1 lakh digital villages in India
With recent reports suggesting that India is leading the consumption of voice calls and mobile data using mobile phones, which has increased over 50 times in the past five years; the Government of India is now working towards making rural India digital. During the 2019 Budget Finance Minister Piyush Goyal announced the initiative to connect 1 lakh villages with the digital services offered by the Government, within the next 5 years.
India, Youtube’s fastest growing audience
As per ComScore data, YouTube has more than 265 million monthly active users in India. It has now become the first stop for users to consume content from any genre – entertainment or information. In the last year, YouTube’s consumption on mobile has increased to 85%, with 60% of the streaming happening from outside of the six largest metros in India.
More than 1,200 Indian creators have crossed the one million subscribers mark, while five years ago, there were only two creators with a million subscribers. YouTube is definitely the platform where maximum content is consumed today.
525 million broadband connections in India
TRAI defines Internet connections with download speeds less than 512 kbps as narrowband, while download speeds faster than 512 kbps as broadband. Broadband connections were the majority in India with an 87% share. TRAI had also recommended redefining the minimum broadband speed to 2 Mbps.
TRAI reports that there are a total of 604.2 million Internet connections, including both wireline and wireless connections, broadband and narrowband. A majority of these Internet connections are on mobile . Most people are switching from narrowband to broadband off late.
Gold now on Google Pay
Google Pay will soon let users buy and sell gold via its app. It partnered with MMTC-PAMP India to allow users of the app to buy 99.99% pure gold.
MMTC is the Indian government public sector trading enterprise whereas PAMP is the Swiss company and bullion brand. This is how the service will function: MMTC-PAMP will store the gold in secure vaults on behalf of users, who will be able to sell it anytime at the price displayed in the app.
Facebook introduces inventory filters to ensure brand safety
With this Facebook is making it easier for advertisers to control how their brands are presented across media. Facebook has brought it three kinds of filters: limited, standard, and full for ads placed in Instant Articles, Audience Network, and Facebook in-stream video.
The limited option will give advertisers maximum protection along with protection against bad language; it allows advertisers to exclude certain categories which it does not want its brand to advertise on. Standard inventory offers moderate protection whereas; full inventory offers the least protection.
LinkedIn introduces Reactions for posts
The LinkedIn Reactions include Like, Celebrate, Love, Insightful and Curious. The platform wants to give users more ways to express themselves on different ideas and work-based posts.
The professional networking platform intends for users to use the ‘Love’ reaction to express ‘deep resonance and support’ while the ‘celebration’ reaction to be used to praise an accomplishment.
Amazon plans to launch 3,236 satellites for global internet connectivity
These satellites will be launched into low Earth orbit to provide internet to the unserved and underserved communities around the world. This would help innovate and disrupt the satellite and space world with new AWS products, services and features.
With this, Amazon would join a string of companies that plan to use a network of satellites to offer broadband across the globe. Unlike traditional satellite internet, these plans involve the use of satellites in low Earth orbit, which would make it cost-effective and can be operated with lower latencies.
