Meta defends its Within acquisition before an antitrust judge: It’s becoming increasingly clear the company needs VR to replace lost social media ad revenue.
Twitter’s turbulent takeover: The Twitter-Musk saga is one of the biggest stories for 2022 that will likely continue into 2023. It could strangle other Musk-owned businesses like Tesla, which Musk is using to sell stock to keep Twitter afloat.
Apple’s sports ambitions take a hit: YouTube TV has won NFL Sunday Ticket rights over the consumer tech giant.
We look at 2022’s biggest tech flexes that changed the landscape of business or left us scratching our heads. The year saw Tesla’s CEO buying Twitter, Google exiting games, Amazon bringing back the dead, and TikTok expanding into various other segments.
Netflix’s ad-supported tier sputters out of the gate: The plan fails to attract new users and inspires others to downgrade—but it’s early days.
2022’s outages increased and took longer to resolve: Wired and wireless networks continue to be under duress as Big Tech, streaming services, and cloud gaming proliferate while legacy infrastructure and overloaded systems buckled.
A fragmented world is tech’s undoing: The post-pandemic global landscape is experiencing geopolitical friction that could derail decades of technological progress rooted in collaboration. Tech companies should be worried.
Fortnite doesn’t get a pass anymore: The popular game and metaverse platform will pay half a billion in fines and refunds for violating privacy and child consent laws.
As 2022 comes to an end, this is the data you need to kickstart 2023 for your business.
US government intensifies stance against TikTok: A permanent ban from government devices could push the public sector to further remove TikTok from devices. But some fear the service is too big to fail.
Twitter’s journalist bans are a multifaceted mistake: Musk’s flippant move has caught regulator attention, will worry advertisers, and shows a misunderstanding of what drives the platform’s content.
Roblox stumbles in November: While it’s still growing, it’s doing so at a far slower pace, reflecting a broader gaming slowdown.
The long goodbye for TV advertising: The longtime de facto ad channel kicked off a slow death that will take years to complete as digital channels claim the throne.
Meta’s data center cancellation could hint at AI pivot: The sudden surge of interest in generative AI and its applications could be the outlet Meta needs to generate profit while it mulls its metaverse opportunities.
No easy resolution for Rackspace data breach: Customers still don’t have access to their email archives, and a federal investigation and a class-action lawsuit could bankrupt the cloud provider.
Netflix experiences growing pains as an ad platform: It misses some viewership guarantees by a mile—though it’s trying to make up for it.
WBD is licensing away some of its premium content: “Westworld” is among the shows moving to FAST channels from HBO as the company looks to pare debt.
User-generated content alone can’t save the metaverse: Meta’s new creator mode is a plus, but VR limitations are hurting its metaverse plans.
US lawmakers put more pressure on advertising and social media: Senators propose a ban on tracking users under 17 and call for legislation before the current session ends.
Why Apple profits by complying with regulations: Alternative app stores could be coming to iPhones and iPads, allowing Apple to cash in on developer verification.