Younger consumers are especially leery of retailers not doing enough to safeguard private information when buying online.
A hefty 69.3% of UK shoppers are now uneasy about their personal security following high-profile hacks, and it’s the 25-34 age bracket that feels it most keenly, with 79.3% reporting heightened concern.
Cybersecurity worries are starting to make a real dent in how young people in the UK do online shopping.
Recent waves of cyberattacks have rattled consumer confidence, driving a third of 16-34-year-olds to consider dialing back—or even quitting—online purchases altogether.
This presents a particularly sharp dilemma for pure online brands, which don’t have the safety net of brick-and-mortar stores to win back wary shoppers, according to fresh insights from GlobalData.
Emily Salter, Lead Retail Analyst at GlobalData, has her finger on the pulse: “At the end of the day, online shopping’s unbeatable convenience and variety will keep most people coming back. But for families juggling busy schedules or older shoppers who find store visits more taxing, these online advantages can outweigh even big security doubts.
“On the flip side, younger people—already drawn to in-person experiences—could be nudged toward physical shops by rising safety fears.”
The sentiment is backed up by GlobalData’s July 2025 survey: a hefty 69.3 per cent of UK shoppers are now uneasy about their personal security following high-profile hacks, and it’s the 25-34 age bracket that feels it most keenly, with 79.3 per cent reporting heightened concern.
Such anxiety isn’t just a short-term problem. While sales might take an immediate hit if stock goes missing or a website shuts down, stories about data leaks hang around much longer, threatening the fragile trust that underpins digital commerce.
Salter also notes that younger consumers are especially leery of retailers storing their payment details. Many don’t feel retailers are doing enough to safeguard private information when buying online.
The rise of mobile wallets and services like PayPal and Apple Pay offers a workaround—these payment methods let shoppers skip handing over sensitive data directly to retailers. Unsurprisingly, these alternatives are a hit with the under-35s.
For retailers, that means making sure their digital checkouts play nicely with third-party payment platforms if they want to keep younger customers clicking “buy.”
Video conferencing market was worth $33.04b in 2024 and projected to grow from $37.29b in 2025 to more than $60b by 2032.
Supports 36 languages in transcription mode and 28 languages in real-time translation mode.
Meet Hour is on course for a fourfold revenue jump this year to $160,000 from $73,000 in 2024.
When most people think of video conferencing, the big three—Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams—immediately spring to mind.
However, there’s a quietly ambitious contender from the US that’s stirring up the landscape – Meet Hour. The homegrown platform is challenging established norms and finding its own space in a crowded global market, offering a refreshing spin on what virtual meetings can be.
From the outside, Meet Hour stands out by leaning into simplicity, adaptability, and accessibility. It may not yet have the deep enterprise integrations or huge legacy footprint of multinational rivals, but for many users, ease-of-use and flexibility tip the scales.
Meet Hour’s solution is intentionally designed to cater to anyone needing a reliable, straightforward, and empowering video meeting experience.
The company isn’t content to just follow the status quo. As the market for video communications continues to grow rapidly—Fortune Business Insights estimates the sector was worth $33.04 billion in 2024 and projected to grow from $37.29 billion in 2025 to more than $60 billion by 2032—Meet Hour is actively adding new features to further differentiate itself.
A game-changer
Shukoor Ahmed, Meet Hour’s founder and CEO.
One of its strongest calling cards is language. “We’re the only platform that delivers a complete conferencing experience in Urdu, Bengali, and Farsi,” Shukoor Ahmed, Meet Hour’s founder and CEO, said in an interview to TechChannel News.
This is a game-changer for many communities that have been underserved by the global giants. Beyond language, Meet Hour gives enterprises an unusual degree of customisation—companies can tailor the platform or even build their own white-labeled presence.
Data security and privacy are also high on Meet Hour’s list of priorities.
MD Abdul Muqeet, product manager at Meet Hour.
“Organisations focused on data control can host the solution on their own servers, or even on private cloud infrastructure, giving them peace of mind about their sensitive data. The company follows rigorous security protocols across multiple layers, from data centre protection to end-user privacy, and boasts certifications such as GDPR and with HIPAA certification in process,” MD Abdul Muqeet, product manager at Meet Hour, said.
On the commercial side, he said that Meet Hour already has over 30,000 paid customers spread primarily across the United States and Europe.
“We’re focused on proven markets while actively nurturing our growing global user base—particularly in Bangladesh with Bengali, Iran with Farsi, and Pakistan with Urdu support,” Ahmed said.
Real-time support
In terms of pricing, flexibility is central: for software-as-a-service, basic plans start at just $6.49, while companies that require integration-as-a-service pay from $13.29. Large enterprises wanting total control are offered self-hosting for a one-time fee of $3,000.
