Here are the top trending news from the world of technology
1
WeWork makes a stock market debut (finally)
The beleaguered co-working startup WeWork finally made its debut on the American stock market on Thursday. WeWork, which was once backed by Soft Bank, went public with the help of SPAC merger deal. The company commanded a valuation of nearly $9 Bn during its IPO listing. The current valuation is a fraction of $47 valuation that it boosted barely two years back. However, the lofty valuation simply couldn’t sustain after two botched IPO attempts (click here).
2
Google Slashes Play Store Fees for Subscription apps
From next year, Google will be reducing its app store fees for all its subscription based apps to 15 percent from the existing 30 percent. This news will come as a huge respite for all app developers who have always resented what they claim is ‘hefty fees’ charged by Google. This development has, by the way, come at a time when Google has come under increased scrutiny for its monopolistic practices. To combat such practices promoted by the app store, South Korea barely a month ago passed a historic legislation against Google and Apple.
3
Russia bans sale of Samsung Smartphones
Russian subsidiary company from selling total 61 models of Samsung smartphones. Moscow’s arbitrary court reportedly issued this order due to a patent dispute on the use Samsung Pay service (Click here).
4
Twitter claims that its algorithm is more biased towards right wing content
Twitter has claimed that its recent study has found that its algorithm tends to amplify more right-wing content or tweets of right wing politician. The micro-blogging giant claimed that its research team looked at millions of tweets of politicians across seven countries and scores of links from news outlets. Although Twitter’s latest research claims that its algorithm is biased towards right-wing content, it did not specify the exact reasons for this apparent bias (click here).
5
Snap claims IOS’s privacy changes hit its revenue harder than expected
Multimedia social media Snap Inc reported its third quarter earning and investors were left tad disappointed that the company failed to meet Wall Street’s expectations. Snap reported a revenue of $1.07 Bn as against $1.1 Bn that was inspected from investors. Snap cited changes in Apple’s IOS setting for its tepid revenue growth (Click here).