Their vast troves of data and immense scale make it possible for these super platforms to expand their services into new markets, some of which are traditionally dominated by non-digital firms.
Social media companies are viewed as data monopolies in whichever sector they move into, increasingly at odds with antitrust and data privacy regulations.
Social media companies’ dreams of pursuing super-app aspirations could attract even more regulatory scrutiny, an industry expert said.
“Super apps are the future of social media strategy. Pioneered by Tencent in China, the super-app model is now being copied across the world, with Facebook leading the pack,” Laura Petrone, Senior Analyst at GlobalData, said.
Social media companies such as Facebook and Google will increasingly diversify away from ad-funded business models and position themselves as the gateway through which users can access multiple services, blending social networking, e-commerce and entertainment.
Petrone said that the most successful social media companies have built large ecosystems of complementary products and services around their core operations.
“Their vast troves of data and immense scale make it possible for these super platforms to expand their services into new markets, some of which are traditionally dominated by non-digital firms,” she said.
One example is Facebook’s expansion into financial services and cryptocurrencies, while another is Tencent, which has moved into lending and wealth management.
However, she said thatsocial media companies are viewed as data monopolies in whichever sector they move into, increasingly at odds with antitrust and data privacy regulations.
Social media companies have come under fire for stifling competition and face an unprecedented level of scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic.
The EU has introduced ex-ante regulations such as strict and transparent rules applied to digital platforms before engaging in any anti-competitive behaviour.
“Ex-ante regulation is as a desirable solution for antitrust regulators worldwide. As a result of this new legislation, enforcers would abandon lengthy proceedings against large platforms in favour of imposing minimum conditions to avoid monopolies,” she said.
Migration to service-based IT is one of the significant elements of digital transformation initiatives for achieving business goals, pursuing new opportunities, and enhancing customer experience.
Enterprises have an opportunity to bring all of what they like about public cloud to their own premises while mitigating restrictions and concerns they have with moving infrastructure off-premises.
IDC estimates that the worldwide annual recurring revenues (ARR) from dedicated (local) cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offering for compute and storage will increase from $138 million in 2020 to $14 billion in 2025 with a compound annual growth rate of 151.8 per cent.
Dedicated (local) Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (DCIaaS) solutions deliver compute and/or storage resources dedicated to an individual customer that are deployed on customer premises and consumed as a service.
This model is essentially a dedicated version of a publicly available cloud offering, modified to run on-premises or in a specially certified colocation environment, including outside of a traditional datacentre environment (edge).
The cloud service provider retains full ownership of all underlying infrastructure hardware and software and is completely responsible for delivery, maintenance, updating, and ultimate disposal of the asset when the subscription is terminated.
The dedicated (local) cloud infrastructure-as-a-service solutions will be consumed by both enterprise customers and by hosted service providers, which use infrastructure for delivering cloud service to their customers.
Digital transformation
Given the importance of hybrid cloud, players like Microsoft, Google, AWS and Oracle all have hybrid cloud offerings with Azure Stack, Google Anthos, AWS Outpost and Cloud@Customer respectively. These solutions basically take public cloud services and extend these into on-premises datacentres.
Digital transformation (DX) is one of the trends shaping the enterprise world and driving the investments organisations are making to modernise their IT infrastructures and processes.
Migration to service-based IT is one of the significant elements of DX initiatives as it enables organisations to utilise IT more efficiently for achieving business goals, pursuing new opportunities, and enhancing customer experience.
Until recently, service-based IT was largely associated with public cloud services. However, in the past 18 months, a number of system vendors and cloud service providers have introduced a new class of offerings that are designed to bring cloud experience to enterprise premises.
Natalya Yezhikova, research Vice-President for IT Infrastructure practice at IDC, said that increasing demand for service-based consumption of IT resources triggered a broad move within the system vendor community to introduce a variety of offerings to fulfil this demand
“With dedicated cloud as-a-service solutions, enterprises have an opportunity to bring all of what they like about public cloud to their own premises while mitigating restrictions and concerns they have with moving infrastructure off-premises,” she said.
