Monthly Archives: May 2020

FILE PHOTO: A Microsoft logo is seen next to a cloud in Los Angeles, California, U.S. on June 14, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo

MILAN (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said on Friday it would create its first datacentre region in Italy under a $1.5 billion investment plan as the U.S. company expands its cloud computing services to more locations across the world.

Microsofts rival Amazon Web Services last week opened a datacentre region in Milan, while in March Googles Inc sealed a partnership with former phone monopoly Telecom Italia to expand cloud business operations in Italy.

Analysts expect the Italian cloud market to grow at a double digit pace in the next few years as companies, which have embraced smartworking during the coronavirus crisis, will increasingly rely on digital processes for their business.

Jean-Philippe Courtois, Microsofts head of global sales, marketing and operations, said the company saw enormous potential to accelerate innovation through cloud services.

The new datacentre region will be based in the Milan area, joining Microsofts other 60 regions announced globally.

In February, Microsoft announced plans to open a new datacentre region in Spain and earlier this week the company said it would invest $1 billion in Poland as part of plans to open a data centre to provide cloud services to businesses and institutions.

Also in Italy, Microsoft, under a five-year plan, will provide access to local cloud services and launch digital skilling and smart-working and artificial intelligence programs for small and medium enterprises.

The company will also expand its technology partnership with state-controlled postal operator Poste Italiane, helping the company to accelerate its digital transformation.

Reporting by Elvira Pollina. Editing by Jane Merriman

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Microsoft to invest $1.5 billion in Italian cloud business - Reuters

Twitter has added a new way to see how many people have retweeted a tweet and added a comment, the company announced today but its only available on the iOS version of the app.

The new feature organizes all of the retweets with comments into a handy list. To access it, tap on a tweet and then tap on the word Retweets. Youll see retweets broken out into two columns ones commenting on the retweet (or a quote tweet) and a list of retweets with no comment.

Heres a video from Twitter showing off the feature:

You can already see quote tweets, but you have to copy and paste a tweets URL into Twitters search box to do so. (Heres what that looks like when searching for the above embedded tweet, for example.) The feature rolled out today seems to be a much easier way to see retweets with comments in one spot.

The feature doesnt appear to be available for me just yet, but Twitter tells The Verge that most iOS users should see the update today. Twitter also tells The Verge it will be coming to the web app and Android in the coming weeks.

Read more here:

Twitter will now make it easier to see quote tweets on iOS - The Verge

The global coronavirus pandemic has forced many industries to adopt work-from-home operating models, but could this continue when social distancing rules are eased?

Social media giant Twitter believes so, and has taken the extraordinary step of allowing staff to work from home indefnitiely, if they decide they do not want to return to the office.

There have been several unexpected working patterns emerging in the communications industry, including anecdotal evidence of teams bonding more closely since lockdown began.

But is there an appetite for agencies to go down down the path of working from home indfinitely, which is how only a small handful of agencies, including The PR Network, currently operate.

PRWeek ran a Twitter poll (below) to get feedback on the idea. 60 per cent said 'yes', but strong reasons why it might not work include 'how do younger PR pros gain experience and simply that comms is an industry that 'needs' face to face.

Matt Cartmell, whose agency Carta Communications is running a survey on PR industry attitudes to returning to work, told PRWeek: "From conversations with contacts, my anecdotal sense is that few in the industry expect to be blowing the dust off their screens until October.

"Even then, it wouldn't be surprising if many in particular smaller agencies remain in virtual, remote-working mode indefinitely. But, for the sake of their employer brand, internal culture and client proposition, they would be wise to pick a side rather than stay in limbo."

This period of social distancing and lockdown is likely to make several agency leaders pause and redesign how their businesses operate, and it is likely that remote working could become more common and certaily more socially acceptable.

However, a lack of on-the-job interaction, guidance and the social benefits of working in an office environment are likely to prevent any radical shifts towards working from home indefinitely.

