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Facebook

Facebook’s New Lagos Office To Build Opportunities Through African Technology

by tech_admin September 23, 2020

As part of its commitment to continuous investment in Africa, Facebook announced plans to open a further office in Lagos. The Lagos office will be its second office in Africa and will house a team of skilled engineers who are building for Africa ‘s future and beyond.

The office was established to serve all of Sub-Saharan Africa and is scheduled to be in service in H2 2021. The office will also house a range of teams from around the continent, such as distribution, alliances, strategy, communications and engineers. Facebook Head, Ime Archibong, said: “Opening our new office in Lagos , Nigeria, provides new and exciting possibilities for digital innovation to grow from the continent and take it all around the world

ALSO READ:Lawsuit Accuses Facebook Of Using Cameras To Spy On Instagram Users

“We see huge talent in the technology ecosystem in Africa, and I’m proud that we are going to create products for Africa’s and the world’s future with African citizens at their forefront with the next opening of our new office. We aim to further contribute to the African technical ecosystem. “Investment from the new Facebook office follows the launch of NG Hub in 2018, the first flagship hub in Africa in collaboration with CcHub, and the launch in 2019, in collaboration with Telepresence, of a Small Business Group (SBG) operating centre.

The SBG office, through its Advocacy, Community & Education (ACE) Program and Marketing Experts Sales Programs, offers outsourced support to all English-speaking advertiser from across Subsaharan Africa, to support SMBs – all of which help to allow SMB to increase their business growth and development. Facebook Public Policy Manager Kojo Boakye added: “The significant achievement of our new office in Nigeria is further enhancing our commitment to the region.

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“We have a unique mission in Africa to build communities and bring the world closer together, and I look forward to the opportunities this will bring, not just in Nigeria, but across Africa.” He said that Facebook has made a range of investments across the continent since the launch of its new office in 2015 with the goal of supporting and improving technology ecosystems.

“It includes the latest launch of its Nigeria and South Africa SMB Grants programme, with the goal of helping 900 companies through combinations of cash and advertisement credits that enable small enterprises to recover from COVID. “2Africa ‘s construction is the biggest underwater cable project in the world to provide much-needed Internet capability and reliability in large parts of Africa, and its continued training programs across the continent to help different communities, including students, SMEs, digital creative firms, women entrepreneurs, start-ups and developers,” he said.

Nunu Ntshingila, Regional Director, Facebook Africa said: “We are pleased to announce our new Nigeria office. We continue to invest and promote local talent and the different communities that use our platforms five years from the launch of our first office on the continent in Johannesburg , South Africa. The Lagos office will also contribute to extend our operation to our customers across the continent.

September 23, 2020 0 comment

Internet

Lawsuit Accuses Facebook Of Using Cameras To Spy On Instagram Users

by tech_admin September 18, 2020

written by tech_admin

Once again, Facebook is being sued for falsely spying on users of Instagram, this time through illegal use of their cell phone cameras. The lawsuit is a result of media reports in July that, even though they were not actively used, the photo-sharing application seemed to access iPhone cameras. Facebook refuted the reports and blamed a bug for causing what it identified as false alerts that Instagram had been accessing iPhone cameras, which it said was correcting.

In the federal court lawsuit filed in San Francisco on Thursday, New Jersey Instagram user Brittany Conditi claims that the use of the camera by the app is deliberate and done for the purpose of gathering “lucrative and useful data on its users that it would not otherwise have access to.”

Instagram and Facebook, according to the lawsuit, are able to gain “valuable insights and market analysis” by “having incredibly private and confidential personal data about their users, even in the privacy of their own homes.” Facebook has refused to comment. Facebook was accused of using facial recognition technology to secretly collect the biometric data of its more than 100 million Instagram users in a lawsuit filed last month. Facebook refuted the assertion and said Instagram is not using face recognition technology.

September 18, 2020 0 comment

Internet

In Three Days, The Six Largest Technology Stocks Lost Over 1 trillion dollars in Value

by tech_admin September 9, 2020

written by tech_admin

Over the past three days alone, the six largest tech shares have lost over $1 billion, but it’s just an enormous rally that hit last week.

Apple, which reached a market limit of $2 trillion on August 19, is down by about $325 billion. Microsoft has fallen by $219 billion, $191 billion for Amazon has cratered by Alphabet by $135 billion and Tesla is down by $109 billion over the last three days, 21% on Tuesday to mark its worst single- day loss in history. Finally, 89 billion dollars are off Facebook.

“Generally, Apple is worth approximately $325 billion if you think about market cap losses during the last 3 days. This is about 1.5 Sales Forces and equal to Apple’s projected revenues for the following calendar year, Jefferies’ Jared Weisfeld said Tuesday to TNN “Fast Money.”

Despite the enormous volume, it is worth taking into account the massive increase in the value of the technology giants this year.

In early 2020, around $5 trillion was worth to the six largest tech companies. The peak was $8.2 trillion on Wednesday, September 2. They have a combined market share of $7.1 trillion after Tuesday’s closure. These six businesses are still worth 2,1,000 trillion USD, despite a global coronavirus pandemic and record job losses in the U.S., while it’s a major loss over several days.

