It is necessary to understand the impacts of AR/VR on psychological wellbeing and addiction
Category: Technology
How big is Apple?
Apple is 20 times bigger than the net worth of the two wealthiest narcotic dealers combined
Emerging Agritech Revolution in India
The agritech revolution has empowered farmers to get better quality inputs, timely information ,
access to markets and thereby the potential to yield higher income levels.
Market value of big fintech rises to $1 trillion, more than the largest banks
Square, Visa, PayPal and MasterCard are collectively worth $1.07 trillion, while the “big six” banks, which include JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are worth less than $900 billion in total
China becomes the largest 5G market in terms of user size
China has sold over 93 million units of 5G mobile phones this year so far
Slack’s customer acquisition
While customer growth amounted to 30% year-over-year overall, the number of organizations spending over $1 million annually was up 78% over last year’s July quarter
Google releases Android 11
Extend your apps with conversation notifications and bubbles, try one-time permissions, surface devices and media in the controls
Tencent loses $34 billion since the PUBG ban in India
India was one of the biggest markets for PUBG with the game earning Rs 22,500 crore from the Indian market till July 2020
Facebook Watch gets 1.25 billion+ visitors every month
Facebook Watch launched in 2018. Back in June of last year, the company said that 720 million people were watching at least one minute of Watch content every month.
Facebook updates hate speech detection ahead of Myanmar election
The social media firm will limit message forwarding, and use its improved AI to remove hate speech
State Of Retail Tech (H1’20)
Covid-19 has reeled in retail tech funding in 2020. Investors particularly scaled back funding in Q2’20 as the impact of the pandemic set in.
Xiaomi unveils under-display camera technology
Xiaomi announced that it will officially kick-start mass production of smartphones equipped with the 3rd Generation Under-Display Camera next year
Microsoft introduces Hindi and English to Neural Text-to-Speech
Neural TTS is a part of the Azure Cognitive Services and converts text to lifelike speech for a more natural interface
44.8 Gigapixel Image of ‘The Night Watch’
A museum in Amsterdam has uploaded a scan of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch painting that’s so detailed you can see individual brushstrokes and cracks in the paint
Facebook to Pay $650 Million to Settle Facial Recognition Suit
Lead plaintiff Nimesh Patel sued Facebook in 2015 in one of three consolidated class actions, claiming the social network started mapping users’ faces for its “Photo Tag Suggest” function in 2011
Google’s Kormo Jobs to help job seekers in India
In addition to helping users identify open calls for entry-level roles, the Kormo Jobs app is also designed to help them learn new skills, and easily create a CV.
Did Fortnite just kill the App Store as we know it?
Epic Games’ Fortnite offered a direct in-app payment system bypassing apple’s (with 30% cut) & google’s; violating their rules and got itself removed. Fortnite has now charged them for being anti-competitive, claiming that app stores are monopolies. The gaming giant’s move is ‘revolutionary’ because it may disrupt the app-store business of Google and Apple. •… Continue reading Did Fortnite just kill the App Store as we know it?
Megatrends 2020 and beyond
Primary forces are the root causes of disruption: technology, globalization, demographics and
environment
Google introduces people cards
Google said the more information a user provides, the easier it would be for others to find them on Google Search.
China has the highest mobile payment adoption
Average Chinese consumer is projected to spend around US$1,600 with payment apps in 2020
Video Game sales shine amid pandemic
Aside from watching Netflix, playing video games is one of the few activities perfectly suited for life in a pandemic
India FinTech Report
India has the highest FinTech adoption rate globally of 87% which is significantly higher than the global average rate of 64%
Google Music begins shutdown
Google is making these big moves now that its YouTube Music service is in full swing as its replacement
Digital around the world in 2020
The average internet user now spends 6 hours and 43 minutes online each day. That’s 3 minutes less than this time last year, but still equates to more than 100 days of connected time per internet user, per year.
Digital 2020: India
The number of internet users in India increased by 128 million (+23%) between 2019 and 2020
Python, R, and SQL are the most required data science skills
Boasting a median base salary of $110,000, as well as a job satisfaction score of 4.4 out of 5, data scientist role had claimed the top spot on Glassdoor’s Best Jobs in America list in 2017 and 2016.
UPI payments at record high in July
United Payments Interface (UPI) transactions in July surged to highest ever tally of 1.49 billion, with the total value of transactions carried out also touching a lifetime high of Rs 2.9 lakh crore
Apple buys startup to turn iPhones into payment terminals
Apple has acquired Mobeewave, a startup with technology that could transform iPhones into mobile payment terminals, according to people familiar with the matter.
Russian Crypto Scams Triple in First Half of 2020
Cybersecurity firms have identified an exponential rise in crypto-related scams in Russia during the first half of 2020. Researchers identified 23,000 sites involved with crypto scams that are still online and targeting new victims.
eToro Plans to Launch Debit Card in UK Ahead of Robinhood
Investment app eToro is to launch a debit card, following its acquisition of Marq Millions Ltd, the U.K. based e-money business. Marq Millions will now trade as eToro Money and will be the issuer for eToro’s card. The acquisition was for an undisclosed amount, and the Marq Millions management team stays on.
Iran Permits Power Plants To Mine Bitcoin
Iran has reportedly issued permits for 14 bitcoin mining farms and will cut up to 47% off of the electricity tariff in order to support authorized cryptocurrency mining centers. Crypto miners will soon have to register with the government.
