Tech Nuggets with the Technology

Monday, May 18, 2020

Huawei Y9s Goes on Sale in India via Amazon: All You Need to Know

Huawei Y9s smartphone is now available to purchase in India, nearly a week after the phone made its debut in the country. Starting today, the Huawei Y9s is up for grabs via Amazon. https://ift.tt/3e4B05j

TikTok Names Disney's Streaming Chief Kevin Mayer as New CEO

Former Disney executive Kevin Mayer will become the head of TikTok and chief operating officer of the popular video app's parent company, the group announced Monday. https://ift.tt/2LBz9sq

Facebook Chief Wants EU Not China to Lead on Tech Rules

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on Monday urged the European Union to take the lead in setting global standards for tech regulation or risk seeing countries follow China as a model. https://ift.tt/2XbWNRo

Huawei hits back at US over tighter chip export rules

Huawei on Monday termed the US government's new export controls aimed at limiting the Chinese technology giant's access to semiconductor technology "arbitrary and pernicious" which "threatens to undermine the entire industry worldwide". https://ift.tt/2TkG1P3

With 170M users, Bilibili is the nearest thing China has to Youtube

Bilibili, a Chinese video streaming website that was once regarded as a haven for youth subculture, has been steadily making its way into the mainstream as users age up and content diversifies. The NASDAQ-traded company recorded a 70% year-over-year growth to reach 172 million monthly active users by the first quarter, placing it in the same rank as video services operated by Tencent and Baidu’s iQiyi.

Daily time spent per user soared to a record of 87 minutes, which is likely linked to the extended stay-at-home order imposed on students during COVID-19.

In the same period, Tencent Video reported 112 million subscribers, while iQiyi commanded 118.9 million, almost all of whom are paying. Bilibili, by contrast, saw only about 8% of its MAU paying.

Bilibili’s growth engine is fundamentally different from the two giants though. While Tencent Video and iQiyi bet on Netflix-style, professionally produced programs, Bilibili relies on a wide array of user-generated content in the style of Youtube. The number of monthly creators grew 146% to 1.8 million, who collectively submitted 4.9 million pieces per month. Among its top creators is, lo and behold, the Communist Youth League of China.

The Youth League is among Bilibili's top 7 creators, and it gets the most likes of any contributor. It and other state-sanctioned influencers have been flooding the site with virus-related conspiracy theories and fanning anti-American sentiment. https://t.co/u5k0FTQwm2 pic.twitter.com/EbXaK7P7kY

— Zheping Huang (@pingroma) April 28, 2020

The site also has an unconventional way of monetizing its audience. It doubles as a mobile gaming platform — to be expected given its young user base — and earned half of its revenue from video games in Q1. Other avenues of revenue generation come from virtual item sales during live broadcasting, advertising, and sales from content creators who operate online shops via Bilibili.

Despite healthy user growth, Bilibili widened net loss to 538.6 million yuan or US$76.1 million in the first quarter, a steep increase from 195.6 million yuan from the year before. It cites COVID-19 in causing delays in merchandise deliveries through its platform.

Nonetheless, the company bolstered its cash reserve to 8 billion yuan or $1.13 billion following Sony’s outsized $400 million investment to explore synergies in animation and games between the pair. The online entertainment upstart is among a small crop of companies that have attracted financing from both Alibaba and Tencent, which are long-time archrivals.

“Our cash flow in Q1 is positive and higher than our losses. In all, the company is in a healthy financial position,” its chief financial officer Fan Xin asserted during the company earnings call.

KSP Recruitment 2020 – Apply Online for 2834 SI, Constable & Other Posts

Karnataka State Police (KSP) recruits 2672 Constable & Bandsmen Posts. Candidates with SSLC can apply online from 18-05-2020 to 15-06-2020.

86% of data breaches are conducted for financial gain

Increases in hacking, phishing, and cloud-based attacks have been even more prevalent with the influx of remote work, Verizon found.

C-DoT developing a videconferencing app for govt and courts

C-DoT's videoconferencing platform will expand on all features of overseas rivals Zoom and Microsoft Teams and is almost ready for deployment https://ift.tt/3gbYMhA https://ift.tt/eA8V8J