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WFH 'forever' could the PR industry follow Twitter's lead? - PRWeek

TOPLINE

Jeff Bezos wealth suddenly caught the Twitter's attention on Wednesday amid claims that the worlds richest man is set to become a trillionaire, in part thanks to pandemic-driven demand that has sent Amazon stock soaring.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $143 billion

Bezos was trending on Twitter on Wednesday after a months-old study by small business advice platform, Comparisun, resurfaced, claiming that Bezos net worth could reach $1 trillion by 2026.

The company analyzed the market cap of the highest valued firms on the New York Stock Exchange, as well as Forbes 25 richest people. Chinese real estate billionaire Xu Jiayin is second on the studys list.

But Bezos has a long way to go to become the worlds first trillionaire. At the time of publication, Forbes values the 56-year-olds net worth to be $143 billion. He owns a 11.2% stake in Amazon, and his wealth has surged upwards from around $125 billion in March.

Amazon is predicted to be one of the winners of the pandemic as demand for online shopping, streaming and delivery services flies.

Sales in the first three months of the year topped $75 billion, up from $60 billion in 2019. The potential for a second wave of the virus and further lockdowns could keep that demand high.

Bezos joined Forbes list of 400 richest Americans in 1998, four years after he founded Amazon, and had a net worth of $1.6 billion at the time.

Amazon AMZN shares are up more than 28% so far this year. But the company is now up against the hardest time it has ever faced, Bezos said in April. The company predicted operating profits of $4 billion in the three months to June, but is now committing that entire amount to COVID-related expenses such as higher wages for hourly teams, buying up personal protective equipment for staff, and developing coronavirus testing facilities.

The company has been under fire from former employeesboth office staff and warehouse workersfor allegedly silencing them after they spoke out about a lack of protection against the virus. Amazon has let go a number of employees, claiming that they breached company policy.

In February, Bezos pocketed $3.1 billion after selling $4 billion worth of Amazon shares since January.

Jeff Bezos Gets $6.4 Billion Richer As Amazon Stock Hits A New Record High (Forbes)

Jeff Bezos Has Now Sold Over $4 Billion Worth Of Amazon Shares In The Past Week (Forbes)

Amazon Worker Who Was Fired After Coronavirus Walkout Says He Is Being Silenced (Forbes)

Jeff Bezos Announces $100 Million Gift To Nonprofit Feeding America (Forbes)

Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus

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Jeff Bezos Trillionaire Is Trending On Twitter. Heres Why - Forbes

The worlds richest man will be even richer in a few years the first trillionaire and a global pandemic may only be speeding up that process.

Jeff Bezoss name was trending on Twitter as an admittedly dated study made the rounds that projected the future wealth of the Amazon.com CEO.

Amazon.coms AMZN, +0.88% sales topped $75 billion in the first quarter, driven by demand during the pandemic that has kept people at home and depending on at-home delivery services of everything from food to exercise equipment.

According to Bloombergs Billionaires Index, the net worth of Bezos has risen from $125 billion on April 12 to $143 billion on May 5, though that hasnt been a straight line higher as the below chart shows.

He also had to relinquish much of his wealth to his wife from a divorce proceeding last July.

Shares of Amazon are up about 28% year to date, though the road ahead could be a bit rocky ahead as the company has pledged to spend $4 billion or more to develop testing capabilities for all of its employees for COVID-19, enhanced cleaning of its facilities, and higher wages for hourly teams. Extra spending to cope with the pandemic may wipe out the companys second-quarter profit.

Read:Amazon executive says he quit to protest firings of workers who spoke out

But Amazon will likely remain a favorite among investors as the potential for a second wave of the virus and more lockdowns, cant be ruled out. And thats not bad news at all for Bezos.

According to a survey making the rounds Comparisun, a content and comparison platform for small and medium-sized businesses, Bezos could reach status as the worlds first trillionaire by 2026. Well, that was the survey from 2019. Updated data sent to MarketWatch by the company shows that Bezos will have to wait until 2030, and 66 years old, to reach trillionaire status.

