Business/Brands & Marketing
TECH ROUNDUP: Twitter Gets New CEO
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Elon Musk has found a new CEO for Twitter
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Google’s AI chatbot, Bard is now available for use
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Facebook Messenger for Apple Watch will be discontinued this month
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ARCON has rolled out its new vetting rate for social media ads
Elon Musk said that he has found a new CEO for Twitter. He didn’t say who but he said it was a woman who will start in 6 weeks when he will also become CTO. “My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops,” he tweeted.
Google’s AI generative chatbot tool and ChatGPT competitor, Bard is now off the waitlist and available in 180 countries and regions. This announcement was made at the recent I/O event.
Also Read: TECH ROUNDUP: MTN Group Might Sell West African Assets
Facebook Messenger for Apple Watch will be discontinued by the end of May. The decision means that users will no longer be able to access the Messenger app directly from their Apple Watches.
The Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) has released vetting rates for ads on social media. The ad rates are between ₦7,500 and ₦100,000 and will be vetted by the council before going live.
POLITICS
Kenya’s Safaricom has revealed that the company recorded a profit after tax of 52.4 billion Kenyan Shillings. A 22.2% decline from the 67.4 billion Shillings recorded in March 2022 and outstanding growth in revenue, from 298.1billion shillings in 2022 to 310.9 billion shilling in 2023.
Top Nigerian banks collectively incurred N227 billion in AMCON fees in 2022. These fees are associated with the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
SOCIAL MEDIA
Microsoft announced it will be skipping salary raises for its salaried employees this year. The memo was issued by the CEO of Microsoft, signaling the importance of the decision.
Meta’s content moderation partner in Africa, Sama, has been compelled by a Kenyan court to pay April salaries to a section of moderators it had left out.
WhatsApp has announced that it has introduced back-end updates to tackle spam calls. The Meta-owned messaging app announced that it quickly ramped up its AI and ML systems to bring down spam call incidents.
WORLD
Walt Disney’s share price falls to $96.26 as its streaming service loses 4m subscribers in the first quarter of 2023. This is coming nine months after Disney won the streaming war with over 221 million subscribers against Netflix.
Apple’s recent findings from an independent study highlighted that the revenue of small developers on the App Store grew by 71% from 2020 to 2022. This is amidst the regulatory pressure on Apple to change its app distribution practices.
Microsoft has acquired an undisclosed equity stake in the coding platform, Builder.ai. This acquisition will see the integration of the US technology giant’s cloud and Builder.ai’s AI.
