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Reed Hastings

Netflix founder Reed Hastings stepping down as co-CEO

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Founder of the famous Streaming Platform, Netflix, Reed Hastings is stepping down as CEO but will remain as the chairman, the corporation revealed on Thursday along with its earnings report.

Ted Sarandos who is the co-CEO will continue to stay in his position. Greg Peters who is most recently chief operating officer will take Hastings’ place as co-CEO. Peters will also enter the firm’s board of directors.

Reed Hastings
Image Source: techcrunch.com

“I want to thank Reed for his visionary leadership, mentorship, and friendship over the last 20 years. We’ve all learned so much from his intellectual rigor, honesty, and willingness to take big bets — and we look forward to working with him for many more years to come,” said Sarandos in a written statement.

Source: cnbc.com

In 1997, Reed Hastings co-founded Netflix. Sarandos was named co-CEO along with Hastings in July 2020, during the same time Peters was named COO. The firm did not say if it would fill the position of COO.

Reed Hastings declared on Thursday that he will remain as executive chairman for several more years to come. He steps down as the streaming behemoth tries several moves to increase subscribers as well as recover from a slump in recent quarters.

Hastings wrote in a blog post on Thursday that period of the past two and a half years “was a baptism by fire, given COVID and recent challenges within our business.”

Source: cnbc.com

Reed Hastings steps down as CEO on the day the firm reports 223 million paid users worldwide. The firm is now a major player in content creation as well as distribution, and it lately bargained a limited theatrical release for Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion film.

It’s also rising its gaming business, beginning with mobile titles and hinting at bigger plans in the works.

The leadership transition occurs as Netflix introduces ad-supported streaming and tightens password and account sharing limitations. Both actions were publicly opposed by Hastings till last season’s drop in users, the first in a decade going back to the Qwikster debacle, compelled the company to reconsider its stances.

Bela Bajaria, the firm’s global head of television, will also take over as chief content officer as part of the executive shuffle. Scott Stuber, the former head of global film, will take over as chairman of Netflix Film.

The leadership declaration coincides with the release of the firm’s fourth-quarter earnings report. Netflix met Wall Street’s revenue expectations while adding millions more subscribers than expected.

quiet mode

Instagram rolls out ‘quiet mode’ for when users want to focus

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The “quiet mode” feature, which Instagram launched on Thursday, aims to assist users focus and establishing limits with followers and friends.

The profile’s activity status changes to “In quiet mode” when the choice is selected, pausing all alerts. During this time, if a direct message is sent, Instagram will instantly reply to the sender to let them know that “quiet mode” is active.

quiet mode
Image Source: cnn.com

Although all users can utilize the feature, Instagram seems to be concentrating on teenagers. Instagram encourages kids to enable the feature after they spend a particular “amount of time on Instagram late at night” and promotes it as a tool to aid in studying.

The upgrade is only one of several updates that are being released recently, along with new tools for managing suggestions and enhanced parental control options. The debuts coincide with Instagram’s efforts to lessen the likelihood that authorities and lawmakers will target the app because of possible risks associated with social media, especially for teenage users.

Up to this point, Instagram has added a number of teen safety features, such as those to safeguard teens’ privacy and lessen unwanted adult contact, restrict ad targeting, bar teens from accessing mature content, and other features to assist parents in keeping an eye on and managing their teens’ use of Instagram through parental controls.

The tool will be made available to users in the US, UK, Canada, Ireland New Zealand, and Australia, with intentions to expand to additional nations in the future.

After years of attention over how much time individuals – and especially teens – engage on different social media sites and the risks it might bring to their mental health, the tool is the most recent example of Instagram giving users more methods to regulate their usage.

The company stated in a blog post, “These updates are part of our ongoing work to ensure people have experiences that work for them, and that they have more control over the time they spend online and the types of content they see.”

Instagram users can opt to take a break with Quiet Mode to work, rest, or indulge in other activities. The app will provide a rundown of what users missed when they were in Quiet Mode to help them catch up.

The introduction of Quiet Mode coincides with Instagram coming under increasing fire for its impact on young people’s mental health, particularly teenage girls. Internal data published by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen in 2021 showed that the company had discovered that kids who were “addicted” to the app and that 1 in 3 girls who use Instagram have worsened body image concerns.

As part of its effort to placate parents, Meta is introducing a number of additional methods for managing Instagram recommendations. Instagram is developing its “not interested button,” which allows users to mark particular categories of content that users don’t want to see.

metaverse

Will the metaverse be good for society?

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Our interactions with the outside world will be dramatically altered by the metaverse.

Life as we knew it was significantly altered by the worldwide pandemic and ensuing lockdowns. Ironically, as more individuals accepted the concept of staying home and engaging just online, the metaverse also received a major boost.

metaverse
Image Source: weforum.org

The Metaverse is intended to be a three-dimensional environment where people can communicate with one another in a more cutting-edge manner.