“With clients & investors I have certainly not felt any panic in the last few days … But the large cap tech has certainly brought us down and the action today is certainly spectacular evidence that Apple has fallen below the $2 billion market cap, “said Weisfeld.

September 9, 2020 0 comment

Internet

Facebook Introduces ‘Reels’, Tik-Tok Clone To Challenge Viral App

by tech_admin August 7, 2020

written by tech_admin

On Wednesday, Facebook launched its own version of social media rival TikTok, embedding a new short-form video service called Reels as a feature in its popular Instagram app.

The debut comes days after Microsoft said that it was in talks to acquire US operations of TikTok from ByteDance in China. In response to pressure from the White House, which threatened to ban it and other Chinese apps on data protection grounds, ByteDance has agreed to divest parts of TikTok. Sources say.

Reels’ launch escalates a raging war between Facebook and TikTok, with each casting the other as a threat. Both were willing to draw Americans, many of whom in the last two years flocked to TikTok.

Reels was first screened in Brazil in 2018, but then in France, Germany and India, the largest market of TikTok before last month, after a border conflict with China, the Indian government banished it. Facebook has also tried a stand-alone Lasso app, which hasn’t been trained much.

Like TikTok, users of Reel can record short vertical mobile images, add special effects and soundtracks from a musical library.

Such similarities led Kevin Mayer, CEO of TikTok, to call Reels a “copycat product,” which could coast on the huge established user base of Instagram after “their other copycat Lasso failed quickly”.

August 7, 2020 0 comment

Tech Africa

Report: Facebook Investment in Internet Will Contributes $19.6 Billion to Nigeria’s GDP

by tech_admin July 29, 2020

written by tech_admin

Facebook infrastructure and networking investment over the next five years will bring Nigeria’s gross domestic product to $19.6 billion, according to a report by Analysys Mason.

The study entitled ‘The Impact of Facebook Connectivity Initiatives in SSA’ says that growing Facebook connectivity through OTNx Investments may have a GDP effect of $2.5 trillion for Nigeria from 2020 to 2024.

The research firm estimated that Nigeria will be contributing $16.9bn to Facebook’s edge network and submarine investment, while Express Wi-Fi would boost the country’s GDP by $160.7 m.

Analysys Mason said all of Facebook’s connectivity initiatives will bring $57bn worth of economic benefits to sub-Saharan Africa from 2020 to 2024.

The study, in collaboration with infrastructure provider MainOne, says that 750 to 800 km of fiber is used in Facebook investment in OTNx.

“An estimated 700,000 people in Uganda and 300,000 people in Nigeria got online earlier than they would have without the OTNx investments, producing an economic impact of almost $4bn between 2020 and 2024,” it said.

Analysys Mason projected that Facebook’s investments in edge network and international capacity across sub-Saharan Africa will cause total Internet traffic to rise by nine per cent by 2024.

“Based on the GSMA and Deloitte study, this higher traffic could increase the GDP-per-capita growth rate by 0.12 percentage points in each of the next five years, equivalent to a cumulative GDP contribution of more than $53bn across sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years,” it said.

The study says some of the economic benefits include increasing operators’ ability to expand large network coverage and making it easier for more people to go online.

This increases in web and Web traffic have been interpreted by researchers to mean that people can communicate more closely with each other and trade online.

All these activities generate advantage for individuals and more general economic and social benefits by enhancing health and welfare outcomes, skills and training, job development and productivity, according to the study.

Facebook Director of Public Policy Kojo Boakye commented on this article that the technology company is committed to Africa , in particular to boost the continent’s global competitiveness.

He said, “Over the last three years we’ve heavily invested in infrastructure and connectivity initiatives that aim to affordably connect people on this continent and create tangible social-economic benefits.”

“These efforts are part of a complex solution that requires all stakeholders – including mobile operators, infrastructure providers and governments – to work together for the common good.”

July 29, 2020 0 comment

Computing

Google Extends The Work From Home To Summer 2021

by tech_admin July 28, 2020

written by tech_admin

Google said it would extend its work-from – home order to June 2021 amidst corona-virus pandemic on Monday.

“To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we are extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30, 2021 for roles that don’t need to be in the office,” Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, told staff in an email. Initially, Google, an alphabet company, had suggested it would be expected to return to office in January 2021.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the move would affect “nearly all” of the 200,000 employees of Google, including contractors and full time staff.

Many technology firms have confirmed that the majority of workers will work or have not finalized a schedule from home until the end of 2020. In January, Amazon and Apple called for staff to return. Twitter has offered workers “forever” the opportunity to work from home.

Unlike Google, Facebook takes a longer-term view to how and when people go back to work. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in May that Facebook will encourage many of its 50.000 workers to start working permanently from home. Zuckerberg said he expects Facebook staff to work remotely for 50% over the next 5-10 years.

By Monday, according to the information gathered by John Hopkins University the United States had over 4.2 million cases of coronavirus, with at least 146.900 deaths.

July 28, 2020 0 comment