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Feb 02 2023

Google’s advertising sales fall in sharper than expected slowdown

Google’s advertising revenue slipped 4 per cent in the final quarter of last year, marking only the second quarterly contraction in the company’s history, according to figures released late on Thursday.

The advertising decline followed a sharp slowdown in Google’s business last year as economic growth weakened and the pandemic-fuelled boom in digital services receded. It left parent Alphabet with overall revenue growth of only 1 per cent, compared to the 32 per cent surge in business it registered the year before. Revenue would have grown 7 per cent had it not been for the strengthening US dollar.

The news pointed to an even sharper deceleration than many analysts had expected and left the company’s shares down about 4 per cent in after-market trading.

Google also reported a slip in its operating profit margin as cost growth outran revenues, resulting in a 32 per cent fall in earnings per share, to $1.06. Wall Street had been expecting earnings of $1.18 a share.

The latest figures are likely to intensify Wall Street’s focus on Alphabet’s costs. Last month, it announced 12,000 job cuts, though it still came under fire from an activist investor for not taking more drastic action.

The company was “on an important journey to re-engineer our cost structure in a durable way”, chief executive Sundar Pichai said in a statement ahead of a call with analysts.

Alphabet said it expected to incur costs of $1.9bn-$2.3bn as a result of the job cuts and another $500mn from reducing its office space, most of it in the first quarter of this year.

Google executives sought to use the company’s earnings call with analysts to reassure Wall Street that they were racing to release a new round of AI services. In his first public comments since ChatGPT presented a challenge to its search business, Pichai said Google would act “very soon” to give users a way to “interact directly with our newest, most powerful language models . . . in experimental and innovative ways”.

In another sign that Alphabet is refocusing its investments around AI, chief financial officer Ruth Porat said the financial results of UK research arm DeepMind would be taken out of the Other Bets division and treated instead as direct corporate expenses. The move, which appeared to point to a closer integration of DeepMind into the rest of Alphabet, reflected the fact that its work had become important to many parts of group’s business, Porat said.

Revenue growth from cloud computing slowed to 32 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, down from 38 per cent in the preceding three months — a sharper deceleration than most analysts had expected. Advertising on YouTube, which is more exposed to an economic slowdown than the search business, fell 8 per cent after registering a 2 per cent decline in the third quarter.

Google’s first-ever revenue fall came at the start of the Covid-19 crisis, as many advertisers suspended their ad budgets, but growth rebounded strongly as digital spending boomed during the pandemic.

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Google’s advertising sales fall in sharper than expected slowdown Republished from Source https://www.ft.com/content/09d23d8c-654c-44e1-bc4b-2a0ead544773 via https://www.ft.com/companies/technology?format=rss

Written by Richard Waters in San Francisco · Categorized: entrepreneur, Technology · Tagged: entrepreneur, Technology

Feb 02 2023

MPs criticise government over semiconductor strategy delay

UK ministers were criticised on Friday for continuing to delay a long-awaited strategy to support the semiconductor industry by a committee of MPs.

The government had intended to publish the plan to develop Britain’s chip sector by the autumn 2022, according to a report by the business, energy and industrial strategy committee.

However, its release has continued to be pushed back, causing widespread concern in the tech industry about the UK losing ground to rival countries in fostering growth in an important sector.

The delays have also been a factor in the deliberations at Japan’s SoftBank over whether to list Cambridge-based chip firm Arm in the UK, as well as the US, according to people close to the process.

On Friday, the MPs on the committee said delaying the semiconductor strategy further was an “act of national self-harm”.

A blueprint to ensure security of chip supply chains must be published urgently, the committee added, or the development of Britain’s chip manufacturing sector would be put at risk.

In a report in November, the committee’s recommendations included that the UK undertake better co-operation with allies to safeguard supply and to secure inward investment. But the MPs cast doubt on whether government support for the industry was “sufficient to have any meaningful effect”.

Committee chair and Labour MP Darren Jones said the government was hiding “behind its failure to publish a semiconductor strategy for not responding to our practical recommendations fully”.

The blueprint is expected to set out the results of a review of the sector to improve the resilience and security of UK supply chains and drive innovation.

The committee pointed out that the US Chips Act committed $52bn to subsidise US semiconductors, while the EU has set aside €43bn and Japan has its own multibillion-dollar plans.

Jones added: “Countries across the globe have grasped the importance of securing semiconductor supply chains for their futures, why haven’t we? While others race ahead, ploughing billions into setting up fabs or industry support, we’re not even at the starting line.”