Heres last years chart of the worlds richest people and how close they are to the trillion-dollar wealth circle.

Explaining their methodology, Comparisun said it analyzed market capitalization of the 25 highest valued companies on the New York Stock Exchange according to Macrotrends, and the net worth of the worlds 25 wealthiest people, according to Forbes, in both cases taking the last five years of data (as of September 16th, 2019).

They then calculated average yearly percentage growth over the last five years, applying that growth rate for future years to come up with an idea of how that value would change.

Talk of Bezos impending trillionaire status was making the rounds on Twitter on Thursday, and lets just say there was plenty of ire, as well an element of respect:

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What pandemic? Amazons Jeff Bezos is a prime candidate for becoming the worlds first trillionaire - MarketWatch

Twitter has appointed Stanford professor and former Google vice president Fei-Fei Li to its board as an independent director.

The social media platform said that Li's expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) will bring relevant perspectives to the board. Li's appointment may also help Twitter to attract top AI talent from other companies in Silicon Valley.

Li left her role as chief scientist of AI/ML (artificial intelligence/machine learning) at Google Cloud in October 2018 after being criticized for comments she made in relation to the controversial Project Maven initiative with the Pentagon, which saw Google AI used to identify drone targets from blurry drone video footage.

When details of the project emerged, Google employees objected, saying that they didn't want their AI technology used in military drones. Some quit in protest and around 4,000 staff signed a petition that called for "a clear policy stating that neither Google nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology."

While Li wasn't directly involved in the project, a leaked email suggested she was more concerned about what the public would make of Google's involvement in the project as opposed to the ethics of the project itself.

"This is red meat to the media to find all ways to damage Google," she wrote, according to a copy of the emailobtained by the Intercept. "You probably heardElon Muskand his comment about AI causing WW3."

"I don't know what would happen if the media starts picking up a theme that Google is secretly building AI weapons or AI technologies to enable weapons for the Defense industry. Google Cloud has been building our theme on Democratizing AI in 2017, and Diane (Greene, head of Google Cloud) and I have been talking about Humanistic AI for enterprise. I'd be super careful to protect these very positive images."

Up until that point, Li was seen very much as a rising star at Google. In the one year and 10 months she was there, she oversaw basic science AI research, all of Google Cloud's AI/ML products and engineering efforts, and a newGoogle AI lab in China.

While at Google she maintained strong links to Stanford and in March 2019 she launched the Stanford University Human-Centered AI Institute (HAI), which aims to advance AI research, education, policy and practice to benefit humanity.

"With unparalleled expertise in engineering, computer science and AI, Fei-Fei brings relevant perspectives to the board as Twitter continues to utilize technology to improve our service and achieve our long-term objectives," said Omid Kordestani, executive chairman of Twitter.

Twitter has been relatively slow off the mark in the AI race. Itacquired British start-up Magic Pony Technologies in 2016 for up to $150 million as part of an effort to beef up its AI credentials, but its AI efforts remain fairly small compared to other firms. It doesn't have the same reputation as companies like Google and Facebook when it comes to AI and machine-learning breakthroughs.

Today the company uses an AI technique called deep learning to recommend tweets to its users and it also uses AI to identify racist content and hate speech, or content from extremist groups.

Competition for AI talent is fierce in Silicon Valley and Twitter will no doubt be hoping that Li can bring in some big names in the AI world given she is one of the most respected AI leaders in the industry.

"Twitter is an incredible example of how technology can connect the world in powerful ways and I am honored to join the board at such an important time in the company's history," said Li.

"AI and machine learning can have an enormous impact on technology and the people who use it. I look forward to leveraging my experience for Twitter as it harnesses this technology to benefit everyone who uses the service."

Read more here:

Twitter adds former Google VP and A.I. guru Fei-Fei Li to board as it seeks to play catch up with Google and Facebook - CNBC

UPDATE: President Donald Trump has been on a tear the past 48 hours more than 100 tweets or retweets on Sunday, 25 and counting on Monday.