Notably, Meet Hour emphasises hands-on, real-time support—live chat, phone, and video—contrasting with the ticketing systems of larger competitors.
Compiled by TechChannel News.
Senior developer and AI specialist Ahmed ata ul Kareem.
Muqeet highlights SaaS and IaaS models, but the innovation doesn’t stop there. According to senior developer and AI specialist Ahmed ata ul Kareem, new capabilities like live meeting transcription, real-time translation into 28 languages, and “Hide Participants”—where only the user and moderator are visible—set Meet Hour apart.
“In transcription mode, we support 36 languages and plan to add another 15 more languages,” Kareem said.
According to Prcahi Nema, principal analyst, digital workspace at Omdia, AI integration is transforming both hardware and software solutions, with features such as automated summaries, translations, and advanced room analytics becoming standard offerings.
“However, the market is becoming increasingly commoditised, with very little product differentiation between vendors’ offerings,” Nema said.
Forward-looking approach
By March 2026, even more advanced features are expected to be added to Meet Hour, like remote device control during meetings, AI-based chatbots, automatic text-to-audio, and dedicated environments for musicians and performers.
“Meet Hour’s team is also investing in mixed reality and AI, with plans to support advanced VR and AR headsets such as Apple Vision Pro, Google integrations, and Meta’s offerings,” Kareem said.
The forward-looking approach hints that the company doesn’t simply want to catch up with the global giants—it’s eager to leap boldly into the next phase of digital communication.
Financially, the startup is making smart and measured moves. Ahmed said that Meet Hour is on course for a fourfold revenue jump this year to $160,000.
As of now, the company has progressed 35 per cent from $73,000 in 2024 to $128,000 in seven months.
“The company’s spending is tightly managed, with its leaders striving to break even by mid-2026 and emphasising sustainability over breakneck growth. It’s a conscious decision: “Given the current global economic climate, we’re betting that investors and customers will favour resilience over risky sprints.”
With offices in the US and India, Muqeet said that the company is planning to open an office in the UAE this year.
Founded in 2020 by a team of technocrats passionate about fixing the flaws of other conferencing solutions, Meet Hour is steadily carving out a unique role for itself.
As the world of remote work and digital collaboration continues to evolve, this US-based innovator—powered by a lean, globally distributed team—is showing global heavyweights that there’s room—and real demand—for a fresh, independent perspective.
Downloads surge by 67% while consumer spending on IAPs doubles to $1.9b.
Asia leads the way now, particularly in fast-growing markets such as India and Mainland China, where downloads surge 80%, followed by Europe by 51% and North America by 39%.
DeepSeek, launched in January 2025, outperforms all other Generative AI apps—including ChatGPT—for new global downloads due to its strong uptake in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
ChatGPT remains the all-time download leader at 940m, followed by Google Gemini’s 200m and DeepSeek’s 127m.
The first half of 2025 has been nothing short of explosive for Generative AI apps around the globe, with users flocking to platforms that offer AI Assistance or AI Content Generation.
According to Sensor Tower’s State of AI Apps Report 2025, both the App Store and Google Play have seen Generative AI apps approach 1.7 billion downloads, while in-app purchases soared to nearly $1.9 billion.
What’s more impressive is that both downloads and IAP revenue are not just increasing—they’re accelerating, with half-over-half (HoH) growth rates hitting their highest levels since the genre’s early boom in 2023.
Let’s talk numbers: Downloads shot up by 67 per cent HoH in the first half of 2025, according to Sensor Tower, setting a new pace for growth. Meanwhile, consumer spending on IAPs doubled versus the previous six months.
People aren’t just downloading these apps—they’re getting hooked. Total time spent in Generative AI apps reached a mind-boggling 15.6 billion hours in the first half of 2025, which breaks down to more than 86 million hours every single day.
That kind of engagement led to 426 billion total sessions in just six months—translating to about 50 sessions for every person on the planet.
When ChatGPT first broke out, North America and other English-speaking regions raced ahead in adoption. Initially, North America made up about 20 per cent of global AI app downloads.
Fast forward to the first half of 2025, and North America’s share has dipped to 11 per cent, not because usage is shrinking there, but because world adoption—especially in Asia—has exploded.
AI Assistants steal the show
“Asia leads the way now, particularly in fast-growing markets such as India and Mainland China, where downloads surged 80 per cent from the previous half-year. Europe grew by 51 per cent, and North America still rose by a respectable 39 per cent,” the report showed.
Delving into the app types, the Generative AI market is largely split between AI Assistants and AI Content Generators. While content generators dominated until late 2022, the arrival of ChatGPT turned the spotlight to AI Assistants and chatbots.
