Planet Business

Picture of the week: The next frontier

Virgin Galactic chief executive George Whitesides stands in front of the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft – the mothership that landed safely after splitting with the passenger spacecraft SpaceShip- Two. The latter broke into pieces over California's Mojave desert last Friday and crashed north of Los Angeles, killing one pilot and leaving the other seriously injured. SpaceShipTwo was designed to carry wealthy space tourists on short rides above the earth's atmosphere, but about 20 of the 700 advance bookers have since asked for refunds, the Richard Branson-owned company has revealed. In the bottom left-hand corner of this picture is another yet-to-be-completed Virgin spaceship, known as N202VG.The dream of commercial space travel remains a more distant prospect than Branson would like. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

In Numbers: Seasonal expenses

€1,463

The average cost of Christmas in Ireland, according to a survey of 960 people by Aviva Home Insurance. Ever get the feeling that it's nice to be below average for once?

€620

Average amount that will be lavished on gifts, which is the largest category of expenditure, according to Aviva. But one in five say they will spend less this year than last: “They much preferred playing with the box,” etc

€340

Average amount those surveyed said they would spend on food for their households. (That’s the equivalent of about 50 supermarket tins of Quality Street . . . not that anyone would buy that much chocolate, of course.)

Getting to know: Sean Rad Sean Rad is the chief executive and co-founder of dating start-up Tinder, but he's about to be dumped. Its majority shareholder, the media group IAC/InterActiveCorp, is set to swipe left on Rad, which in the gesture-language of the smartphone app means it has decided to reject him in favour of a more attractive Silicon Valley type.

Rad (28) remains chief executive "until we find a new one", the head of IAC's Match Group told Bloomberg. Rad, who is from Bel Air, California, was caught up in a controversy this year after a female executive, Whitney Wolfe, sued Tinder and parent IAC, alleging discrimination and harassment by co-founder Justin Mateen, who later resigned. Rad himself is dating Alexa Dell, daughter of billionaire Michael Dell. He says he met her on Tinder.

The Lexicon: Golden singles

In South Korea, spending by so-called “golden singles” – young people who live alone – has been hailed as a bright spot in an economy plagued by an overall sluggishness in consumer demand. Companies are starting to notice. Samsung Electronics has launched a “slim-style” fridge that is narrower than regular fridges and is “optimised for the lifestyle of single-person households”, while LG Electronics and Dongbu Daewoo Electronics have unveiled appliances such as small-load washing machines and robot vacuum cleaners (which would frankly be of use to everybody).

But the “golden singles” – which make up a quarter of all households in South Korea – are not totally alone. They’re also expected to prompt a 600 per cent expansion in the size of the country’s pet industry over the next seven years as they lay out cash on such services as pet walking and pet kindergarten.

The list: Top-earning women in music The music industry might be down in the doldrums as a whole, but these five women are still coining it, according to a Forbes run-down of the highest female earners in the business in the year to June 2014. (Indeed, Britney Spears in 10th place still managed to collect $20 million (€16 million) it says.)

1 Beyoncé Topping the list by some distance was the former Destiny's Child singer who pulled in $115 million as she stomped her way through 95 tour dates.

2 Taylor Swift The Shake It Off singer earned $64 million from live shows, merchandise and – gasp! – recorded music. Having just taken her catalogue off Spotify, she looks set to continue to persuade fans to do what fans have traditionally done: pay.

3 Pink With 85 tour dates, Pink has been “quietly adding massive amounts of cash to her coffers”, notes Forbes, which estimates her earnings at $52 million.

4 Rihanna It was a relatively quiet period for Rihanna, but the woman who "uses social media better than almost anyone" still racked up $48 million.

5 Katy Perry The singer has another $40 million to make her roar.