Dubai Debuts Nationwide Data Platform Powered by Blockchain
Dubai’s Department of Economic Development, or DED, and state-run bank Emirates NBD are rolling out their so-called UAE KYC Blockchain Platform
Ethereum futures open interest reaches an all-time high of $1 billion
The open interest, or total value of contracts that have not yet been settled, on Ethereum futures has passed the $1 billion mark, according to market analytics firm Skew.
5G patents
• Huawei has the largest declared 5G portfolio, followed by Samsung and ZTE • Qualcomm and Intel are the largest US companies holding declared 5G patent families • Sharp and NTT DOCOMO are the largest Japanese 5G declaring companies • When counting granted 5G patents, Samsung owns the largest 5G portfolio, followed by Nokia and… Continue reading 5G patents
Time on social media
• On average, global internet users spent 2 hours and 23 minutes on social media sites everyday • Emerging markets spend the most time on social networks, perhaps due to younger demographics • With a comparatively older population, the Japanese spend less than an hour staying connected digitally
Robotics-as-a-service
What is RaaS (Robotics-as-a-service)?Performing tasks by robots/ embedded electronics/ IoT, connected via cloud; benefited by tech like Data Analytics, ML, etc. Why RaaS?Robots made an impact in the automotive and manufacturing sectors, but RaaS can enable IoT and robotic automation for SMEs at a lower cost. Platform Examples:– Google Cloud Robotics Platform– AWS Robomaker by… Continue reading Robotics-as-a-service
Evolution of Digital Payments
• 1994: First online purchase.• 1997: First mobile payments and first contactless payments.• 1999: Paypal launches electronic money transfer service.• 2003: Alibaba launches Alipay in China.• 2007: M-PESA created the first payments system for mobile phones.• 2009: Bitcoin enabled secure and untraceable payments.• 2013: WeChat Pay introduced, which by 2018 surpassed 800 million monthly active… Continue reading Evolution of Digital Payments
5 years of Digital India
• The world’s largest digital literacy program, PMG Disha, has already trained around 3 crore candidates. • JAM (JanDhan, Aadhaar and Mobile) trinity facilitated the direct benefit transfers worth more than ₹11 lakh crores, directly into the bank account of beneficiaries. • MyGov, with 1crore+ users ensured active participation of people. • Formulation of 796… Continue reading 5 years of Digital India
Instagram Reels in India
• Instagram Reels is currently being tested in India that lets users record 15-second videos with music and audio clips. • Facebook had recently shut down its TikTok clone app Lasso and was concentrating on ‘Reels’. • Facebook recently partnered with Indian music label Saregama to give access to music library for Instagram music. Source:… Continue reading Instagram Reels in India
TagHive announced pre-seriesA investment
Edtech startup TagHive has announced a pre-seriesA round of investment that takes its valuation to $10 million.
Progressive Web App (PWA)
A middle ground between a mobile-friendly website and a mobile app, PWAs deliver a mobile app-like experience.
Contribution of Smartphones to Digital Governance in India
Key highlights of Contribution of Smartphones to Digital Governance in India by ICEA and KPMG (July 2020): • India is expected to get 829 million smartphone users by 2022. • India is the fastest growing app market in the world; the top country in terms of app downloads as of 2019. • Data usage has… Continue reading Contribution of Smartphones to Digital Governance in India
Middle East FinTech Study
Key highlights of ‘Middle East FinTech Study’ by Deloitte: • The average usage of P2P money transfer solutions among banking customers in the Middle East is 42% • 22% of customers use FinTech solutions/features with money transfers the most popular one • Qataris with a medium-range income constitute the core market of consumers • Peer-to-peer… Continue reading Middle East FinTech Study
Reliance India’s 2020 AGM
Key announcements at Reliance India’s 2020 AGM include: • Jio5G: India’s first 5G network• Google’s investment for 7.7% stake in Jio• Google-Jio to develop an Android-based platform for an affordable 5G phone• JioMeet to expand into edutech and healthtech• Expansion of JioMart with WhatsApp as a platform• JioGlass: Affordable MR headset for commercial applications Source:… Continue reading Reliance India’s 2020 AGM
Percentage of countries in each region offering online services (2020)
• Asia: 90% of countries offer business registration and business license application services online. • Oceania: The most commonly offered online service is applying for government vacancies (86%) and the least prevalent is registering a motor vehicle (14%). • Americas: The most popular online services (up to 94% countries) include registering a business, paying for… Continue reading Percentage of countries in each region offering online services (2020)
More than half of the world now uses social media
• Social media users have grown by more than 10% over the past year, taking the global total to 3.96 billion by the start of July 2020. • An average of 1 million+ people started using social media for the first time every single day over the past 12 months, equating to almost 12 new… Continue reading More than half of the world now uses social media
Global Landscape of Data Centres
• 463 exabytes (1 Quintillion bytes) of data will be created each day globally by 2025 • Global data centers market is expected to grow with a CAGR of 15.1% over the forecast period from 2019-2025 • Americas lead with 40% of market share or $68 billion in investments followed by Europe and Russia together… Continue reading Global Landscape of Data Centres
Key highlights of the report on ‘How India Shops Online’
• A visitor spends less than 9 minutes per visit on an e-retail platform. • 1 in 2 visitors browse the image gallery and only 1 in 15 click the detailed product description. • Google India saw 270% year on year growth in voice search. • 500M Indian language internet users expected by 2021 (vs.… Continue reading Key highlights of the report on ‘How India Shops Online’
The billion-dollar quantum gold rush
Private investors had funded at least 52 quantum-technology companies globally since 2012, many of them are from university departments.