and storage — as nothing more than a stopgap solution until we can build more expensive, slower-to-deploy fossil-fuel infrastructure. This logic would be amusing if it weren’t deeply troubling.

“We need a bridge to get ourselves to 2032 when that gas shows up,” Ketchum said. “And when that gas shows up, it’s going to be three times more expensive than it’s ever been.

In his defence, Ketchum’s comments came during the Politico Energy Summit in Washington, D.C., in June 2025, where he was responding to mounting political pressure from Republican-led efforts to roll back clean energy incentives and reinstate…

If you want to sell a rare bottle of whiskey, how can you be sure you’re getting a fair price? That was the question a tech veteran and a bar owner teamed up to answer with their online marketplace, Unicorn.

Phil Mikhaylov, one-time head of global partnerships for Uber Eats, and bar owner Cody Modeer launched the site in 2020 so alcohol aficionados can buy and sell high-end spirits and wine for what they’re really worth.

Mikhaylov got the idea for Unicorn while working with a whiskey lover whose collection was worth over $1 million. That made him wonder: How many other collectors have no idea how valuable their bottles are but would look for the answer through a reputable marketplace.

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Modeer was motivated as a bar owner who wanted a marketplace where high end alcohol could be bought and sold for fair prices.

Together, they created Unicorn, a web- and app-based auction/marketplace that also has a brick-and-mortar vault in Chicago with more than $100 million worth of bottles under management. The company also has 11 dropoff and pickup locations across the nation.

One key component to Unicorn is its authentication mechanisms. These include tech-enabled authentication, appraisal and digitization of every bottle. The company also has a database of more than 400,000 historical transactions and 1 million digital photos, making it possible to spot inconsistencies and ensure authenticity.

Unicorn’s more expensive bottles can range from $100 to $250,000, but the company also did more than 50,000 transactions last year that were under $100.

Some of the most expensive bottles that have sold on Unicorn include a bottle of Very Very Old Fitzgerald 18-year Blackhawk bourbon that sold for $80,000, a bottle of Buffalo Trace Old Fashioned Copper 1982 that sold for close to $123,000, and a bottle of Yamazaki 55-year Single Malt Japanese Whiskey that sold for more than $200,000.

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Buyers can partake in 1-3 weekly auctions with up to 6,000 listings worth $1 million to $2million and more than 65,000 bids. By contrast, Sotheby’s and Christie’s only hold auctions every month or two, and only for high-end bottles.

Unicorn says more than 100,000 customers have used the platform, generating more than 7 million bids and more than $150 million in sales, and that 60% to 70% of its customer base is Gen X, millennials and Gen Z.

As digital marketplaces for big-ticket luxury items like designer handbags, sneakers, and automobiles took off, it was only a matter of time before entrepreneurs found similar opportunities in alcohol.

Younger generations with disposable income and an affinity for luxury goods have also inspired digital marketplaces where high-end and rare alcohol is bought by serious collectors and casual drinkers alike.

See Also: If there was a new fund backed by Jeff Bezos offering a 7-9% target yield with monthly dividends would you invest in it?

The global luxury wine and spirits market is expected to grow from $274.1 billion in 2024 to around $438 billion in 2034, translating into a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.8% between 2025-2034, according to a report by Market.US, a market analyses firm in New York.

North America captured 31.4% of the global market share, about $84.9 billion, in 2024. The report also noted that luxury wines accounted for 56.1% of the 2024 luxury wine and spirits market in 2024, with online retail accounting for 36.3% of distribution.

Unicorn is not without its digital rivals in a very competitive space.

New York-based BAXUS describes itself as “the first peer-to-peer Marketplace for buying, selling, trading, and storing your valuable spirits & wine.” The company says that it uses blockchain technology “to give users proof of ownership, authentication, and a safe storage solution.”

Other digital marketplaces catering to the high-end wine and spirit aficionado include Winebid.com, Good Bottle Auctions, Whisekey.acition.com, Invaluable.com, Whiskey Auctioneer, and Whiskeytrades.com.

And because alcohol attracts more scrutiny from regulators than most other industries, digital marketplaces for wine and spirits  need to navigate the complex rules that could affect their business.

Another risk is the decline in U.S. alcohol consumption. According to a 2023 Gallup poll, 54% of Americans reported drinking alcohol, down from 67% in 2017. That’s the lowest percentage of Americans who said they consumed alcohol since Gallup started tracking American drinking behavior in 1939.

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