It essentially consists of a 3D platform with improved features that employ Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technology to produce a more realistic experience.

It holds enormous potential for anything from social networking to business settings. However, the Metaverse encourages solitude and a disconnection from reality by its very nature. One reason the metaverse has sparked so many worries about society’s future is because of this.

Immersive learning, whether it be in the classroom or during corporate training, can have a longer-lasting effect on people by making topics more understandable and applicable.

A more comprehensive and all-encompassing approach to education will result from the metaverse’s influence on practical learning, which will involve witnessing the process as a component of the training. The eCommerce industry is already working to develop an integrated augmented reality that enhances the buying experience.

The influence will continue to grow and encompass more products. The experience that people want to have the most is how the metaverse will affect travel. Beyond just looking at images of the places we want to visit, metaverse will enable us to feel as though we are actually there, experiencing every second.

Although it has several advantageous effects, it also has some drawbacks. Our data has slowly turned into a precious asset for many marketing organizations because the majority of our professional and personal lives are now spent online. Our concerns about privacy have already increased with the emergence of intrusive technologies.

The more important query at this point is how the metaverse will regulate privacy. It can be quite tough to keep kids away from this cutting-edge technology. Therefore, it becomes crucial to shield kids from the negative effects of the metaverse. A complete virtual environment might be used to demonstrate the same in a more forceful manner.

Since metaverse requires rather advanced technology for the best VR experience, not everyone might be able to pay for the technology. The socio-economic divide might be directly impacted by and widened by the metaverse. Social media is frequently used by people to construct false identities.

This issue is certain to be prevalent, even in the metaverse.

The immersive internet would open up billions of dollars in wealth for society and let humans perceive the real and the virtual in ways they never could have before. To provide the maximum benefit for the community as a whole instead of a small elite, we should focus on creating an open metaverse as opposed to a closed metaverse controlled by Big Tech.

If we are successful, we may anticipate a constantly changing, decentralized, and creator-driven system that offers limitless chances to produce value.

Gabe Newell

Gabe Newell: The richest man in the video game business

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American entrepreneur Gabe Newell is the head of the Valve video gaming company.

Gabe Newell oversaw the creation of Valve’s digital distribution platform Steam, which debuted in 2003 and by 2011 had the majority of the market for downloadable PC games.

Gabe Newell
Image Source: forbes.com

His net worth was assessed by Forbes to be US$ 3.9 billion in December 2021, making him one of the richest people in the country.

Early Life

Early in the 1980s, Gabe Newell enrolled at Harvard University but left to work for Microsoft, where he contributed to the development of the initial iterations of the Windows OS. As the principal developer for the first three iterations of the Windows operating system for 13 years, Newell amassed a million-dollar fortune.

One of the main factors in Newell’s decision to leave Harvard was that he claimed to have learned more during his initial 3 months at Microsoft than he did at Harvard. At Microsoft, Newell oversaw the creation of a Doom port for Windows 95, which is credited with establishing Windows as a competitive gaming platform.

Success Story

On August 24, 1996, Newell and another colleague, Mike Harrington, left Microsoft to create the video game firm Valve, inspired by Michael Abrash, who departed to work on the game Quake at id. The first Valve game, the critically acclaimed and financially successful first-person shooter Half-Life (1998), was developed thanks to funding from Newell and Harrington.

Half-Life, a first-person shooter with a science fiction theme, was Valve’s first game. It was praised for its excellent graphics and seamless story, and it deservedly won multiple “Game of the Year” awards. In 2000, Harrington resigned, leaving Newell as the sole proprietor.

Half-Life 2 (2004) was developed by Valve with no timeline and a nearly unlimited budget, with Newell offering to contribute himself if necessary. He spent months creating Steam, a digital game distribution service, in the interim. The majority of Valve’s revenue was derived from Steam, which in 2011 held between 50%-70% of the industry for downloadable PC games.

Forbes dubbed Newell “A Name You Should Know” in 2010 in part because of his work on Steam and connections with numerous important developers. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences inducted Newell into its Hall of Fame in 2013. He was given the BAFTA Fellowship that March in recognition of his services to the video gaming industry.

With an assessed net worth of over 5.5$ billion, Newell was included in the top 100 richest Americans by Forbes in October 2017. According to a December 2021 Forbes assessment, Newell owned at least 25% of Valve and had a net worth of around 3.9$ billion. Newell was the richest individual in the video game industry as of 2021, as per Charlie Fish, author of The History of Video Games.

Discord

Discord acquires Gas, the popular teen app to compliment each other

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Discord, a renowned messaging platform, declared the acquisition of Gas which is a famous app among teenagers for its positive take on social media.