Their momentum is overwhelming: by the second quarter of 2025, 85 per cent of all downloads in these categories came from AI Assistants like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and DeepSeek.
Still, the distinction between assistant and content creation is blurring, as leading assistants roll out capabilities like image generation.
It has also become a competitive battleground. DeepSeek, launched in January 2025, made an immediate splash, outperforming all other Generative AI apps—including ChatGPT—for new global downloads in its first six months, thanks to its strong uptake in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
AI in non-game apps explode
ChatGPT remains the all-time download leader at 940 million, followed by Google Gemini’s 200 million and DeepSeek’s 127 million by June 2025.
Apps like Grok and Meta have joined the ranks of top performers, capitalizing on consumers’ growing appetite for intelligent chatbots.
Despite their global reach, these apps still attract a fairly specific crowd. Generative AI users skew younger, with a clear male bias—nearly 70 per cent of ChatGPT’s US audience is male, and 64 per cent are under 35.
Apps like DeepSeek, Claude, and Grok lean even more heavily male, while ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini show a bit more demographic balance (at least 30 per cent of users are women).
On the flip side, entertainment-centric apps such as PolyBuzz and Character AI are a hit with young women. ChatGPT users are also highly engaged, checking in about 13 times per month—similar to social favourites like X and Reddit, and even ahead of newer contenders like Threads.
But Google still holds the daily-use crown, with users logging in 18+ times a month.
A few years ago, from 2015 to 2019, AI was mostly a games phenomenon on mobile platforms. Since ChatGPT’s debut in 2022, the application of AI in non-game apps has exploded.
The software sector is leading the way, but Health & Wellness, Education, Lifestyle, Services, and Financial Services are quickly catching up: each saw over 200 new apps using AI-related terminology in the first half of 2025.
Subgenres like Photo Editing, Test Prep, Translation, Nutrition, Language Education, and Video Editing are especially popular places for AI integration.
The implications for the broader digital ecosystem are profound. ChatGPT is rapidly closing the gap with search engines and browsers as a daily go-to info hub.
In the first half of 2025, ChatGPT users averaged 7.8 sessions per day—a 37 per cent jump year-on-year—actually nudging past leading browser cohorts.
Although daily minutes spent is still a bit shy of Google’s, ChatGPT’s numbers are climbing fast, up 58 per cent over last year, hitting an average of 16 minutes daily.
Meta’s core businesses—Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger—collectively haul in $46.6b in ad revenue.
It seems like we’re living in the age of big ideas — and at Meta Platforms, Mark Zuckerberg is pushing the boldest one yet.
His promise? To deliver “personal superintelligence for everyone.” Meta’s latest financial moves reflect just how massive this ambition is.
During the most recent quarter, Meta spent a jaw-dropping $17 billion on capital expenditures, pouring most of that into boosting AI infrastructure and supercharging data centres. And this is hardly a one-off; the company expects these hefty investments to keep rolling in through at least 2026.
Despite these sky-high expenses, Meta’s shares surged 11.5 per cent after hours, celebrating some truly stellar second quarter results. Revenue soared 22 per cent to $47.5 billion, with Meta’s core businesses—Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger—collectively hauling in $46.6 billion in ad revenue.
User engagement is stronger than ever, too: daily active users now total a stunning 3.5 billion people. And let’s not forget profit—net income rocketed 36 per cent to $18.3 billion over last year, showing that those big bets (so far) are paying off.
I keep thinking about how Zuckerberg defines Meta’s new mission: “The intersection of technology and culture is where Meta focuses.” He doubled down on this message in an Instagram Reel, underscoring that the new AI-focused lab is gearing up to build the next generation of advanced models.
Acquiring talent
What really catches the attention, though, is Meta’s approach to talent. Zuckerberg says he’s spent this quarter assembling an “elite, talent-dense team,” and he’s reportedly brought on board Alexandr Wang—one of the world’s youngest billionaires—to lead the charge.
Building the future takes more than ideas; it takes top-tier brains, dreamers, and doers. And apparently, Meta is becoming a magnet for them—because, as Zuckerberg puts it, Meta has “all of the ingredients required to build leading models and deliver them to billions of people.”
Here’s another big move: the new superintelligence team will get to play with “unparalleled compute” resources thanks to Meta’s investment in new gigawatt-plus computing clusters. That’s a geeky way of saying: a lot of power, ready to handle a lot of data.
But why sink so many billions into AI? Zuckerberg is crystal clear: “We’re making all these investments because we have conviction that superintelligence is going to improve every aspect of what we do.” If he’s right, Meta’s spending spree could transform not only its platforms but the entire way we interact with technology in daily life.
South Korean chipmaker’s prolonged underperformance has triggered concerns among investors.
Samsung Electronics has faced a turbulent quarter, reporting a 55 per cent drop in second-quarter operating profit as key pressures continue to weigh on its semiconductor division.
