Tumblr's ban on 'adult content'

After Tumblr was removed from Apple's app store, the social media platform announced to ban all adult content from the website, therefore the app was restored making it available once again to download. 

The decision has been upsetting and confusing for many users and have already started to look for alternatives such as Patreon and Pillowfort. In many cases, the adult content refers to nudity and erotica, with some exceptions for artistic and educational content. The company announced all the new rules and the appeal process for flagged content in their blog post. The first flagged content was taken down on Monday.

Tumblr is known for the users and their self expression. The blogging site welcomed many users to be part of the community such as the LGBTQ and sex-positive bloggers, artists and creators, those in need of support and many more.

Wil Wheaton has watched many communities grow on Tumblr having been a user for more than a decade.  

The thing that is so upsetting to me is that I see all of these people, most of them young people, who are trying to find a place where they can be themselves, where they can find people who are like themselves. And Tumblr is kind of taking that away by delisting and hiding these things 

Users will begin to see explicit posts to disappear from the website as the ban on adult content is now in effect. Media showing sex acts, exposed genitals and female presentation nipples will be kept out of sight. All explicit content is now being hidden from being viewed. In the coming weeks more adult content will be flagged. The social media blogger platform hope that the automated tools will be accurate at picked on what to flag.

Tumblr's Decline 

It has been evident over the years that Tumblr had been on the decline, having suffered from a lack of user growth, losing artists to other media sites such as instagram. Tumblr has been acquired many times and still consistently underperforms. Its latest parent company, Verizon stated that Oath Media, the media brand of which Tumblr is a part, is worthless and has cut 10% of Oath staff, which isn’t a great sign for the struggling media platform company.

Google Shopping launches in India

What is Google Shipping ?

Google is making it easier for hundreds and millions of people in India to shop on its new platform -'Google Shopping'. The internet giant has launched 'Google Shopping' in India, to make the online shopping experience better in the country,  in a bid to take advantage of the country's booming digital economy .

'Google Shopping' is an aggregator which means that the website will list deals from multiple e-commerce retailers such as Flipkart, Amazon, Shopclues, Club Factory, Snapdeal and many more. Google makes revenue from shopping through advertising costs for merchants where as the transactions and delivery of products will be handled by the merchant.

Google is therefore helping the user by acting as the connector of multiple online shops, their products and their prices, so that the online shopper can compare different merchants products more easily.

Where can you use Google Shopping ?

Google shopping allows users to find products, filter through offers and review prices across multiple retailers. The shopping experience has been launched on 3 platforms :

1. 'Shopping tab' on Google Search
2. Goggle lens App on mobile devices 
3. The brand new Shopping homepage.

Google said users will be able to search for items in both English and Hindi. 

The Vice President of Google's product management had a few words to say about the launch in his google blog post.

Surojit Chatterjee, Vice President – Product Management commented :

India has the second largest population of internet users in the world, and it’s only getting bigger. While 400 million Indians are online today, less than one out of three buy things online. On the business front, there are 58 million SMBs in India, of which 35 percent are engaged in retail trade. However, a very small number of them have an online presence - there clearly exists a huge opportunity for retailers to surface their merchandise to the millions of online consumers.

 He also added :

At Google, our mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful to everyone. That’s why today we are bringing a new and exciting shopping search experience to India

Due to the great boom in India's digital economy, Google did the right move at the right time. As Chatterjee explains in his google blog, over 400 million Indians are online today and 35 percent of these engage in retail trade and he also provides us with the facts.

The Market

Google is also dipping its toe into an industry currently dominated by Amazon (AMZN) and Walmart (WMT), which have both poured billions into India. Walmart subsidiary Flipkart controls an estimated 40% of India's e-commerce market, while Amazon accounts for about 32%. 

The market will be worth $200 billion by 2026 according to an estimate by Morgan Stanley

Microsoft overtake Apple as world most valuable company

Microsoft are focusing on what it does best and ditching the rest.

Microsoft were overtaken by Apple in 2010 and made it seem as the "end of an era" at the time. However Microsoft finally bounced back after their big bet on cloud computing payed off to became the world's most valuable company once again after surpassing Apple for the first time since 2010.