The report by MPs follows a letter sent to the prime minister in January from tech industry executives calling for a co-ordinated and comprehensive semiconductor strategy “as a matter of urgency”.

The signatories included Hermann Hauser, director of Amadeus Capital Partners and one of the co-founders of Acorn Computers, where he helped spin out Arm.

The letter warned that Britain’s status as a leading tech ecosystem is at risk given how swiftly the US, the EU and China are acting to invest in silicon research and construction of chip plants.

It said: “The technology and manufacturing sectors have been waiting more than two years for the promised strategy, and confidence in the government’s ability to address this industry’s vital importance is steadily declining with each month of inaction.”

DCMS said: “We are committed to supporting the UK’s vitally important semiconductor industry. Our strategy will address the recommendations identified by the committee, including opportunities to grow the sector further and make sure we have a resilient supply chain.

“The strategy will be published as soon as possible.” 

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MPs criticise government over semiconductor strategy delay Republished from Source https://www.ft.com/content/0f4ea54d-fe14-4cf4-a8fc-03ccfe33b6a8 via https://www.ft.com/companies/technology?format=rss

Written by Daniel Thomas and Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe in London · Categorized: entrepreneur, Technology · Tagged: entrepreneur, Technology

Feb 02 2023

Bangladesh smartphone keyboard sparks political controversy

Bangladesh’s telecom regulator has made it mandatory to install a particular Bangla-language keyboard in all Android smartphones sold in the country — a controversial move given that the company that produces the keyboard is owned by the incumbent telecom minister.

The keyboard software in question is called Bijoy, which means “victory”. It is made by Ananda Computers, a company formed more than three decades ago and owned by Mustafa Jabbar, the minister of post and telecommunications.

Although Jabbar has denied any wrongdoing, watchdogs said the issue was part of a troubling larger pattern in Bangladesh, while industry players said the directive created a hassle in a market that is home to about 170mn people.

Bijoy is considered the first successful commercial Bangla keyboard layout and Jabbar is credited with designing it in the late 1980s. After decades of selling the keyboard layout for PCs, Ananda Computers released a version for smartphones.

In January, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) — a division under the control of Jabbar’s ministry — issued an order to the country’s mobile phone importers and manufacturers that they would not be issued “no objection” certificates to sell smartphones if they did not have Bijoy pre-installed in their products.

On January 24, local media reported that an attorney had sent a notice on behalf of Mohiuddin Ahmed, president of the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers’ Association, demanding that the directive be withdrawn and threatening legal action if it was not.

The Bangladesh chapter of Transparency International, a global corruption monitor, sees the directive as a blatant use of state power for personal profit and said such a move would disrupt the market and create an uneven playing field for competitors.

Bangladesh is no stranger to corruption, according to TI, which ranked it 147th out of 180 countries on its latest corruption perceptions index — the worst in south Asia after Afghanistan. While graft usually comes in the form of underhand dealings or shell companies, Iftekhar Zaman, executive director of TI Bangladesh, suggested this might be the first time “a person of such power openly misuses his position for personal gain”.

Jabbar, known as a tech pioneer in Bangladesh, insisted he was doing no such thing. “I run a government office and I just help implementing a government-prescribed standard,” he said. “It’s nothing but my duty.”

The minister, previously the top executive in the largest private associations of both software and hardware companies, explained that the current national Bangla keyboard standard — which uses the Bijoy layout — was approved five years ago by the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution, the government agency that provides standardisation certification.

“So, BTRC just asked to keep the standard keyboard in the smartphones from now on,” he said. “There is no wrongdoing here.”

Mustafa Jabbar
Mustafa Jabbar, Bangladesh’s telecom minister, is known as a tech pioneer in the country © Arif Mahmud Riad

Under the constitution, certain office holders including cabinet ministers are prohibited from maintaining lucrative positions in private companies. They are expected to renounce their executive roles upon taking office, though this is not always done in practice. In Jabbar’s case, he is still the proprietary owner of Ananda Computers, but the day-to-day operations are handled by others.

In any case, Jabbar insisted that since the Bijoy keyboard Android package kit — a file format used to distribute smartphone software — could be obtained for free from the telecom regulator, the rule would not benefit him.

“Why [is there] a notion that I am doing that for my business gain?” he said. “I am not making money out of it.”

Critics said it was not that simple.

