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🚨 Apple Wins App Store Battle
Today: ChatGPT Traffic Dip | Slack Revamp | Apple Wins App Store Battle | AirPods Pro 2 Upgrades
Kristoffer Lindström
August 10, 2023
Hey everyone! So glad to see you all here.
Today is Thursday, August 10th. Let's jump right into today's exciting tech news stories. Here are the top headlines for you:
Apple Wins App Store Battle
ChatGPT Traffic Dips Again
Revamped Slack Aims Higher
AirPods Pro 2 Upgrades
Cloud Titans Clash 2023
Stability AI Introduces StableCode
and more...
READ TIME: 4.7 MINUTES
Tech Companies
The Supreme Court denied Epic Games' request to force Apple to change its App Store payment rules. This comes after a district court found Apple's anti-steering policies, which restrict alternate payment methods for iOS apps, violated California's Unfair Competition Law. However, an appeal from Apple put the decision on hold. Epic argued the ruling harms consumers and app developers by maintaining the "Apple tax."
Brands on Threads, despite fewer followers, are seeing more engagement than on X (previously Twitter). An analysis by Website Planet revealed 87% of brands had increased interactions on Threads, with some posts getting up to eight times more likes than on X.
X, previously Twitter, unveiled “sensitivity settings” enabling advertisers to filter content near their ads. This comes after a 50% drop in ad revenue and concerns over proximity to hate speech and harmful content. The settings range from “conservative” to “standard,” with plans for a “relaxed” option.
Disney+ plans to tackle password-sharing by 2024, aiming to enhance monetization, as stated by Disney CEO Bob Iger. This follows Netflix's successful strategy, which boosted paid subscribers. Disney+ is updating subscriber agreements and sharing policies to implement these changes.
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Startup Scene
ConductorOne raised its series A funding to $27 million, backed by Felicis, to further product development and expand go-to-market efforts. The cybersecurity startup emphasizes its "dev-first" model and robust integration capabilities, with over 75 integrations, including their open-source protocol, Baton.
AI Corner
According to Similarweb, ChatGPT's website traffic decreased by nearly 10% in both June and July. The drop is theorized to be linked to summer breaks, as students primarily use it for academic assistance. Chegg, an EdTech platform, also reported reduced traffic and claims students are leaning towards ChatGPT for homework. Globally, ChatGPT surpasses Bing in terms of visits, though the gap is narrowing. Over a quarter of ChatGPT users are aged 18-24.
After public disapproval, Zoom revised its terms of service, clarifying it won't use audio, video, or chat content to train AI without user consent. This followed concern over "service generated data" and "customer content" usage.
Stability AI, renowned for its Stable Diffusion model, has released StableCode, an open large language model (LLM) for code generation. Available in three versions, it aids users in producing programming code, with initial support for Python, Go, Java, and other languages. Drawing from the open-source BigCode project, it also boasts a unique long-context-window model, supporting up to 16,000 tokens, enhancing code generation's specificity and complexity.
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Markets & Money
Once valued at $47 billion, WeWork now admits potential inability to continue due to increased competition, dwindling demand, and unstable economic conditions. Interim CEO David Tolley highlighted the company's substantial losses and growing member departures.
Shares of Roblox fell by over 21% after Q2 results fell short of analysts’ forecasts. Despite a 22% YoY rise in bookings, reaching $781 million, it missed the expected $785 million. Daily active users surged by 25% from last year, amounting to 65.5 million. Users also engaged for over 14 billion hours, marking a 24% annual growth. However, the quarter ended with a net loss of $282.8 million, up from $176.4 million in the same period of 2022. The company attributes this increase to overheads, infrastructure, and personnel costs.
Boston's Rapid7 slashes 18% of its workforce amid takeover whispers. This move follows reports of a private equity firm's acquisition interest.
Take-Two Interactive, famed for Grand Theft Auto, indicates an optimistic 2024, deflecting attention from its recent subdued quarterly outcomes. Amid speculation of Grand Theft Auto 6 release, CEO Strauss Zelnick hints at "record levels of operating performance" for 2025.
Insights & Analysis
After soaring in popularity during the pandemic, Zoom faces declining fortunes. Post-vaccine announcements saw a stock drop, recent A.I. data utilization policies stirred controversy, and employees expressed unhappiness over reversed remote work policies. Meanwhile, Zoom's stock value continues to decrease, coupled with a 15% workforce layoff.
The Q2 2023 global cloud market data reveals that Amazon Web Services (AWS), Alibaba, Google, IBM, and Microsoft dominate, securing over 70% of the market share. Amazon and Google experienced slight growth, with Microsoft seeing a minor dip. AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft generated approximately $54 billion in Q2 cloud sales. Despite economic challenges, the entire cloud infrastructure services market witnessed an 18% YoY growth, reaching close to $65 billion.
Apps & Gadgets
Slack unveils its most significant redesign yet, introducing changes to enhance usability and declutter the interface. The update introduces a new sidebar and "Home" section, consolidating DMs, channels, and apps, and centralizing all Slack activity. A notable "Activity" window serves as a unified inbox, presenting messages from various workspaces at a glance. Additionally, the "Huddles" video chat feature and a "Later" menu for saving content are more prominently displayed.
Apple introduces five innovative features for the AirPods Pro 2: Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Mute/Unmute, Personalized Volume, and enhanced Automatic Switching. All are available in a forthcoming free software update.
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