Back Market held a press conference on Thursday morning in Paris to talk about upcoming product launches and give an update on the company’s current situation. If you’re not familiar with the French startup, it operates a marketplace of refurbished electronics devices — mostly smartphones. It has attracted a lot of investor cash in recent years but has also been through tougher times.

In 2021, just like many large tech companies, Back Market rode the wave of zero-interest rate policies around the world and raised an enormous amount of money: a $335 million Series D round was followed by another $510 million Series E round mere months later.

After reaching a valuation of $5.7 billion, Back Market realized that the economy was slowing down. It conducted a small round of layoffs in late 2022, telling French newspaper Les Échos it was “the best way to achieve profitability in the coming years.”

Fast-forward to Thursday’s press conference and the company was keen to demonstrate its focus is back on product launches and new projects. Back Market said it wants to find new distribution channels and go premium so that more people think about buying a refurbished device instead of a new one.

Finding customers where they are already

Over the past 10 years, Back Market hasn’t just captured a decent chunk of the secondhand electronics market, it has expanded the market for refurbished smartphones. The pitch is simple: A refurbished device is cheaper than a new one and it’s also better for the planet. Moreover, when it comes to smartphones, it has become much harder to define why this year’s model is better than last year’s — so why shell out lots of money buying new to get only an incremental upgrade?

The company doesn’t handle smartphones and other electronic devices directly. Instead, it partners with 1,800 companies that repair and resell old devices. So it’s essentially a specialized services marketplace. Since its inception, it has sold 30 million refurbished devices to 15 million customers.

Most Back Market customers buy devices on its website or through its mobile app. But the company has recognized it’s sometimes constrained by its partners’ inventory. This is why it wants to expand supply and demand with strategic partnerships.

For instance, it’s partnering with Sony for PlayStation consoles. “A lot of people are coming to Back Market to try and purchase their PlayStation,” said co-founder and CEO Thibaud Hug de Larauze. But the issue is that Back Market is constrained when it comes to supplies for this type of device.

While many people think about smartphone trade-ins, most people don’t think about selling their old consoles. “With this partnership with PlayStation by Sony, we are the only partner to trade in every PlayStation within Sony’s website, within the Sony PlayStation store,” he noted.

As a result, people buying a new PlayStation get a discount with trade-ins at checkout and Back Market is no longer out of stock for old PlayStation consoles. This is a good example of what Back Market has in mind for future partnerships.

“This is one of the first [partnerships of this kind] but we really want to bring it everywhere where customers are actually shopping new. We want to get them where they are, in order to get their old tech — in order to serve it to people who want access to refurbished tech,” Hug de Larauze added.

On the smartphone front, trade-ins are already quite popular. However, customers visiting a phone store usually end up buying a new device along with a long-term plan.

Back Market is going to partner with telecom companies so that customers can also get a discount on refurbished devices in exchange for a long-term plan. The first two partners for this are Bouygues Telecom in France and Visible, a subsidiary of Verizon Wireless in the U.S.

A new premium tier with official parts

Quality remains the main concern when it comes to buying refurbished devices. In addition to allowing returns, the company is constantly tracking the rate of faulty devices on its platform and trying to bring that number down. Back Market now has a defective rate of 4%, meaning that one in every 25 phones doesn’t work as expected in one way or another.

When customers buy a smartphone on Back Market, they can choose between a device in “fair,” “good,” or “excellent” condition. The company has now rolled out a new top tier — called “premium.”

The main difference between smartphones with no signs of use and premium refurbished devices is that Back Market certifies that premium devices have been repaired with official parts exclusively.

In addition to this new premium tier, Back Market is working on an app update to turn it into a smartphone companion. You can register your smartphone with your Back Market account to receive tips to keep your device in good shape for longer. They are also working on gamification features, including badges and rewards.

Similarly, Back Market will make it easier to check the value of your current phone. “You open the Back Market app, you shake your phone and you’ll find out,” chief product officer, Amandine Durr, explained. This feature will launch around Black Friday.

Finally, Back Market is going to use generative AI to make it easier to browse the catalog. It can be hard to compare two smartphone models to understand which one is better for you. In a few months, you’ll be able to select two phones and get an AI-generated summary of how the two models compare.

Profitability in Europe this year

When thinking about growth potential, instead of focusing on the smartphone industry, Back Market said it draws inspiration from the car industry.

“Nine people out of 10 are purchasing a pre-owned car today,” said Hug de Larauze. “Everything has been created and lined up for that — the availability of spare parts for everyone, you’re not forced to repair your car where you purchased it.”

Similarly, repairability is changing for smartphones and spare parts, starting with the European Union. By June 2025, manufacturers will be forced to sell their spare parts to people and companies who want to fix devices themselves.

The shift to refurbished devices is also already well underway in Europe. “Back Market is going to be profitable for the first time in Europe in 2024,” said Hug de Larauze. “This is a big milestone for us because when we created the company and until very recently… we had that label that said: ‘OK, this is an impact company.’ Impact means good feelings, but the money is not there.

“Well it’s not the case, it’s actually making money,” he added. Now, let’s see if Back Market can become the go-to destination for refurbished devices in more countries, starting with the U.S.

Last month, two young paddleboarders found themselves stranded in the ocean, pushed 2,000 feet from the shore by strong winds and currents. Thanks to the deployment of a drone, rescuers kept an eye on them the whole time and safely brought them aboard a rescue boat within minutes.

In North Carolina, the Oak Island Fire Department is one of a few in the country using drone technology for ocean rescues. Firefighter-turned-drone pilot Sean Barry explained the drone’s capabilities as it was demonstrated on a windy day. 

