Giants

Companies in China are cutting back on digital-ad spending as the economy slows and recurring Covid-19 outbreaks weigh on consumption, another sign of waning business confidence in the world’s most populous nation. Chinese internet giants that operate several of the country’s biggest online-advertising platforms recently warned of weak ad spending by their customers in the second quarter. Some also suggested it could be a while before a recovery takes hold, signaling pessimism about the broader economic outlook.…

Meta, Microsoft and other tech giants racing to build the emerging metaverse concept have formed a group to foster development of industry standards that would make the companies' nascent digital worlds compatible with each other.Participants in the Metaverse Standards Forum include many of the biggest companies working in the space, from chip makers to gaming companies, as well as established standards-setting bodies like the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the group said in an statement announcing its creation on…

As Marx might have put it, a spectre is haunting the world’s democracies: the spectre of tech power. For more than two decades those democracies slept peacefully while a small number of global corporations acquired a stranglehold on the most powerful communications technology since the invention of printing. The political earthquakes of 2016 provided a rough wake-up call as these slumbering giants suddenly realised that “the technological was political”, that unaccountable power was loose in their world, and that if they…

Food and agribusiness billionaires reportedly raised their collective wealth by 42 per cent in the last two years. Credit: Shutterstock A recent report by Oxfam International has found that 62 new "food billionaires" were created during the pandemic. The report, released ahead of this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, highlights the record profits made by industry titans.…

Technology companies are gearing up to tackle cybersecurity threats that have increased with the adoption of a hybrid work model. Experts believe the hybrid mode of working has led to increased adoption of digital operations which has massively heightened the need to protect the data generated. A Forrester study recently found that 80% of Indian organizations plan to adopt a hybrid work model over the next 12-24 months. However, 71% of security leaders said they lacked…

The campaign’s success is a dramatic illustration of the danger software flaws pose even years after they’re discovered and made public. Zero-day attacks—hacks exploiting previously unknown weaknesses—pack a punch and demand attention. But known flaws remain potent because networks and devices can be difficult to update and secure with limited resources, personnel, and money. Rob Joyce, a senior National Security Agency official, explained that the advisory was meant to give  step-by-step instructions on finding and…

The Biden administration must protect young adults who could lose US immigration status because of processing delays for permanent residency, said tech companies including Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google. After turning 21, foreigners can no longer stay in the United States on their parents' work visas. If applications for their own visas are not processed by that birthday-as is often happening amid pandemic-induced delays - they must leave. Unlike millions of undocumented immigrants popularly known as "Dreamers"…

What’s emerging in its place is an age of diminished expectations marked by job cuts and hiring slowdowns, slashed growth projections and shelved expansion plans. The malaise is damaging employee morale, affecting the industry’s ability to attract talent, and has wide-ranging implications for US economic growth and innovation. Illustrations of a dour new business climate surface daily against the backdrop of a prolonged economic slowdown, a grinding war in Europe, rising interest rates and inflation, and a…

The government in April launched its Open Network For Digital Commerce (ONDC) as a prospective alternative to dominant global giants Amazon.com and Walmart in its fast-growing e-commerce market.Here is a description of the different moving parts of ONDC.What is ONDC?ONDC is a non-profit company whose network will enable the display of products and services from all participating e-commerce platforms in search results across all apps on the network.For example, if both Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart integrate their…

San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler said Friday he will refuse to take the field for the national anthem in a protest over the nation’s political direction following this week’s school shooting in Texas. “I don’t plan on coming out for the anthem going forward until I feel better about the direction of our country,” Kapler said before a series opener at Cincinnati. “I don’t expect it to move the needle necessarily. It’s just something that I feel strongly enough about to take that step.” Kapler said he…