AI finds plethora of use-cases, which are expected to rise further going forward.
Artificial intelligence (AI) startups are grabbing the attention of investors worldwide as they are ushering in a new era of technology-driven by innovations.
Data and analytics company – GlobalData – has identified the top 50 AI startups that are set to create massive technological disruption and have the potential to become unicorns (valuation of more than $1 billion).
GlobalData’s Unicorn Prediction model is based on a proprietary quant-based Startup Scorecard tool combined with a machine learning (ML) model.
A predictive analytics feature is used based on the analysis of millions of data points related to venture capital (VC) investment activity for startups. It identifies at the earliest possible, whether a VC-funded company has the potential to become a unicorn.
“AI is more accessible than ever before and the possibilities for its use in any industry are endless. Several investors are keen to place the bets and understand how top AI startups are disrupting industries and in the process achieving unicorn status,” Apoorva Bajaj, Practice Head of Financial Markets at GlobalData, said.
Right from automating tasks to supporting financial institutions in fraud prevention to providing a new generation of medical and biotech solutions, startups across industries are riding the tailwinds of AI. Startups are ensuring that they get their investor’s monies worth by using AI to address specific problems.
Synthego, Rokid Corporation, Conversica and Lucidworks are few startups worth mentioning from GlobalData’s list of future unicorns.
Synthego, a US-based genome engineering company, is leveraging machine learning and gene editing to build a first-of-its-kind Eclipse platform enabling scalable CRISPR-based cell engineering.
Carving a niche
Eclipse platform is driving the company’s growing impact in biopharma R&D, strengthening Synthego’s position as the genome engineering leader.
Rokid is a technology enterprise that focuses on robotics research and product development by employing AI with augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR).
The startup is investing big in human-computer interaction technology and developing AI software and hardware. It has carved itself a niche in voice-controlled devices that allow it to compete with Chinese tech giants like Alibaba, Tencent and Xiaomi.
Conversica provides AI assistants, which automatically contact, engage, and follow up with customers to provide leads through multi-channel, natural, and two-way conversations.
Through extending post-purchase transactions, the AI Customer Success Assistant is anticipated to support the automation of the company’s existing AI sales and marketing virtual assistants.
Lucidworks enables e-commerce businesses to make data-driven business decisions using AI. One of its products, Predictive Merchandiser, gives retailers AI-powered insights and recommendations for optimising search results and product placement on their e-commerce websites.
“Investing early in high performing startups usually implies more equity, control, and multiple times return on investment. Without a doubt, AI finds a plethora of use-cases, which are expected to rise further going forward,” Bajaj said.
Companies most suited to 6E will be those looking to expand into high-definition video VR/AR technologies, as well as those planning a refresh of their 802.11n standard.
It’s not a ‘one fits all’ approach. The needs and requirements of the business will determine the best route forward.
The 6GHz band can extend product refresh cycles from 5-6 years to 8-10, meaning upgrades last for up to 50 per cent longer.
Despite the pandemic, the race towards WiFi 6E continues at pace, and with good reason.
As organisations increase their use of bandwidth-hungry video, speed up their transition to the cloud, and battle rocketing numbers of devices, the demand for WiFi connectivity continues to rise.
In fact, according to the WiFi Alliance, there are as many as 16.4 billion clients and IoT devices now in use.
The pandemic has undoubtedly been a catalyst for faster, more agile connectivity.
However, wireless networks were already strained before the events of the past 14 months; for years, WLAN has been under increased pressure due to the growing number of purely wireless devices demanding higher volumes of data.
Dobias van Ingen, Systems Engineers Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa and CTO at HPE Aruba.
The emergence of latency-critical applications such as virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR) only adds to this, meaning wireless networks are fast finding themselves vastly oversubscribed, throttling application performance, and negatively impacting user experience, productivity, and the pace of digital innovation as a result.
WiFi 6E is widely regarded as a solution for this, promising to make WiFi technology faster and more powerful than ever before. Subsequently, the WiFi Alliance expects it to generate an estimated revenue of $183 billion in the US alone by 2025, which is a region that’s already committed to embracing full 6GHz capabilities.