“This drone is capable of flying in all types of weather and environments,” Barry said. 

Equipped with a camera that can switch between modes — including infrared to spot people in distress — responders can communicate instructions through a speaker. It also can carry life-preserving equipment.

The device is activated by a CO2 cartridge when it comes in contact with water. Once triggered, it inflates into a long tube, approximately 26 inches long, providing distressed swimmers something to hold on to.

In a real-life rescue, after a 911 call from shore, the drone spotted a swimmer in distress. It released two floating tubes, providing the swimmer with buoyancy until help arrived.

Like many coastal communities, Oak Island’s population can swell from about 10,000 to 50,000 during the summer tourist season. Riptides, which are hard to detect on the surface, can happen at any time.

Every year, about 100 people die due to rip currents on U.S. beaches. More than 80% of beach rescues involve rip currents, if you’re caught in one, rescuers advise to not panic or try to fight it, but try to float or swim parallel to the coastline to get out of the current.

Oak Island Fire Chief Lee Price noted that many people underestimate the force of rip currents.

“People are, ‘Oh, I’m a good swimmer. I’m gonna go out there,’ and then they get in trouble,” Price said.

For Price, the benefit of drones isn’t just faster response times but also keeping rescuers safe. Through the camera and speaker, they can determine if someone isn’t in distress.

Price said many people might not be aware of it. 

“It’s like anything as technology advances, it takes a little bit for everybody to catch up and get used to it,” said Price.

In a demonstration, Barry showed how the drone can bring a safety rope to a swimmer while rescuers prepare to pull the swimmer to shore.

“The speed and accuracy that this gives you … rapid deployment, speed, accuracy, and safety overall,” Price said. “Not just safety for the victim, but safety for our responders.”

Manuel Bojorquez

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Manuel Bojorquez is a CBS News national correspondent based in Miami. He joined CBS News in 2012 as a Dallas-based correspondent and was promoted to national correspondent for the network’s Miami bureau in January 2017.

It’s been quite some time since we heard anything about Netflix’s animated adaptation of Splinter Cell — but the streamer has finally provided some details on the show. The reveal comes in the form of a very brief teaser trailer, which shows a little bit of the show, but mostly showcases Liev Schreiber’s gravelly take on lead character Sam Fisher. We also have a proper name now: it’s called Splinter Cell: Deathwatch.

Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.

A blockchain entrepreneur, a cinematographer, a polar adventurer and a robotics researcher plan to fly around Earth’s poles aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule by the end of the year, becoming the first humans to observe the ice caps and extreme polar environments from orbit, SpaceX announced Monday.

The historic flight, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will be commanded by Chun Wang, a wealthy bitcoin pioneer who founded f2pool and stakefish, “which are among the largest Bitcoin mining pools and Ethereum staking providers,” the crew’s website says.

“Wang aims to use the mission to highlight the crew’s explorational spirit, bring a sense of wonder and curiosity to the larger public and highlight how technology can help push the boundaries of exploration of Earth and through the mission’s research,” SpaceX said on its website.

Wang’s crewmates are Norwegian cinematographer Jannicke Mikkelsen, Australian adventurer Eric Philips and Rabea Rogge, a German robotics researcher. All four have an interest in extreme polar environments and plan to carry out related research and photography from orbit.

The mission, known as “Fram2” in honor of a Norwegian ship used to explore both the Arctic and Antarctic regions, will last three to five days and fly at altitudes between about 265 and 280 miles.

“This looks like a cool & well thought out mission. I wish the @framonauts the best on this epic exploration adventure!” tweeted Jared Isaacman, the billionaire philanthropist who charted the first private SpaceX mission — Inspiration4 — and who plans to blast off on a second flight — Polaris Dawn — later this month.

The flights “showcase what commercial missions can achieve thanks to @SpaceX’s reusability and NASA’s vision with the commercial crew program,” Isaacman said. “All just small steps towards unlocking the last great frontier.”

Like the Inspiration4 mission before them, Wang and his crewmates will fly in a Crew Dragon equipped with a transparent cupola giving them a picture-window view of Earth below and deep space beyond.

No astronauts or cosmonauts have ever viewed Earth from the vantage point of a polar orbit, one tilted, or inclined, 90 degrees to the equator. Such orbits are favored by spy satellites, weather stations and commercial photo-reconnaissance satellites because they fly over the entire planet as it rotates beneath them.

The high-inclination record for piloted flight was set in the early 1960s by Soviet Vostok spacecraft launched into orbits inclined 65 degrees. The U.S. record was set by a space shuttle mission launched in 1990 that carried out a classified military mission in an orbit tilted 62 degrees with respect to the equator.

The International Space Station never flies beyond 51.6 degrees north and south latitude. NASA planned to launch a space shuttle on a classified military mission around the poles in 1986, but the flight was canceled in the wake of the Challenger disaster.

“The North and South Poles are invisible to astronauts on the International Space Station, as well as to all previous human spaceflight missions except for the Apollo lunar missions but only from far away,” the Fram2 website says. “This new flight trajectory will unlock new possibilities for human spaceflight.”

SpaceX has launched 13 piloted missions carrying 50 astronauts, cosmonauts and private citizens to orbit in nine NASA flights to the space station, three commercial visits to the lab and the Inspiration4 mission chartered by Isaacman.

Isaacman and three crewmates plan to blast off Aug. 26 on another fully commercial flight, this one featuring the first civilian spacewalks. NASA plans to launch its next Crew Dragon flight to the space station around Sept. 24.