Some noted that despite its long history, Bijoy was one of the least popular Bangla keyboards for Android phones, which dominate more than 90 per cent of the market according to the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers’ Association. Even if it was free, they said that if Bijoy was mandatory, Jabbar’s company would still benefit in other ways.

Before the directive, Bijoy had been downloaded more than 50,000 times. As of Sunday, that figure had surpassed 100,000. But both numbers pale in comparison to the more than 50mn downloads of Ridmik, the most popular keyboard option. Ridmik Classic, another layout from the same competitor, had been downloaded more than 10mn times.

Bijoy also had a much lower average user rating than Ridmik. Officials from Ridmik Labs declined to comment when asked for their reaction to the government directive.

“So, now Bijoy will have access to huge [amounts of] users’ data, which is of course a very valuable, sellable product,” said Md Assalut-uz-Zaman, an expert on information technology. “Besides, the worth of the free marketing it gets is immense . . . A product which historically did poor business now gets a boost courtesy of a government directive,” he said.

Zaman, who runs a company that produces business analytics software, said Bijoy’s ownership would surely benefit from being tied to the roughly 9mn new Android smartphones that enter the market annually — a figure confirmed by the BMPIA. More than 85 per cent are now locally manufactured or assembled by a total of 14 companies.

Zaman said that a product such as a keyboard, virtual or physical, could be standardised by the national agency but that did not mean the government could intervene to make a particular one compulsory for users. “The tech world doesn’t function that way, especially in an open economy under a democratic government,” he said.

An official at the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution said that out of 4,500 standardised products and services, only 229 were on a “compulsory list”, none of which were keyboards. That means there is “no obligation from the government” to make it mandatory, the official added.

Mobile phone manufacturers, meanwhile, say the directive will create technical difficulties for them and increase costs.

Rizwanul Haque, vice-president of the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers’ Association, said Android usually had the same Android package throughout the world. “It means we will need to pay a certain fee to Google to bring in the Bijoy APK (Android package kit) during the manufacturing stage,” said Haque, also the owner of a company that assembles three different Android smartphones in Bangladesh. “It obviously is a hassle.”

A version of this article was first published by Nikkei Asia on January 25, 2023. ©2023 Nikkei Inc. All rights reserved.

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Bangladesh smartphone keyboard sparks political controversy Republished from Source https://www.ft.com/content/7143d1ae-2c92-4bb5-bf2e-190d9e821aaa via https://www.ft.com/companies/technology?format=rss

Written by Faisal Mahmud contributing writer · Categorized: entrepreneur, Technology · Tagged: entrepreneur, Technology

Feb 02 2023

Meta: taking spending back to reality

Mark Zuckerberg has pushed hard to promote his vision of the metaverse. But the chief executive of Meta Platforms on Wednesday sounded more grounded. In a call with analysts following fourth-quarter results, Zuckerberg vowed 2023 will be the “Year of Efficiency”.

The company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp now plans to spend between $30bn and $33bn on capital expenditures in 2023. While that is still an increase on 2022, it is a meaningful cut from its previous forecasts of between $34bn and $37bn. He plans to control operating expenses, expected to be in the range of $89bn to $95bn.

Zuckerberg’s newfound passion for reining in costs is welcomed. The 20 per cent jump in Meta’s share price after-hours trading suggests as much. But investor hopes should remain realistic.

For starters, Zuckerberg has not abandoned his dreams of conquering the metaverse. Reality Labs, the division responsible for developing Meta’s virtual and augmented reality projects, remains a money pit. The unit made an operating loss of $13.7bn last year. The company said that will widen in 2023 but would “continue to invest meaningfully in this area”.

Meta’s shareholders could do with some savings. True, its shares have rallied more than a fifth since the start of January. But at just 16 times 2023 earnings, Meta has lost any earnings growth premium. That is well below the five-year average of 21 times.

The company’s core ad business has challenges. Competition from Amazon and TikTok, Apple’s privacy changes and a general slowdown in demand for digital advertising dragged overall revenue lower last year. Net income fell 41 per cent to $23.2bn as operating margin collapsed 15 percentage points to 25 per cent. Free cash flow more than halved to $18.4bn.

Efforts by Meta to lessen its dependence on third-party data for ad targeting are encouraging. Plans to buy back an additional $40bn in shares will help support the stock. But Zuckerberg still needs to rethink his spending on the metaverse and get Meta back to reality.