For the April to June period, the company posted an operating profit of 4.7 trillion won (about $3.37 billion)—the weakest performance seen in six quarters and matching closely with their prior guidance of 4.6 trillion won. While revenue inched up 0.7 per cent to 74.6 trillion won, aligned with earlier estimates, these small gains haven’t done much to soothe investor nerves.
The heart of the challenge remains with Samsung’s chip division, traditionally its powerhouse. This quarter, the unit reported just 400 billion won in profit, a staggering fall from 6.5 trillion won the same period a year ago. This marks a notable milestone: it’s the first time in six quarters the division’s profit has dipped below the 1 trillion won threshold.
Samsung attributed this steep decline to several factors. The company cited adjustments to memory chip inventories and one-off costs related to US export controls, which limit the sale of advanced semiconductors to China, affecting the company’s contract chipmaking business.
Struggling to narrow technological gap
These headwinds are exacerbated by slow shipments of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips—an area where Samsung is struggling to narrow the technological gap with more nimble rivals supplying big players like Nvidia, especially for artificial intelligence data centre applications.
The chipmaker’s prolonged underperformance has triggered concerns among investors regarding its ability to catch up in the critical HBM market, an arena gaining importance with every leap forward in generative AI technologies.
There’s a sense of urgency now for the South Korean giant to innovate and regain commercial momentum.
The lucrative partnership with Tesla might help buoy the foundry division and offset recent losses, but the company still faces a challenging path ahead as it adapts to shifting global trade dynamics and escalating technological demands.
For the current first quarter, the company predicts a jaw-dropping $30b in spending, breaking its own record for single-quarter investment.
If you ever wanted to see what major ambition looks like in the digital age, take a close look at Microsoft.
Marking its half-century milestone since Bill Gates and Paul Allen launched it in New Mexico back in 1975, the legendary tech company is today pouring the kind of money you can almost hear whistling through server racks on its way out the door.
These days, the numbers attached to Microsoft’s artificial intelligence dreams are almost as jaw-dropping as its stock price.
In the most recent fiscal fourth quarter, Microsoft once again bested Wall Street’s forecasts—a now-common achievement, as proven by its five-quarter streak of outperforming analysts.
Investors—maybe with confetti already in hand—watched as Microsoft’s shares hovered just shy of record highs, swelling by 22 per cent since the start of the year.
The company reported $76.4 billion in quarterly revenue, handily beating expectations and posting an 18 per cent year-over-year jump. That includes a sparkling $3.65 in earnings per share, well ahead of consensus.
For the current first quarter alone, the company predicts a jaw-dropping $30 billion in spending, breaking its own record for single-quarter investment.
If that figure turns out as forecasted, Microsoft could outpace fierce rivals Alphabet (Google) and Amazon in the race for world-dominating data center capacity over the next year.
This mad dash for digital horsepower isn’t just for bragging rights. Microsoft’s Azure cloud division is on a rocket ride, now surpassing $75 billion in yearly revenue thanks to the relentless demand for AI-powered services.
Satya Nadella, still steering the ship as CEO, said: “Cloud and AI is the driving force of business transformation across every industry and sector.”
Azure’s 34 per cent growth is proof positive that companies everywhere are shifting their computing needs to the cloud—and they want Microsoft’s brand of smarts to help them do it.
Big Tech’s capital spending
Of course, it’s not only Microsoft hurling money at the problem. Just last week, Google announced it would invest $85 billion in 2025—$10 billion more than it had planned—while Amazon is sprinting to meet its own $100 billion commitment.
This mass buildout means Big Tech’s capital spending might top $330 billion this year alone. Meta, not to be left behind, is also opening its wallet wide, but with a slightly cooler approach to capital outlays.
Money isn’t only flowing into hardware and buildings, either. The war for AI talent has gotten so feverish that $100 million signing bonuses are being dangled by Meta to lure experts from OpenAI, with reports of $200 million offers for top Apple engineers. Finding the brains who can actually build all this next-generation technology isn’t easy—or cheap.
Meanwhile, Microsoft isn’t shy about showing what all this investment is buying. Its Copilot AI now claims over 100 million monthly active users—a big milestone, though still dwarfed by Google’s Gemini, which boasts 450 million. As the numbers get bigger, so do the stakes.
Is it worth it? For now, investors certainly seem to think so. “I feel very good that the spend that we’re making is correlated to basically contracted, on-the-books business that we need to deliver,” CFO Amy Hood told analysts—her confidence mirrored by a $500 billion surge in AI stocks following Microsoft and Meta’s blockbuster quarters.
The game is on, and from the look of things, Microsoft is quite comfortable playing at these dizzying heights.