WiFi 6 vs. WiFi 6E
It’s worth remembering that WiFi 6E is an extension of WiFi 6 which means businesses don’t have to dive straight into this new networking advancement. There are a number of considerations and, like most things, it’s not a ‘one fits all’ approach; the needs and requirements of the business will determine the best route forwards.
First and foremost, it’s vital that organisations ensure their country has adopted 6GHz.
Some countries, such as Oman, Turkey, Qatar and Jordon are still in the consultation process and so businesses based in these locations would be wise to hold back on 6E investments until a decision has been made.
Assuming country adoption is in place (like in the case of UAE and Saudi for example), organisations should then consider areas such as what the new spectrum will be used for, where it’s needed, and what’s already in place.
Companies most suited to 6E will be those looking to expand into high-definition video VR/AR technologies, as well as those planning a refresh of their 802.11n standard.
In addition, organisations wanting to future-proof their business by protecting technology investments will also be viable candidates for 6E adoption. The new band can extend product refresh cycles from 5-6 years to 8-10, meaning upgrades last for up to 50 per cent longer.
It’s also important to note that 6GHz is only currently viable indoors, so companies that require outdoor connectivity won’t benefit from it at this stage.
These companies, alongside organisations based in locations that have already announced they won’t be adopting the new 6GHz band, such as those in China, should stick to WiFi 6 for the time being.
What about 5G?
The old argument about whether WiFi is still necessary in a 5G world continues to rumble, but with little foundation. The truth is that 5G and WiFi are very different, but complementary, technologies.
The same applies to 5G and WiFi 6E; together, they provide increased speeds, higher capacity and lower latency.
Businesses don’t need to (and shouldn’t) take a ‘one or the other’ approach. WiFi is a critical part of the cellular equation since approximately 60 per cent of cellular traffic is offloaded to WiFi and that number is only increasing.
WiFi is also cheaper to deploy, maintain, and scale; without the ability to offload traffic to WiFi, 4G and 5G networks would become considerably more expensive. In addition, mobile operators would need to invest more into network densification in order to increase network capacity.
It makes sense, therefore, for the two technologies to work in tandem to ensure a robust user experience.
Conclusion
The benefits of WiFi 6E are clear and, alongside other important networking advancements, it is set to enable businesses to become more connected than ever before. It’s time for businesses to wave goodbye to sluggish connections and poor user experiences and replace them with powerful, high-speed networks.
However, it’s critical that they make the right choice for them. As outlined in this article, not every company is immediately suited to WiFi 6E and an incorrect investment could be a costly mistake at a time when every pound counts.
Instead, businesses should spend time assessing their business needs both now, and in the future, to ensure they embark along the right path for their own digital transformation.
For those utilising AR/VR and wishing to take advantage of next-generation devices, WiFi 6E will be an obvious choice.
Dobias van Ingen is the Systems Engineers Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa and Chief Technology Officer at HPE Aruba.
Video conferencing platform is strengthening its mobile conferencing platform as it faces stiff competition from Apple as FaceTime is enabled for use across various platforms.
Listings around Zoom Phone increase by 92% in the first quarter of this year compared to the fourth quarter of last year.
GlobalData’s Job Analytics platform shows job postings increased from 612 jobs in the fourth quarter of last year to 747 in the first quarter of this year.
The company is strengthening its presence in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region by developing a partner strategy based on country.
Zoom Video Communications is hiring as the company is increasing focus on Zoom Phone, its cloud phone system, even as hybrid work takes precedence.
GlobalData’s Job Analytics platform shows job postings increased from 612 jobs in the fourth quarter of last year to 747 in the first quarter of this year.
However, listings around Zoom Phone increased by 92 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared to the fourth quarter of last year.
The company listed over 100 related jobs in 2021 alone, and in May 2021 launched a new product category, Zoom Phone Appliance, to strengthen its mobile conferencing platform.