That has included heavily promoting the word Obamagate, coming in the aftermath of Yahoos storythat former President Barack Obama, in a private call with his administrations alums, called Trumps response to the coronavirus an absolute chaotic disaster. Obama also said that with the Justice Department decision to drop the Michael Flynn case, our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk.

On Sunday, Trump retweeted a comment that included the hashtag Obamagate, and then followed up the reference with eight other uses of the term, so far. Its rooted in the conspiracy theory that the former president engaged in a surreptitious effort to take down his successor.

Asked at a press briefing on Monday what crime his predecessor committed, Trump said, You know what the crime is. The crime is very obvious to everybody.

One of Flynns lawyers appeared on Fox News on Sunday and claimed that Flynns downfall was a set up orchestrated by Obama and other top members of his administration. But she did not provide evidence for the claim. In their motion to dismiss the Flynn case, the Justice Department did provide documents that showed that following a Jan. 5, 2017 briefing, Obama disclosed that he was aware of the phone conversation that Flynn had with the Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, the previous month.

As has been repeatedly noted, it was then-FBI Director James Comey, a frequent Trump target, who announced in late October 2016 that the Hillary Clinton email investigation was being reopened, something that is often cited among the reasons she lost the election.

The Justice Departments recent decision to drop its case against Michael Flynn, Trumps former national security adviser, has given more fuel to the theories, including the revelation of FBI notes that have led to claims that the agency was trying to entrap him. But Flynn pled guilty to making false statements, and Trump said that he had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI.

Trump has been an expert at pushing out not just conspiracy theories, but one- and two- word labels against opponents, hoping that they stick, but the Obamagate tag is certainly not original. Ever since the real Watergate, its been the common practice to try to affix the term -gate to any major scandal, usually with little success.

Meanwhile, Joe Bidens supporters responded with a tag of their own, TrumpGate, along with links to ads bashing Trump over his administrations response to the coronavirus crisis. Bidens rapid response director, Andrew Bates, tweeted, And we wonder why his handling of the coronavirus outbreak has been an unfocused, botched disaster.

Ava Duverney was among those who picked up on the Obamagate-Trumpgate tags.

The bots are out with #Obamagate on the same weekend that we hear President Obama publicly call that clown a catastrophe, she wrote. If this is the tactic, yall need new tactics. Try free tests for all regardless of symptoms. Food for the hungry. Unemployment strategy. Nah? Just bots? Ok. She then tweeted out a Biden ad.

Read more here:

Donald Trumps Obamagate Binge On Twitter Is Countered By Biden Supporters With Trumpgate - Deadline

Twitter really wants a piece of the performance advertising pie.

On Tuesday, Twitter said it has acquired interactive mobile ad company CrossInstall. No deal price was disclosed. All of CrossInstalls 70 employees will be joining Twitter.

CrossInstall is a mobile-only DSP focused on user acquisition with its own home-grown bidder and proprietary creative offering, including playables and other interactive ad units. The company was founded in 2012 and never raised any outside funding.

Most of CrossInstalls clients are gaming companies, such as Machine Zone, Jam City, SGN and PuzzleSocial.

Performance advertising, courtesy of gaming in particular, has proven resilient during the coronavirus crisis. Facebook, Google and Snap were all buoyed by direct response dollars in the first quarter, while Twitters DR business faltered.

Twitter has been gunning for more performance ad dollars for the last couple of years with mixed success. It plans to tap into CrossInstalls expertise in performance advertising and user acquisition strategies to help accelerate our advertising product road map in 2020 and beyond, Bruce Falck, Twitter general manager of revenue product, tweeted Tuesday morning.

We also believe this acquisition will further increase MoPubs value to mobile app developers, another critical part of our business, he tweeted.

