​​💰 Google Hit With Another Antitrust Fine in Europe

The European Commission announced yet another #antitrust fine against #Google today, imposing a €1.49 billion ($1.69b) penalty for unfairly shielding its AdSense advertising platform from competition. "Today the Commission has fined Google €1.49 billion for illegal misuse of its dominant position in the market for the brokering of online search adverts. Google has cemented its dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites", commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in an official statement.

The European Commission’s latest ruling against Google is by no means the first time that the EU’s watchdog has taken action against an American tech company. In fact, Google itself got a taste of EU antitrust regulation as recently as last year. In July 2018, the European Commission hit Google with a record-breaking €4.3 billion fine for allegations related to #Android after having fined the company €2.4 billion ($2.7b) for anticompetitive behavior related to Google Shopping in July 2017.

As the following chart illustrates, other tech giants have felt the wrath of the European Commission as well. #Microsoft alone has been fined four times over the past two decades including three times for allegedly ignoring previous antitrust sanctions and for breaking promises made in an earlier antitrust settlement. The EU’s competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, has made U.S. tech companies a central focus, cracking down on anticompetitive behavior, tax avoidance and mishandling of user privacy.

🚀 @PerspectiveIX via Statista.

📊 Top Countries for Shopping Apps by Growth in Q4 2018
Google Play

The top countries for #Android shopping apps by growth from 4Q17 to 4Q18 were:
1. India🇮🇳
2. Indonesia🇮🇩
3. Philippines🇵🇭
4. Vietnam🇻🇳
5. Turkey🇹🇷

For Google Play, the top countries for shopping apps by Y/Y growth were India, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Turkey. In India, Google Play shopping app installs grew by about 56 million, increasing 40 percent Y/Y. This dwarfed the growth in other countries. Indonesia had the second-largest Y/Y increase in installs at 8.3 million, or 29 percent more than in 4Q17. As on the App Store, Vietnam was also one of the top countries by growth on Google Play. Downloads increased by 4.1 million Y/Y to 12.7 million, making it the 10th largest market for shopping app installs during the quarter.

🚀 @PerspectiveIX via SensorTower.

📱 Top Grossing Google Play Categories in Q1 2019

There are some stark contrasts here with the top iOS grossing categories in Q1 2019. We're all just humans with #smartphones, and yet, how #iOS users and #Android users spend their money on mobile varies so drastically.

Business apps are getting a lot more spend from Android users. Entertainment is still a power category, but definitely less so in North America and Latin America. The most significant drop-off is spending on Social apps. The category is completely gone from the top 10 Google Play picture. Like Social, the Lifestyle category is gone from the top list altogether.

🚀 @PerspectiveIX via Apptopia.

📱 Top Grossing iOS Categories in Q1 2019

Entertainment apps are where consumers are easily convinced to spend their hard earned money. Apps like #Netflix, #Hulu, OZEE, Hotstar provide us entertainment when we're bored or traveling. That this category sits up top is likely not surprising.

#iOS #Android #Smartphone

🚀 @PerspectiveIX via Apptopia.

❗️☠️❗️ If you're using WhatsApp, update it right now!

A vulnerability discovered in #WhatsApp is being exploited to inject commercial spyware onto #Android and #iOS phones by simply calling the target - even if you don't pick up.

Once installed, the spyware can turn on a phone’s camera and mic, scan emails and messages, and collect the user’s location data. WhatsApp is urging its 1.5 billion global users to update the app immediately to close the security hole.

The vulnerability exists in the following versions of WhatsApp:
- WhatsApp for Android prior to v2.19.134
- WhatsApp Business for Android prior to v2.19.44
- WhatsApp for iOS prior to v2.19.51
- WhatsApp Business for iOS prior to v2.19.51
- WhatsApp for Windows Phone prior to v2.18.348
- WhatsApp for Tizen prior to v2.18.15

Read more: https://t.me/iXNews/51645

🚀 @PerspectiveIX via 🗞 @iXNews

📱 For App Makers: Apple's App Store vs Google Play

Despite the fact that the installed base of #Android devices is significantly larger than it is for #iOS devices, app publishers still seem to find larger earnings potential on #Apple’s #AppStore compared to #GooglePlay.

According to Sensor Tower’s estimates, the top 100 iOS app publishers made $84 million on average in Q1 2019, compared to $51 million for the most successful Android app makers. The difference between the two platforms is even more pronounced when excluding games publishers. The highest-grossing non-gaming app publishers for iOS outperformed the top 100 on Google’s Play Store by 232 percent.

🚀 @PerspectiveIX via Statista.

👻 Snapchat’s Audience Jumps

Data published in #Snapchat’s self-serve tools show that the platform’s advertising audience jumped by a massive 19% in the past three months, reaching a total of 369 million users by July 2019. That translates to an increase of almost 60 million users since April, with growth rates consistent across all age groups.

It’s not just Snapchat’s data that shows the platform is growing, either. According to App Annie, Snapchat saw a surge in downloads with the release of new #AR filters and its new, faster #Android mobile app, over the past three months.

🔗 Read more on DataReportal.
🦅 @PerspectiveIX

❓ Do you use Snapchat? (add me if you are: perspectiveix)

📱 Weekly Time Spent in Apps Grows 20% Year Over Year

and consumers spent record $23.4 billion on apps in Q1 2020, thanks to being stuck indoors! That’s the largest-ever quarter, according to AppAnnie.

#iOS accounted for $15 billion of that figure and #Android was $8.3 billion. Both of these figures were an increase of 5% year-over-year on their respective platforms.

#AppStore #GooglePlay

🦅 @PerspectiveIX via AppAnnie.

Tech, Media, and Business News Headlines — Day 5


👉 #Apple will host a virtual #WWDC this year — starts on 22 June (link)


👉 #Twitter tests a warning message that tells users to rethink offensive replies (link)
👉 #Twitter rolls out changes to threaded conversations following tests in its prototype app, #twttr (link)

👉 #Airbnb cuts 1,900 jobs, around 25% of its global workforce (link)


👉 #Bitcoin is set for ‘Halving’ this month (link)


👉 Leaked videos show #Lenovo’s first gaming #smartphone (link)

👉 #Android 11’s public beta to launch with 3 June via live stream (link)
👉 #Google’s #Stadia controller will finally work wirelessly with computers starting this week (link)


👉 #Microsoft launches #SurfaceBook 3 (link) and #SurfaceHeadphones 2 (link)
👉 #Microsoft offers $100,000 to hack its custom Linux OS (link)


👉 #Uber lays off 14% of its workforce in COVID-19-related cost-cutting (link)


👉 #Pinterest Q1: revenue of $272M, vs. $270M est., up 35% YoY; user base grew to 367M MAUs, up 26% YoY (link)


👉 #EA Q4: revenues of $1.39B, beating expectations of $1.19B, up 12% YoY (link)


#️⃣ #EarningsCalls

📰 @iXDaily by @PerspectiveIX
💌 Weekly Newsletter.

👀 Telegram Video Calls

"Video calls are available on #Telegram beta v7.0 for #iOS without having to activate them from the debug menu. There is no trace of the feature on #Android, not even in beta."

🦅 @perspectiveix via Alessandro Paluzzi.

👋 Clubhouse is Finally on Android

#Clubhouse, the hottest app of the past few months, is now available for #Android users to download.

It's still invite-only. If you need an invite, use this link: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/join/perspective-ix/4kG1LHyy/xlNlzlvz

👉 Join up & let's connect.

🦅 @perspectiveix