tmay

gunverth said:

jimh2 said:

Is Spotify the only EU company that at least generates a decent amount of revenue. Seems to me that is all the EU brings to the table.

Spotify hasn’t made any money since they started. Losses are a couple of hundred million euros every year. Who pays them to stay afloat? Beats me.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/244990/spotifys-revenue-and-net-income/

Spotify (SPOT) CEO Daniel Ek has just revealed that he was surprised by the consequences of the company’s layoffs in December. During a recent earnings calldiscussing Spotify’s first-quarter earnings for 2024, Ek claimed that the decision to lay off 17% of the company’s workforce negatively affected day-to-day operations more than expected. 

“Another significant challenge was the impact of our December workforce reduction,” said Ek during the call. “Although there's no question that it was the right strategic decision, it did disrupt our day-to-day operations more than we anticipate. It took us some time to find our footing, but more than four months into this transition, I think we're back on track.”

China cultivated TikTok influencers in Taiwan and elsewhere to spread specific disinformation, even as U.S. lawmakers and free-speech advocates debate threats posed by the social-media platform, Taiwanese researchers said Monday.

Beijing has used government-related accounts and generative AI to push fake videos, and used third-party and other data to micro-target messages and influence campaigns to specific individuals. The researchers said China’s efforts in Taiwan provide a glimpse into tactics and techniques they could use on a global scale to undermine support for the U.S. government and military inside and outside the country. 

Leading up to Taiwan's election in January, China did “use Taiwanese voices to discredit Taiwan, cultivate official brands or personalities or influencers” to push disinformation streams, Chihhao Yu, a software designer and co-director of the Taiwanese Information Environment Research Center, or IORG, told reporters. 

Because many TikTok influencers traffic in disinformation as a simple business practice, IORG wanted to find a stronger link. They looked at influencer-shared content frame by frame and even pixel by pixel to show that the source was likely the Chinese government. Often, groups of influencers across multiple countries might release similar content all at the same time, related to an issue the Chinese Communist Party was trying to influence. 

“That's an even stronger signal indicating that these influencers on the site are having at least some kind of coordination with PRC actors,” he said.

avon b7 said:

tmay said:

avon b7 said:

davidw said:

avon b7 said:

ssfe11 said:

A social media company competing with Apple on hardware/software is just silly.

In this case, isn't it the other way around? 

Meta is the established and dominant player and Apple is the one stepping in. 

Once again you have miss understood the nuance of what ssfe11 was saying about competition. He is commenting on how Meta (a social media company) is now trying to compete with Apple (a hardware/software company) by trying to create better hardware/software integration for their VR glasses. Which they seem to only be able to do by having others create Meta VR glasses with better hardware/software integration, for them. While Apple can do that all in-house and have a long successful history of creating devices with strong hardware/software integration that consumers wants to use and are willing to pay extra for.

That doesn't mean that Meta can't still compete with Apple on price. Selling low cost devices that makes little profit or at a loss, just to gain market share, is not one of Apple's strong points when it comes to competing. Just like how creating devices with strong hardware/software integration is not one of Meta strong points.

The OP is commenting on this article and, independently of what Meta may be classified as in terms of type of company, in this case, Apple is moving into Meta territory.

On price, which is irrelevant in this context, yes Meta is cheaper but not 'low cost' but the point is it remains the dominant player. 

It's also worth mentioning that Facebook was basically never just a software company. It has had massive backend self developed hardware that the public is often unaware of. The same applies to Microsoft, Google and Amazon.

Even way back in 2016 it completed what was then one of the most advanced undersea cables linking the US to Europe. It was a three way effort between Microsoft, Facebook and Telxius. That project (Marea) involved hardware from all three companies. 

Meta doesn't "own" any territory; Zuckerberg just put up a "sign" to that effect because he thought that he and Meta are special.

Now he finds that he and Meta;

1) aren't special, and;

2) won't find any friends

But sure, telegraphing to the world that you are in deep trouble is a great move...

"own"? 

The facts remain the same. 

Apple is moving into Meta territory. 

Meta is the dominant player. 

As for the value of the move to 'opening up', only time will tell. 

• Sales of VR headsets and AR glasses in the U.S. have plummeted nearly 40% in 2023, as of Nov. 25, according to data shared with CNBC by research firm Circana.
• Meta has continued to burn through billions of dollars a quarter developing the metaverse, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg says is the future for his company.
• The debut in October of Meta’s Quest 3 headset helped lift the VR market over the holiday period but wasn’t enough to make up for the rest of 2023.

Mark Zuckerberg is on a mission to make the metaverse happen. In the last three months ending Dec. 31, Meta’s Reality Labs division hit $1 billion for the first time — while also recording $4.65 billion in losses. To be sure, the VR headsets still make up a sliver of Meta’s overall revenue, which continues to be driven by the company’s ad business.

“It was a good quarter,” Zuckerberg said on a conference call with analysts and investors. “We’ve made a lot of progress on our vision for advancing AI and the metaverse.” Meta’s stock is up 14.92% in after-hours trading.

avon b7 said:

davidw said:

avon b7 said:

ssfe11 said:

A social media company competing with Apple on hardware/software is just silly.

In this case, isn't it the other way around? 

Meta is the established and dominant player and Apple is the one stepping in. 

Once again you have miss understood the nuance of what ssfe11 was saying about competition. He is commenting on how Meta (a social media company) is now trying to compete with Apple (a hardware/software company) by trying to create better hardware/software integration for their VR glasses. Which they seem to only be able to do by having others create Meta VR glasses with better hardware/software integration, for them. While Apple can do that all in-house and have a long successful history of creating devices with strong hardware/software integration that consumers wants to use and are willing to pay extra for.

That doesn't mean that Meta can't still compete with Apple on price. Selling low cost devices that makes little profit or at a loss, just to gain market share, is not one of Apple's strong points when it comes to competing. Just like how creating devices with strong hardware/software integration is not one of Meta strong points.

The OP is commenting on this article and, independently of what Meta may be classified as in terms of type of company, in this case, Apple is moving into Meta territory.

On price, which is irrelevant in this context, yes Meta is cheaper but not 'low cost' but the point is it remains the dominant player. 

It's also worth mentioning that Facebook was basically never just a software company. It has had massive backend self developed hardware that the public is often unaware of. The same applies to Microsoft, Google and Amazon.

Even way back in 2016 it completed what was then one of the most advanced undersea cables linking the US to Europe. It was a three way effort between Microsoft, Facebook and Telxius. That project (Marea) involved hardware from all three companies.