📈 Microsoft's Share Price Tripled Under Satya Nadella

Five years ago, Satya Nadella took over as CEO at #Microsoft, following in the footsteps of Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. It wasn’t an easy situation to come in for Nadella, considering that Microsoft had missed the transition to mobile devices, Windows 8 had flopped miserably and the PC market had started its decline, putting Microsoft’s core business, Windows, into question.

Back in 2014, most people given the choice to invest $1,000 in either Microsoft or #Apple, probably would have invested in the latter, considering the huge success that Microsoft’s old foe was having with its mobile devices, most importantly the iPhone. And yet, here we are, five years into Nadella’s tenure and Microsoft is not only the most valuable public company on the planet, it has also outperformed Apple over the past five years.

🚀 @PerspectiveIX via Statista.

​​💰 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.

🤯 Tech Companies’ Market Capitalisation Over the Last 23 Years

Fascinating to see how quickly growing companies in tech have been able to join the top.
Keep an on on #Apple #Microsoft #Amazon #Google #Facebook and #Netflix...

🚀 @PerspectiveIX via Lionel Page.

🤝 Microsoft might be doing to Slack what Facebook did to Snapchat

Techie's favorite communications tool, Slack, is losing ground to its biggest rival, Microsoft Teams, which has copied its way into popularity. In other words, Slack has the same problem as Snapchat, which has suffered from its bigger rival Facebook’s relentless appropriation.

Currently, over 13 million people use #Microsoft’s Teams app for chat, meetings and document collaboration every day, compared to #Slack's 10+ million daily users in the three months that ended on January 31.

Microsoft, at one point, had even considered buying Slack. Instead, nearly four years after Slack’s debut, Microsoft launched Teams, which has since adopted many of its competitor’s functions, including the basic premise of creating an online office space for coworkers to collaborate and communicate.

❗️ Apparently, Microsoft Teams isn’t better than Slack, but it is freer and was tolerable as a Slack alternative!

🔗 Read more on Recode & CNBC.
🚀 @PerspectiveIX

🔍 Google: The Most Popular Search on Bing

Poor #Bing. The beleaguered search engine with dreams of world domination never really had a chance against its all-conquering competitor, #Google. Adding insult to injury, analysis by SEO experts Ahrefs has revealed that in 2019, the search Bing is most often tasked with is pointing its disloyal users in the direction of 'google'.

As of July, the search engine dealt with 44.4 million such queries from around the world, far more than the second most frequent - 'youtube' was searched for 33.3 million times. In another blow for Bing's owner #Microsoft, the fifth most common search was people looking for help with Windows 10.

🦅 @PerspectiveIX via Statista.
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​​💻 A Quarter of Computers Still Run on Windows 7

On Tuesday, #Microsoft officially ended an era when updates and support for #Windows 7 were discontinued.
Although the operating system will continue to be available, the company stopped offering technical support, software and security updates and fixes. Microsoft recommends replacing Windows 7 with Windows 10 because the lack of security updates makes systems more vulnerable to viruses and cyber-attacks.
According to data from analytics website Net Market Share, Windows 7 is still used on 26.6% of the world’s computers. This means many users now have to either look for other options or deal with the negative consequences of using the outdated software.
Windows 7 has been available since 2010. Windows 10 followed in 2015. While there are obviously many upsides to using a more recent operating system, some users have deliberately hung on to Windows 7 citing problems with compatibility of third-party programs or older hardware, that is slowing down resources-heavy Windows 10.

🦅 @PerspectiveIX
📖 via Statista.

❓ What OS do you currently use on your computer?

📊 How Tech Companies Impact Society
The Verge Tech Survey 2020

Americans believe that #Google, #Amazon, #Apple, #Microsoft, #Netflix, and #YouTube have an overall positive effect on society. They’re more likely to think that #Twitter, #Slack, #Instagram, and #Facebook have an overall negative effect.

𝕭𝖊𝖓
🦅 @PerspectiveIX via the Verge.

​​🤳 Video Chat Apps Rise to Prominence Amid Pandemic

As a significant part of the world population is currently on lockdown in an attempt to contain the #coronavirus pandemic, people are turning to technology to work, communicate and stay in touch with their loved ones.

Unsurprisingly, workplace communication tools such as #Slack and #MicrosoftTeams have seen a jump in usage as working from home has become the new norm in recent weeks. People are also making use of similar tools in their personal lives, however, leading to a spike in downloads of #VideoChat apps.

According to Priori Data, global downloads of #Skype, #Houseparty and #Zoom each surged by more than 100% in March, with the latter proving particularly popular among people meeting up virtually while being confined to their homes. The videoconferencing app was downloaded nearly 27 million times this month, up from just 2.1 million times in January.

While Zoom is definitely the rising star among video chat apps, Skype remains far ahead in terms of active users. According to Priori Data, the #Microsoft-owned service had 59 million daily active users on its iOS and Android apps in March, compared to just 4.3 million for Zoom. It needs to be noted though, that many people also use Skype for other ways of communication, while Zoom has specialized on video conferences, so it may not be a fair comparison to make.

🦅 @PerspectiveIX via Statista.

Tech, Media, and Business News Headlines — Day 4


👉 #Amazon VP resigns after nearly six years, criticising the company on his blog for firing protesting workers (link)


👉 #Microsoft says there's been a 75% YoY jump in time spent in #Windows 10, and Windows 10X (link)


👉 #GoogleMeet shows up in #Gmail inboxes — a little too late (link)


👉 #India’s Glance tops 100 million daily active users in 21 months (link)


👉 #Amazon is launching Crucible: a free-to-play multiplayer game on May 20th (link)



📰 @iXDaily by @PerspectiveIX
💌 Weekly Newsletter.

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.

​​🔝 World’s 10 Most Valuable Brands in 2020

For the eighth year running, #Apple is at the top of the list of most valuable brands in the world, keeping its lead over top companies like #Amazon, #Microsoft and #Google, according to Interbrand’s latest annual rankings. Although there has been some shifting around in positions, all of the brands in the top 10 last year remained there this year.

Of the 43% of brands that benefited from a lift in value this year, #Amazon (60%) and #Microsoft (53%) were the fastest risers. #Spotify also had a significant increase, up 52% to $8.4 billion (#70).

Other fast-risers this year include:
- #Netflix: +41% to $12.7 billion (#41);
- #Adobe: +41% to $18.2 billion (#27);
- #PayPal: +38% to $10.5 billion (#60);
- #Apple: +38% to $323 billion (#1); and
- #Salesforce: +34% to $10.8 billion (#58).

This year, five brands dropped off the top 100 list, making room for five new entrants. One of those new entrants is #Instagram, which makes its debut to the list at #19 with a brand value of $26.1 billion. #YouTube (#30) joins Instagram on the list of new entrants with a brand value of $17.3 billion. Both of these brands are also favorites among social media marketers.

The remaining three new entrants are:

- #Tesla (#40; $12.8 billion);
- #JohnnieWalker (#98; $4.6 billion); and
- #Zoom (#100; $4.5 billion)

Download the full report here.
🦅 @perspectiveix

💰 #Microsoft overtakes #Apple to become the world’s most valuable company.

🦅 @iXDaily x @perspectiveix