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Emerging Tech

Emerging Tech

Douyin, The Chinese TikTok Version Now Has 600 Million Active Users Per Day

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As of August, parent-company ByteDance said Tuesday, Douyin, the Chinese edition of the popular TikTok short-video sharing app crossed 600 million daily active users.

ByteDance China CEO Kelly Zhang said at the Douyin Creator Conference in Shanghai that over 22 million developers have made more than 41.7 billion yuan ($6.15 billion) on the website over the last year. The organization has also announced plans to spend 10 billion yuan in traffic capital to help creators and target to increase their revenue to 80 billion yuan in the coming year.

ALSO READ: Oracle Shares Rise Amid Reports That They Will Become The U.S. Technology Partner of TikTok

Both Douyin and its foreign edition, TikTok, took off for ByteDance, which is now one of China’s most successful privately owned software firms, in a major way.

In July, TikTok registered nearly 700 million active monthly users, and more than 2 billion global downloads.

The key feature of both applications is to build and upload short videos with added music and unique app effects.

ALSO READ: TikTok Deletes 380,000 Videos To Breach Hate Speech Policies

But, according to a February report from consulting firm Gartner, Douyin has more advanced functionality including a more detailed portal, e-commerce, more complex system for official accounts and funded competitions, livestreaming and the opportunity to post full-length videos. TikTok is trying out some of those features on Douyin, such as e-commerce.

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Emerging Tech

Microsoft is Negotiating to Buy TikTok Social App

by tech_admin
written by tech_admin

Microsoft had talks with China owner ByteDance, one person close to the case, to buy TikTok mobile video sharing app. This person described the discussions as being ongoing for some time, instead of brand new.

A TikTok takeover could allow Microsoft to concentrate more on consumer technology by leaving mobile hardware, fitness hardware, and eBook markets than was the case in recent year with Microsoft’s acquisition of corporate apps. In 2016 LinkedIn was acquired by Microsoft for 27 billion dollars. In 2014 it paid $2.5 billion to buy Mojang, which is a common Minecraft title for young users who are the core audience of TikTok in the United States.

In 2017 TikTok was launched by Chinese company ByteDance. During the coronavirus pandemic, the app became more popular and Sensor Tower reported 2 billion downloads in April. Facebook and Snap are among the competitors.

Investors from ByteDance who are seeking to take over TikTok worth $50 billion, Reuters reported earlier this week.

TikTok ‘s rise in the U.S. has caused Trump to review the proposal. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said earlier this week it had been approved by the Foreign Investment Committee of his department in the United States.

“We’re looking at TikTok, we may be banning TikTok, we may be doing some other things, there’s a couple of options but a lot of things are happening, we’ll see what happens,” Speaking on Friday at the White House South Lawn, President Donald Trump said. “We are looking at a lot of alternatives with respect to TikTok.”

Microsoft refused to comment on Fox Business Network’s discussions for the first time.

“While we do not comment on rumors or speculation, we are confident in the long-term success of TikTok,” TikTok said in a statement Friday.

 

 

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Emerging Tech

NCC Approves 18 New Internet Service Providers (ISP) Within 6 Months

by tech_admin
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Statistics obtained from the Nigerian Communications Commission have shown that the telecoms sector has gained 18 new Internet Service Providers over the first half of the year despite severe competition in the industry.

As of July 17, 2020, the total number of approved ISPs around the nation exceeds 134.

In January of this year’s Internet services were licensed for InteWeb Satcom, Sol Global Link Network, Barnksforte Technology, TIS Lagos Limited.

Corridor Communications, Air-WiFi Cyberspace, WifricaData Solutions, IMI and Bryantel Technologies were approved by NCC in February and March of this year.

The NCC included in its April list of the Nigerian Internet Service Providers Cobranet, Ascom Net Int’l, AFR-IX Data Communications, Partner Mobile and Stratepro Veritas Technology.

In June and July, Elitel Universal Mobile Communications, Flexfinity Media, Infratel, Hoop Telecoms and Elitel joined as ISPs.

Pioneer Nigerian ISPs were met by strong competition when mobile network providers began selling Internet services on their largest customer base and collapsed data rates, making the industry unprofitable for small businesses.

As a result, as the ISPs are not willing to renew their licenses, there has been a major turnover in the industry.

The experts noted that they were the productive operators who sculpted a niche on their own or operated as MNO resellers.

Findings showed that, given the wholesale power, most ISPs that served the business sector lost revenues during the April lock-down due to cancellation or suspension of their service.

Recently in an interview, the Chairman, Telecommunications Operators Association of Nigeria, Mr. Olusola Teniola, said ISPs’ ability to access spectrum at the last mile was a problem.

He encouraged ISPs to recognize group networking opportunities and to offer internet access to communities without the involvement of MNOs in under-served areas.

“Community networks serve the purposes of curators in underserved and unserved areas that are adopting low-cost technology to solve issues in areas that the larger operators would not deem profitable,” Teniola said.

“It is very important that ISPs have access to innovative funding. You can create all these incentives but if an operator is struggling to gain access to reasonable funding that is not at double-digit interest rates but affordable and also matches the type of projects,” he added.