The number 1 spot was taken, after concern over lower iPhone sales sent Apple shares down and therefore a few billion dollars separated the margin between the 2 companies. 

How did they do it

It all started in 2014, when Microsoft appointed  Satya Nadella as CEO in February of 2014, and ever since then, Microsoft stocks have been performing well. The software giant made big gains against their main rivals, Amazon, as they refocused Microsoft on the cloud. Compared to other tech giants, Microsoft have a diverse business as Windows, Xbox and Surface all form part of 36 percent of Microsoft's entire revenue, in comparison to the 86 percent of Google's revenue coming from ads.

The main focus of Microsoft is on cross-platform technologies, the cloud, artificial intelligence and also aims to secure the future of quantum computing and mixed reality computing. In the next years a lot of market cap position trading is to be expected as there will be some intense competition amongst all the major tech companies and possibly newer ones.

Back in 2014 The Nadella also made a few comments and was in fact spot on :

"This is a critical time for the industry and for Microsoft. Make no mistake, we are headed for greater places — as technology evolves and we evolve with and ahead of it. Our job is to ensure that Microsoft thrives in a mobile and cloud-first world."

Microsoft in the stock market

The Windows maker benefited from growth in cloud computing while Apple was hit by an investor which was concerned about the iPhone demand and therefore, Microsoft (MSFT.O) stock market value  closed above Apple Inc's (AAPL.O), for the first time in 8 years.

Microsofts stock market valuation briefly hit $812.93bn, against just $812.60bn for Apple, with Amazon trailing on $773bn. However, Apple were back on top by the time Wall street closed but although this happened, if the trends continue, Microsoft could be seeing themselves in the top spot sooner in the days to come.

Introduction

Hello people and welcome to my blog ! My name is Mark and I live in a tiny Island called Malta. I'm an 20 year old Maltese-Italian male and I'm currently enrolled in a communications course at the Univeristy of Malta.  Anyway enough about me, lets get to what I will be actually talking about in my blog. 

I won't be writing about anything specific in topic however my main interests are in those of business, finance and technology. In my blog posts, I will be mainly writing on business and finance topics and news regarding big companies and anything in relation to them. Anything that strikes me and which I believe would be interesting to you guys will make it in my vlog.

In these blogs of mine, my GOAL is to inform you with some news in relation to the above stated topics. I also created this vlog because I think as well as informing you about some topics, I can also get a better understanding of these 'topics'  while also having fun, clearly writing them for you guys to enjoy! Lastly, the topics I will be writing about will be about international news/topics so most probably many people would understand, relate and be familar to what I will be writing about. 

See you in our next vlog !

Ikea take action to reduce air pollution in India

Ikea, the swedish home furniture company, has come up with a plan to help India in their air pollution battle. India will no longer need to burn waste, as during the month of November 2018,  the company announced that India's agricultural waste will be bought by Ikea in order to turn make new products. The new sustaintable campaign was quick to be launched and is going to be based in India. The "Better Air Now" campaign aims to collect rice straws, which are seriously polluting India's air and turn them into Ikea products. 

The project is to be based in 3 badly polluted suffering cities of Northern India being, New Delhi, Gurgaon and, Faridabad. However Ikea plan to make this a long term objective and Ikea says, that it is to "expand the initiative to other areas of the country and to create a model for how to reduce air pollution in other mega cities of the world.” The company is therefore testing the "Better Air Now" campaign in these 3 cities as a test in order to improve the air quality in other major cities.

Different products are currently being experimented with to be made out of the straw and the first prototype will be ready by the end of 2018. Decorative objects could made out of paper-like material from the rice straw. Although the first prototypes are to be ready by the end of 2018, it is likely that the products will be set for selling in India during 2019-2020 before offering them to other markets.

In aid of protecting the planet, Ikea aren't only aiming to become more sutainable through their furniture as during the summer they announced that single-use plastics would be stopped being sold and plant-based food options would be added. Dairy-free soft serve ice-cream is also planning to begin being offered, while already being available in Malaysian stores.