Users enroll with their school, add their friends, and participate in polls regarding their fellow students on Gas. The poll questions, on the other hand, are intended to boost instead of weaken users’ confidence.

Discord
Image Source: theverge.com

Teens might be asked to choose one of four friends who is either the best DJ or possesses the best smile. The selected person will then receive an anonymous note having their remark from an unknown “fella in 10th grade” or “girl in 11th grade.”

Nikita Bier established Gas after selling an identical application known as ‘tbh’ to Facebook in 2017. However, ‘tbh’ has been shut down since then.

Gas has received 7.4 million downloads and nearly $7 million in consumer expenditure ever since its release in the summer of 2022, as per Sensor Tower data. Users can pay for a feature called “God Mode,” which provides users with clues as to who their secret compliments are from.

“At this time, Gas will continue as its own standalone app and the Gas team will be joining Discord to help our efforts to continue to grow across new and core audiences,” Discord wrote in an announcement.

Source: techcrunch.com

Bier stated that Gas would have four team members as of October.

Gas has had a difficult exit even though it became popular rapidly. The app was the topic of a widely spread sex-trafficking rumour, which was untrue but had an impact on downloads.

Bier told the Washington Post that as a consequence of the hoax, he and his team got a lot of graphic death threats. Other renowned social media apps, such as IRL &WalkSafe, have also been blamed for human trafficking.

Gas is one of the numerous anonymous applications that have recently gone viral, some centered on compliments and others not. However, TechCrunch discovered that apps such as NGL & Sendit were using bots to replicate engagement.

These apps, like Gas, allow people to pay to find out who asked questions. After it was disclosed that the questions just weren’t posed by their mates, some users were justifiably upset. In the meantime, 9count, the company behind Spark and Summer, is developing nocapp, an app similar to Gas.

Even though Discord will continue to offer Gas as a standalone product, the company recently stated that it would incorporate several apps into its servers. As a result, we may see these wonderful community polls on the messenger service platform in the future. The terms of the Gas acquisition by Discord are unknown.

“We’re always working to create an inclusive world where no one feels like an outsider and we’re excited to welcome Gas to the Discord community as our next step to fulfilling that vision,” Discord wrote in its announcement.

Source: techcrunch.com
TikTok

Why Are US States Banning TikTok from official devices?

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In response to growing security concerns, North Carolina and Wisconsin have become the latest US states to prohibit using TikTok on state-owned devices, following at least 25 other jurisdictions that have already taken some action.

Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin, a Democrat, raised privacy, security, and safety issues after discussing the app with the FBI and disaster management experts. With few exclusions, including criminal investigators who might be utilizing the app to follow particular people, Mr. Evers’ ruling applies to the majority of state agencies.

TikTok
Image Source: reuters.com

Additionally excluded is the University of Wisconsin System, which has 40,000 faculty and staff members on employment. Despite the exemption, a UW System representative said the institution was undertaking a review and working toward imposing limitations on the app’s use on devices in order to guard against major cybersecurity concerns.

Concerns that TikTok, a Chinese internet company owned by Bytedance, might be used to collect user information and data and give it to the Chinese Communist Party are a factor in the ban. Two-thirds of American teenagers use TikTok, making it the second most popular website around the globe.

But there has long been a bipartisan worry in Washington that the Chinese government may try to obtain American user data or spread false information by using its legal and regulatory authority. News allegations from last year that a Chinese team had inappropriately accessed the data of American TikTok users, namely two journalists, as part of a clandestine surveillance campaign to find the source of press leaks, fanned fears. Additionally, there are worries that the corporation is violating strict European privacy laws by sending vast amounts of customer data to China.

Some states, including Texas and Ohio, cited China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, which obliges businesses with regional headquarters to cooperate with law enforcement by sharing user data with them.

Other Chinese-owned platforms and apps including Weibo, WeChat, Alibaba, and Huawei Technologies are also blocked in several jurisdictions. Chris Wray, the director of the FBI, issued a caution about the possibility of espionage using TikTok in December. He noted that China can “manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations.”

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump and his government wanted to ban business with TikTok’s owner, compel the company to sell over its U.S. assets, and ban TikTok from app stores.

Courts had previously thwarted Mr. Trump’s attempts to outlaw TikTok. President Joe Biden reversed Mr. Trump’s orders after assuming office but requested a thorough investigation of the matter.

The sale of TikTok’s U.S. assets was postponed.  In December 2022, President Joe Biden signed a bill banning federal employees from using the TikTok app on government devices due to rising worries that the software would be used to spy on American users. As people became more aware of security risks, a number of jurisdictions started banning the app.

Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer, issued an order to the Florida Department of Financial Services in August 2020 prohibiting TikTok use on department-owned devices.

In August 2020, Nebraska was the second state to declare a ban on TikTok use on state-owned devices.