“One of the significant aspects of the increasing hires for Zoom Phone is because several companies continue to operate under the remote or hybrid work model. The company listed multiple jobs for sales engineers, product managers and phone specialists,” Ajay Thalluri, Business Fundamentals Analyst at GlobalData, said.
For instance, its ‘Sales Engineer – Zoom Phone (Healthcare)’ role is designed to take care of healthcare customers. Its ‘Sales Engineer – Zoom Phone (Education)’ role is to provide support and service for education communication environments. The company is also offering professional services through its ‘Zoom Phone, Professional Services Consultant – Zoom Phone’ role.
Additionally, the company is also planning retention strategies and to grow into newer markets through its ‘Director, Customer Success – Retention & Renewals’ role, which focuses on customer retention, while negotiating contracts renewals.
More hiring to come soon
The company listed jobs to focus on specific geographies such as the European region where it is managing memberships in EU-based trade associations, and this can be seen with its ‘Government Relations Director – European Union’ role.
The company is hiring ‘Renewals Managers’ across regions, including the US, Netherlands, LATAM, Japan, and India, to retain and engage with customers who may be at the risk of cancelling their contract and is also strengthening its presence in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region by developing a partner strategy based on country.
It has posted over 120 jobs since January 2021, mostly in India, Japan and Australia. The company looks to coordinate with APAC governments to prepare regulatory requirements around Zoom user data as evidenced by its ‘Senior Counsel, Compliance & Trust and Safety’ APAC role.
Thalluri said that Zoom is facing new competition with companies such as Apple enabling FaceTime for use across various platforms.
“Zoom Phone could see more hires to help the company continue with its growth strategy. The company added over 500,000 new seats between December 2020 and May 2021, while it took over two years to cross one million seats, according to its first-quarter earnings call,” he said.
The collaboration to contribute to maintaining a more secure and resilient Domain Name System (DNS) at both the regional and global levels.
Both organisations to organise UA training and capacity-building events for relevant stakeholders in the Arab states.
Arabic-speaking internet users will be able to navigate and communicate on the internet using a chosen domain name and email address that best aligns with their interests, business, culture, language, and script.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Arab Information and Communication Technologies Organisation (AICTO) to support the use of Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) and to promote Universal Acceptance (UA) in the Middle East.
IDNs enable people around the world to use domain names and email addresses in local languages and scripts, including those in Arabic (e.g., تونس بريد@مثال.موقع، .).
Universal Acceptance is key to supporting this use by ensuring that all domain names and email addresses – regardless of the script, language, or character length – are accepted equally by all Internet-enabled applications, devices, and systems. This includes supporting all IDN country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), as well as new and long generic top-level domains (gTLDs).
When UA is achieved, Arabic-speaking internet users will be able to navigate and communicate on the internet using a chosen domain name and email address that best aligns with their interests, business, culture, language, and script. It also has important economic and social benefits by increasing an end user’s ability to access and connect to e-commerce, local communities, and public services.
Together, the collaboration will contribute to maintaining a more secure and resilient Domain Name System (DNS) at both the regional and global levels.
Filling the gap
Mohamed Ben Amor, General Manager of AICTO, said that the use of Arabic language top-level domain names remains below the potential of the regional market and its ambitions.
“The recognition of the Arabic language by major email platforms also remains low in comparison with what is done with other main languages in the world. This shows what we call ‘digital linguistic divide or gap’,” he said.
Moreover, with the contribution and the expertise of ICANN, he said that AICTO will be able to mobilise all the necessary resources at the regional scale to reposition the Arabic language at its true value and so to fill this gap.
“This effort will certainly have positive economic impacts on the regional ecosystem.”
Improving trust and confidence
Göran Marby, President and CEO of ICANN, the internet can be local and global at the same time.
“This is a great opportunity for ICANN and AICTO to work together to help the Arabic speaking communities access the internet in their local languages and scripts. It is an equally important opportunity for us to collaborate with AICTO to further improve the trust and confidence on the internet at the regional level.”
Some of the joint activities that will be explored under the MoU, include organising UA training and capacity-building events for relevant stakeholders in the Arab states.