Access to funding, he says, would allow them to expand their operations, and be profitable and financially independent.

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Emerging Tech

Mastercard Extends The Blockchain Platform To Allow More Businesses To Issue Cards On Their Network.

by tech_admin
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Mastercard has extended its crypto-currency platform to make it possible for space firms to sell their credit cards themselves.

The business has reached an agreement with Wirex, making the London-based start-up the first “real” cryptocurrency exchange to become a principal member. Which means Wirex will now send cards directly to Mastercard ‘s network.

“The cryptocurrency market continues to mature, and Mastercard is driving it forward, creating safe and secure experiences for consumers and businesses in today’s digital economy,” revealed by Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s executive vice president for digital asset and blockchain products and partnerships.

“Our work with Wirex and the wider crypto ecosystem is accelerating innovation and empowering consumers with more choice in the way they pay.”

Mastercard will now introduce many crypto-currency companies into the Mastercard Accelerate start-up program.

‘Crypto Legitimisation’

The step reflects a broader drive from one of the world’s leading financial services companies in the emerging crypto-currency market. It is worth noting though that payment cards with cryptocurrencies are not new.

Coinbase launched its own card last year, in collaboration with Visa, the biggest rival of Mastercard. Most recently, the company has become a Visa founding partner, enabling it to add more innovations of the card most expand it into new markets.

And before the Mastercard launch, Wirex, which was established in 2014, offered a Visa card too. The firm’s software helps users to purchase and sell bitcoin, ether and other tokens, as well as standard currencies such as the US dollar and the euro.

“This is less a watershed moment and more part of a broader, slow and steady legitimization of crypto as the global regulators increasingly put systems and controls in place,” said Simon Taylor, head of ventures at fintech consultancy firm.

Mastercard and Visa have recently demonstrated their participation in the crypto market, most notably by joining up to become members of the digital currency initiative Libra on Twitter. But last year, the two payment companies left Libra, having cold feet after extreme regulatory opposition was faced with the proposal.

 

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Emerging Tech

Tech Heavyweights Join Forces to Lasso AI

by tech_admin
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Amazon, DeepMind/Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft last month announced the creation of the Partnership on AI, a nonprofit organization dedicated to formulating best practices in artificial intelligence and educating the public about the field.

The group will invite academics, other nonprofits, and specialists in policy and ethics to join its board, which will represent corporate and noncorporate members equally.

The partnership will conduct research, recommend best practices, and publish research under an open license. It will address topics such as ethics, fairness and inclusivity, transparency, privacy, and interoperability collaboration between people and AI systems, as well as AI technology’s trustworthiness, reliability and robustness.

There are no plans to lobby government or other policymaking bodies.

Discussions with professional and scientific organizations such as the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, as well as nonprofit research groups including the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, an AI research organization set up by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, were ongoing, the partnership said.

A Time of Great Turmoil

Salesforce and Apple are notably missing from the group’s roster.

Salesforce recently announced Einstein, designed to embed AI in all of its offerings. Apple just purchased machine learning and AI startup Turi.

“Salesforce may have been locked out by Microsoft,” speculated Ray Wang, a principal analyst at Constellation Research.

Apple “tends to take a go-it-alone strategy, though they’ve worked closely with partners like IBM,” he added.

As for the smaller players, “the concept started with bringing a few anchor vendors into the alliance and then growing it from there,” Wang explained. “Right now we’re in an era of AI babel. The machine learning algorithms, neural net designs, and data standards are a cacophony of hell.”

We’re at an inflection point in the progress of AI, according to Frost & Sullivan. Breakthroughs in deep learning due to more data, faster processing and better algorithms have led to dramatic improvements in computer vision, natural language processing and robotic motion systems. All of the fundamentals are in place for AI to revolutionize every business in every industry.

“I think the participants are thinking in terms of controlling the Frankenstein factor that seems to be developing around AI,” said Michael Jude, a program manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.

“People, especially the mainstream media, are getting concerned about the rise of the machines, and I think a lot of this is in the nature of PR,” he said.

Several universities have begun studying the possible dangers AI might pose. High-tech visionary Elon Musk and renowned physicist Stephen Hawking are among the people who have voiced concerns.

His concerns led Musk to help establish OpenAI, a nonprofit AI research organization that includes Amazon Web Services among its members.

We will “see a rise in digital ethics and a potential call by other alliances and organizations, like the EFF, for an international human right to privacy and digital and AI ethics standards,” Wang predicted.

Potential Impact

Partnership on AI “should provide more rigor and initial standardization, particularly around safety protocols, definitions and certifications,” noted Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

“All of these are needed to validate [it] as viable and not just a time or money hole,” he said.

Its founding members “have deep AI experience,” Enderle pointed out, and therefore “should be able to establish rules and frameworks for the group far more quickly.”

Partnership on AI might help the advancement of artificial intelligence by convincing the public that governmental controls aren’t necessary, Frost’s Jude suggested.

“Governments are beginning to get interested in the technology,” he said. “There have already been hearings on AI in Congress, and the public policy types are clearly interested in potentially regulating this space. If the industry can demonstrate that in a sense, it’s self-regulating, that may keep the regulators at bay.”

 

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