Meta vs TikTok 🔥
This Week in Review ☕️ : Big Tech puts pause on hiring | Monkeypox declared global heath emergency | Amazon disrupts the UK | Inflation makes Retirees return to the office | Heatwave shutters stores
Quick Bites:
Big Tech 💻 : Meta is giving Facebook a massive facelift to compete with TikTok.
Starting TODAY, Facebook is rolling out a a new separate "Home" feed and a new "Feeds" tab.
As a personal TikTok fan, we're stoked that Zuckerberg has decided to kill Instagram by altering the algorithm to pump non-stop ads🙄
Are click rates dropping so much on Meta, Mark?! Because nothing lights up our day like a 20 second unskippable ad before a 10 second video🙈
The mobile app will now open on “Home,” which will show posts, photos and videos from friends and lots of "recommended" content from people you don't follow.
This will act as more of a "discovery engine" based on people's online habits, CNBC reports.
This move attempts to challenge TikTok, which shows videos based almost exclusively on what its algorithm decides will hook them.
The 2nd tab, “Feeds,” will feature only updates from friends the user follows.
“One of the most requested features is to make sure people don’t miss friends’ posts. So today we’re launching a Feeds tab [..] more separately in chronological order,”
-Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Our Thoughts💡: Have you guys ever spoken to a US millennial? Majority will tell you the only reason they still use Facebook is because of FB groups.
Not sure Meta's TikTok-ification is going to work tbh... TikTok's recommended algorithm engine is ADDICTIVE!
Health 🦠 : WHO declares Monkeypox a global health emergency, WSJ reports.
Covid
Monkeypox
Inflation
Heat Wave
5 Days back at the office👇🏻😭
The last time the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency was in January, 2020, just as COVID-19 cases were spiking up globally.
Global monkeypox cases have surpassed 16,000. The U.S. has so far reported over 2,800 cases- mostly among men.
However, WHO's own panel voted 9-6 against emergency declaration for monkeypox.
In addition, WHO director did say the virus is "unlikely to disrupt international trade or travel right now."
Our Thoughts💡: Tbh, after 2 years of masks, mandatory vaccines and a new virus on the loose, "my body, my choice" seems like a distant dream y'all 🙈🙈🙈
Work 🌎 : Big tech is putting a pause on hiring.
Last week, Google cited the "uncertain, global economic outlook" to justify slowing down the pace of hiring.
Other Big Tech following the trend:
💡Microsoft (LinkedIn's parent company) is reviewing how to allocate investments more efficiently
💡Twitter let go of 1/3 of its recruiters
💡Apple is looking to slow hiring in certain areas
💡Meta has warned employees its facing a "downturn"
Our Thoughts💡: Personally, we feel it’s great that leading companies like Google are being transparent and forthcoming in these uncertain times.
Employees get the chance to validate their self-worth, not dwell on the past and move on.
E-commerce 🛍 : UK hands Amazon a £1m tax credit as it continued to expand its operations across the country, The Guardian.
Key Highlights, according to The Guardian:
💡Last year, Amazon invested +£11.4bn in the UK with more than £2.3bn in infrastructure in four new fulfilment centres
💡Amazon has invested over £43bn in the UK since 2010
💡In addition to employing 75,000 people in 2022, Amazon supports a further 410,000 jobs across the nation's economy
💡85,000 UK SMEs sell their products in Amazon’s stores across the world- they support a further 250,000+ jobs in the UK
💡Total tax contribution was £2.77bn last year, of which £648mn were direct taxes
💡It is one of the UK’s 15 largest taxpayers. Amazon would also rank 3rd in terms of total capital investment in the UK in 2020
Our Thoughts💡: Ofcourse, Amazon was going to open new warehouses to meet demand.
As shopping moved online this pandemic, the face of Amazon addiction has become far less about the bored suburban housewife hitting the high street and more about anyone who can't help themselves away from that one-click ordering button.. ahem..🙄
Quicker Bites:
💡Coinbase faces SEC investigation.
💡Euro-dollar hits parity.
💡More than 40% of parents of young kids say they will not get their child a Covid-19 vaccine.
💡Shimada Yoko, Golden-Globe-winning Japanese actor in ‘Shogun’ dies at 69.
💡President Biden tests positive for Covid-19.
💡Inflation pushes retirees back to work.