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Meta: taking spending back to reality Republished from Source https://www.ft.com/content/06b0839c-9b6a-4239-acb7-b2c1baa19812 via https://www.ft.com/companies/technology?format=rss

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: entrepreneur, Technology · Tagged: entrepreneur, Technology

Feb 02 2023

Sony ‘obsessed with growth’ as new president appointed

Sony has promoted its chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki to president and chief operating officer, in a move seen as lining him up to be the future head of the entertainment and consumer electronics group.

News of Totoki’s promotion came as the technology conglomerate upgraded its annual guidance on Thursday, forecasting stronger profits for its PlayStation gaming business.

The management reshuffle will take place on April 1, with Totoki, described as “a steady hand” by investors, also remaining as finance chief and working alongside Sony’s current president Kenichiro Yoshida, who will double as chief executive and chair.

Analysts have considered Totoki as the natural successor to Yoshida, with the duo having worked closely together in engineering a turnround at Sony following years of losses in its consumer electronics business.

Totoki will be expanding his role at a time when most of the group’s profits come from content — games, films and music — while the original electronics business accounted for less than 20 per cent of operating profits in its 2021 fiscal year.

The shift towards the media business had begun before Yoshida became president in 2018, but the company has solidified its position as a global entertainment giant and more than doubled its market value since he took over.

Another of Yoshida’s strategic bets has been on electric vehicles, which the company has pursued through a joint venture with Honda. Even if that flops, however, analysts say Sony’s sensor business and in-car software platform can be sold into the global market for EVs.

Totoki indicated at Thursday’s earnings conference that he would maintain Yoshida’s strategic direction while pursuing new drivers of growth.

“I am obsessed with growth. When growth stagnates, you fall into a negative spiral,” he said. “We have defined our company’s purpose with Yoshida’s leadership. My job is to make that a concrete project,” he added.

Yoshida said the company needed to strengthen its management structure and allocate its capital more efficiently as Sony navigates US-China tensions and amid rapid changes in the global tech industry.

He added that his right-hand man’s biggest contribution had been to “support growth investments”, citing how Totoki led the $2.3bn acquisition of EMI Music Publishing in 2018 and aggressive investments in its semiconductor business.

Sony said it expected an operating profit of ¥1.18tn ($9.1bn), up 2 per cent from its forecast in November, for the fiscal year through March. The group cited the recent strengthening in the yen as a boost for its gaming division since it lowers the dollar-denominated costs of manufacturing as well as the prices of raw materials and components purchased in dollars.

For the October to December quarter, its net profit fell 6 per cent from a year earlier to ¥326.8bn, dragged down by its film division. It performed worse than a year ago when the blockbuster movie Spider-Man: No Way Home drove profit.

Quarterly revenue increased 13 per cent as sales of PlayStation 5 consoles grew to 7.1mn for the holiday quarter compared with 3.9mn a year earlier, as chip supply shortages eased. Sony increased its forecast for PS5 sales from 18mn to 19mn for the fiscal year and raised its operating profit guidance for its gaming division by 7 per cent.

Separately on Thursday, Panasonic cut its full-year net profit forecast by 11 per cent from October, blaming a slowdown in the Chinese economy for lower sales of its electronics devices and factory automation business.

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Sony ‘obsessed with growth’ as new president appointed Republished from Source https://www.ft.com/content/50794294-bf67-4a74-bbf9-dc05b617a9ae via https://www.ft.com/companies/technology?format=rss

Written by Eri Sugiura and Kana Inagaki in Tokyo · Categorized: entrepreneur, Technology · Tagged: entrepreneur, Technology

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During the Blockchain Spring 2016 to 2020 I hosted Blockchain Weekly. Each week I interviewed someone who was doing interesting things in the blockchain space. At one time we had 29k subscribers and we were consistently getting over 15k views a week on the channel. All of that went away during the lockdown, including the Gmail address that controlled that channel. Recently, I found some of the original videos on some old hard drives. So I’m reposting a few of the relevant ones while I am starting to shoot new Blockchain Weekly Episodes to be aired 1st quarter 2023. Please subscribe to bless the You Tube Algorithm, and allow me to let you know about any updates! Our Sponsor – https://BlockchainConsultants.io

Recent reports indicate that Republican United States Senator Tim Scott, who serves as the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, aims to build “a bipartisan regulatory framework” for virtual currencies. Senator Scott is the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee. In a piece that was published on the 2nd of February by Politico, […]

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