On February 19, 2014 the top social network Facebook acquired instant message app for smartphones WhatsApp for a mind-blowing $19 billion. The acquisition of WhatsApp was a brilliant move by Facebook. WhatsApp has over 700 million active users and generating health annual revenue yields for Facebook. Today we take a look inside why Facebook quickly […]
A new study study estimates that revenue-earning American Twitch streamers grew to nearly 9,800 in 2017 (a 59 percent increase from 2016) and made an estimated $87.1 billion (representing a 30 percent YOY increase). Twitch is one of the fastest growing platforms for American content creators. In terms of YOY growth in number of creators themselves, Twitch falls just behind Instagram and Youtube, and ranks second behind Instagram in YOY revenue growth for those creators. (Fun Fact: Instagram’s creator-based revenue growth grew nearly 50 percent from 2016 to 2017 to $460 billion, according to the study.) Recreate Coalition says that these numbers are very conservative based on the methodology of the study and the fact that it’s limited to the U.S. The growth of Twitch is predicated on a few obvious trends, as well as a very nuanced relationship between a streamer and his or her respective audience. In the case of the former, ‘live’ digital experiences continue to be a fascination for startups and consumers alike. While Twitch and YouTube have offered live broadcasts for a while, social media companies have followed along with their own live streaming products. In fact, Betaworks dedicated a season of its accelerator program to ‘live’ startups, calling the program LiveCamp. With regards to the latter, things get more interesting. The relationship between a viewer and a streamer is similar to our relationships with other famous celebrities, artists and athletes, but puts the viewer far closer to the action. Streamers don’t just pop up briefly in articles, TV interviews, or on Twitter or Instagram. They spend hours and hours each day just sitting there, doing whatever it is they do on stream and chatting with their viewers. You can get to know their personality, talk to them, and they talk back to you! It’s a bizarre combination that has proven financially fruitful for these streamers, especially at a time where the gaming industry itself is growing by double digit percentages YOY for the past two years. A tier of elite, hyper-popular streamers such as Shroud, DrDisrespect, Dakotaz and of course Ninja are leading the way for others as they continue to gain followers. In fact, Ninja just partnered with Wicked Cool Toys to introduce a line of actual toys to the market. Ninja himself made nearly $10 million in 2018. But as the gaming world explores new genres and esports grow, there seems to be plenty of room for streamers to make a name (and a pretty penny) for themselves. ... Read More
The Australia government suffered a cyber attack that it suspects is the work of a “sophisticated state actor,” according to the country’s Prime Minister. PM Scott Morrison said today the computer network of the country’s parliament, and those belonging to Liberal, Labor and Nationals parties, were targeted by an attack which took place a few weeks ago, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. Australia is months away federal elections which will take place in May. Morrison said there is “no evidence of any electoral interference.” “We have put in place a number of measures to ensure the integrity of our electoral system,” he said, adding that security services “acted decisively to confront it.” There is apparently no indication that data was accessed following the attack. Where exactly it originated from remains unclear. Sources told SMH that the sophistication of the attack was “unprecedented,” but nobody in the government is naming suspects. Reportedly, the incident sports “the digital fingerprints of China” but there remains the possibility that the attack was framed to look like it originated from China. The incident recalls the hacking of the Democrat Party around the U.S. Presidential election in 2016. The attackers, who are widely suspected to be linked to the Russian government, accessed are to have accessed 19,252 emails and 8,034 attachments from DNC email accounts, John Podesta, who was the campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton. Australia itself has a history of parliamentary hacks. The national government was attacked in 2015 by a “foreign government” (later named as China) that reportedly used computers at the Bureau of Meteorology as its entry point. The incident is said to have given China the records of 14 million federal employees. Australia passes ‘dangerous’ anti-encryption law after bipartisan compromise ... Read More
Australia’s three largest political parties have been hit by a cyberattack from a “sophisticated state actor,” the country’s prime minister Scott Morrison announced to Parliament this morning. As reported by The Guardian, hackers are believed to have accessed the networks of the Labor, Liberal, and Nationals parties, though it’s not clear if any data was taken. The news comes just three months before Australian parliamentary elections are due to take place, and there are similarities with hacks that were conducted against political parties in the US in 2016 and France in 2017 prior to national elections in both countries. However, while a single party was targeted in both of these cases, as many as three Australian parties have been hit... Continue reading… ... Read More
My attitude toward health and fitness apps has long been one of deep-seated antipathy. I hate the cacophony of nagging alerts and prompts, and, maybe it’s just me, but I also draw no encouragement from the photos of perfectly tanned and toned bodies welcoming me into the typical app. Few things are as demotivating as using a piece of software listing all of the dynamic activities I’m not doing. Little did I know that a set of weighing scales would change all of that. About a year ago, I got the Nokia Body+, determined to use it in its dumbest form possible: getting only my weight measurement and eschewing all the tracking and body composition metrics. The accompanying app was surely trash, I thought, and so what’s the point in struggling... Continue reading… ... Read More
Sony's issue with the world's biggest video games show might be more to do with changes in its own strategy... Read More
"Cheaters suck. If you run into one, please try and capture the evidence and let us know," says Respawn... Read More
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