On the companys Q1 earnings call in late April, CFO Ned Segal noted that developing revenue products is Twitters No. 1 priority, including its mobile app promotion (MAP) product, which is currently being piloted by a handful of advertisers.

Twitter is also in the midst of rebuilding its ad server. The hope is that the ad server, combined with Twitters MAP and other DR-focused efforts will buoy MoPubs growth.

Together, well be working to expand Twitters reach into all areas of app install and performance advertising while increasing the value that MoPub offers to mobile app developers, CrossInstall wrote in a blog post about the acquisition.

For now, CrossInstall will operate as a stand-alone business owned and operated by Twitter, which will continue to service CrossInstalls current clients and partners.

CrossInstall has partnerships with Facebook, Snap, Google App Campaigns and other large ad networks to offer playable ad units. Twitter will evaluate how to handle those relationships as the integration process progresses.

Twitter did not say whether it would roll out interactive ad units using CrossInstalls technology.

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Twitter Acquires Mobile DSP CrossInstall On The Hunt For Mobile Performance Dollars - AdExchanger

Angela Lang/CNET

The best part about seeing a tweet catch fire is reading snarky responses from people who retweet the tweet and add their own jabs, otherwise known as a quote reply or a quote retweet. Unfortunately, Twitter doesn't offer any single-click solution that will take you straight to a page to see all of the quoted replies.

You can tag a bot like Quoted Replies in a reply to the original tweet, which will then generate a link, but that means you have to let everyone know you're lurking around a particular tweet. Not ideal. While there are other ways to get the job done, here's one of the easiest ways to search and find all of the quoted replies and retweets for a particular tweet.

1. Go to the original tweet, and look at the URL in your browser's address bar.

2. Copy that 19-digit string of numbers at the end of the tweet's URL.

If you're using Twitter for iPhone or Android, you can also click the share icon (the icon to the immediate right of the heart icon). When a list of options appears, tap Copy link to tweet.

3. Back on your Twitter Home screen, click the magnifying glass Search icon.

4. In the search bar, type url: then paste the string of numbers you copied in step 1.

If you're on Android or iPhone and you copied the link to the tweet, paste that link and delete everything except the 19-digit string of numbers at the end. Then type url: at the front of those numbers.

Tip: Sometimes, at the end of that 19-digit string of numbers, you'll see a question mark followed by more letters, numbers and symbols. Delete those too, or your search won't work like you want it to.

5. Now hit enter and -- bada-bing! -- you can browse all the snarky replies and hot takes your heart desires.

For more, check out how coronavirus is sparking new problems for social networks, and why a judge ruled against a Twitter transparency effort.

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See quoted replies and retweets on Twitter with this simple trick - CNET

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Some Twitter employees will never return to their office.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey emailed employees on Tuesday telling them that theyd be allowed to work from home permanently, even after the coronavirus pandemic lockdown passes. Some jobs that require physical presence, such as maintaining servers, will still require employees to come in.

We've been very thoughtful in how we've approached this from the time we were one of the first companies to move to a work-from-home model, a Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. We'll continue to be, and we'll continue to put the safety of our people and communities first.

Twitter encouraged its employees to start working from home in early March as the coronavirus began to spread across the US. Several other tech companies did the same, including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

That month, Twitter human resources head Jennifer Christie told BuzzFeed News the company would never probably be the same in the structure of its work. People who were reticent to work remotely will find that they really thrive that way, Christie said. Managers who didnt think they could manage teams that were remote will have a different perspective. I do think we wont go back.

Dorsey had announced the company's intent to work in a distributed way before the virus, but the pandemic forced the company to move the timeline up.

In his email, Dorsey said its unlikely Twitter would open its offices before September, and that business travel would be canceled until then as well, with very few exceptions. The company will also cancel all in-person events for the rest of the year, and reassess its plan for 2021 later this year. Finally, Twitter upped its allowance for work from home supplies to $1,000 for all employees.

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Twitter Will Allow Employees To Work At Home Forever - BuzzFeed News