The Week That Was: the 7 things you need to know
Meta, Amazon and Spotify all reported quarterly results. Facebook-owner Meta for the first time reported falling daily active users and that Apple´s new privacy function is negative for its advertising sales. The company’s shares fell more than 20%. Spotify shares also fell after the company said its outlook was subject to substantial uncertainty because of the pandemic. Amazon announced it is raising the price of its Prime service for US customers with 17% to USD 139 per year referring to shipping costs and increased salaries.
After artists’ and World Health Organisation’s protests against covid statements in a podcast, CEO Daniel EK announced the company’s policy in a Spotify blog. He said it has “become clear to me that we have an obligation to do more to provide balance and access to widely-accepted information from the medical and scientific communities guiding us through this unprecedented time.”
Strong growth for gaming is leading to new big deals with companies expanding in this area. Sonny announced it is buying video game developer Bungie for USD 3.6 billion and the New York Times that is acquiring Wordl. The announcements came weeks after Microsoft bought gaming company Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion dollars.
Meta’s cryptocurrency project Libra came to an end three years after it was announced. Diem Association had been assigned to create a stablecoin backed by real-world currencies for the project. However, Diem announced it is clear that “the project could not move on”.
Russia pulled the press credentials of all staff at German publisher Deutsche Welle and took measures to shut down DW broadcasting on Russian territory. The action came after German authority said Russian state broadcaster RT must stop broadcasting German-language programs in Germany as it “does not have the necessary broadcasting license”.
CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker resigned with immediate effect because of a relationship to one of his management colleagues. Zucker’s announcement came a couple of months after he fired anchor man Chris Cuomo for improperly advising his brother who was New York governor about how to handle allegations of sexual misconduct.
Meta announced a new feature that would protect users’ avatars from unwanted nearness and protect their personal space. The Personal Boundary feature prevents avatars from coming within a set distance of 1,2 meters of each other, it is activated by default inside of Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues.
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