Aggressive in lockdown, Facebook copies and buys
3-in-1: 3 digital news in 1 minute. On Monday. Episode 202
1.374 subscribers on Messenger follow these Monday news. Now on Medium. Discover 3 original digital news, invest one minute and be a better professional!
News 1: Rooms, the answer (copy) to Houseparty
Messenger Rooms, this is the answer of Facebook to Houseparty (worldwide success). Rooms just copies the main Houseparty feature: enter a “room”, a group conference video call, in a click. Rooms will be accessible from Messenger or Facebook. Opinion: This is it, Facebook gathers the best web app functions and brings them in its own mighty apps. Remember the launch of (Snapchat) stories in Instagram. And it was such a success. Today, Facebook is a copy-paste company — and why not? B2B Takeout: Facebook is just unrivalled in social media with billions of users and an extraordinary ad platform… but has not monetised Whatsapp — very strong in India. Jio Mall for small businesses might be a good lead to start making money with Whatsapp.
News 2: Passage to India worth $5,3 billion. Facebook 2nd biggest invest
Facebook Inc. invests $5,3 billions in Jio (Reliance) in India, the second largest after Whatsapp (2014, 22b). Not an acquisition but a minority share, a “passage” to very regulated India. Jio offers mobile telecommunication, internet then a browser, a “Netflix”, a news app, a chat app! To 2/3 of the Indian population. Opinion: The Indian market does not compare to US, EU and even China. The main actors in digital are telecommunication companies, like Jio. Was the dream of the large telecom giants in Europe… 10 years ago. B2B Takeout: Jio belongs to Reliance, a “keiretsu” with activities from oil to telecom. India, a difficult market for US or EU companies — with strong regulation favouring local players. Hence the Facebook partnering with Jio, hence the billions.
News 3: From California to Plymouth, England! AR exclusivity.
Plessey Semiconductors is a microLED specialist based in Plymouth, England. They develop and manufacture microLED (many in glasses) for Augmented Reality. Facebook have an exclusivity: Plessey “LED manufacturing operations will be dedicated to helping Facebook prototype and develop new technologies”. Opinion: Facebook is blocking with exclusivity deals the supply chain of microLED, announcing new developments in AR. Certainly, exciting new projects! B2B Takeout: Big tech companies are investing and invading the AR sphere. Above all Apple and Facebook. More and more interesting applications to come. AR will be the 2021 focus.
Authors are the 10 trend scouters at Space and Lemon, always on the hunt for the newest trends in tech and digital. Gathered here in original weekly news since 2016 — no re-write of TechCrunch, always with an opinion and B2B takeout. Come back next Monday and share your opinion.
