Here are the top trending news from the world of technology. News that we feel every tech enthusiast should keep a tab on.
1)
Guess who wants to Buy Substack?
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who already owns six companies including his latest buyout Twitter, has expressed his desire to buy online publishing platform Substack. The Tesla boss expressed this desire while replying to a tweet. Musk argued that Substack makes for a perfect acquisition target for twitter as it can help the latter in increasing its monetization. Notably, Twitter had already started newsletter service called Twitter Revue earlier this year but so far it has achieved limited success. For all those who don’t know, Substack is a popular publishing platform that help writers in monetizing through subscription newsletters.
2)
Netflix to end Password Sharing in 2023
After months of testing, Netflix is all set to unveil a feature that will hopefully put an end to the notorious practice of password sharing. Once this feature becomes active, it will prompt customers to shell extra money if it finds if they are sharing their account details with acquaintances beyond their household. According to media reports, the streaming giant is most likely to introduce this much awaited feature in the United States as soon as January 2023. Although not confirmed, Netflix is most likely to charge anywhere between $3.50-$4.50 per sub-account in the U.S. Netflix has been already testing password sharing feature in October this year.
3)
Ola and Uber Scored a Big Zero in Gig Worker Review Report
Cab aggregators Ola and Uber have scored a ‘big zero’ in a recent report that looked into the fair treatment of gig workers. The Fairwork India team in collaboration with Oxford University prepared this report. Other companies like Dunzo, Pharmacy platform PharmEasy and Amazon Flex have also scored very poorly in the review report. Fairwork India assessed the working condition of gig workers based on parameters like fair pay & fair contract among other things. Professional service providing company Urban Company scored the highest points, scoring 7/10 in the review. The issue of poor treatment of gig workers has received lot of media limelight in recent months.
4)
Apple Stocks Tumble amid iPhone Shortage Problem
Apple shares witnessed a sharp slump on Tuesday, with the stocks falling as much as 1.7% during the Intraday trading. December has already proved to be a tough month for the tech giant’s shares as it slumped by 12.4% during the month. This made December 2022 the worst month for Apple Shares since May 2019, when Apple stocks declined by 12.8%. What is making the investors jittery is Apple’s recent struggle to meet the production target for its recently launched iPhone 14. Apple’s supply line has been hit by the COVID outbreak in Foxconn factory located in China’s Zhengzhou region.
5)
Indian startups Laid off nearly 20,000 employees in 2022
The year 2022 turned out to be a rather painful year for the Indian startup employees as they faced barrage of sacking and pink slips. As per the data compiled by Money Control, Indian startup laid off as many as 20,000 employees this year. The lay-off was done across the board as almost all well-funded and high-profile startups opted for lay-offs. This included the likes of Byju’s, Ola, Unacademy, Vedantu, Udaan, Blackbuck, Chargebee and many others. With funding tap drying up and investors refusing to sign big cheques, most Indian startups resorted to sweeping cost-cutting measures.