Wednesday, December 18

Tag: Facebook

Facebook Launched WhatsApp Payment Service in Brazil
News

Facebook Launched WhatsApp Payment Service in Brazil

SAO PAULO, 15th June 2020 -- Facebook launched its WhatsApp payment service in Brazil today. With the addition of Visa’s trusted payment technology, WhatsApp users will now be able to swiftly and securely send and receive money to family and friends, and to make purchases from small businesses on the popular global messaging service. Payments on WhatsApp will allow users to send money to individuals or local businesses within a chat, attaching payment as they would a photo or video. WhatsApp tested the payment system in India beginning in 2018. The Brazil launch will be the first nationwide rollout and will introduce the ability to directly pay a business. The company has over 120 million individual users in Brazil, its second-largest market behind India. “WhatsApp is heavi...
Facebook fires employee who tweeted over coworker not supporting Protest
News

Facebook fires employee who tweeted over coworker not supporting Protest

San Francisco, June 13, 2020: A Facebook employee lost his job after he tweeted about his co-worker not cooperating with him for the silent Black Lives Matter protest within the company. Brandon Dail, who worked as an engineer at Facebook, tweeted that he lost his job after he asked another co-worker to add a Black Lives Matter banner on an open source website developed by Facebook. "In the interest of transparency, I was let go for calling out an employee's inaction here on Twitter. I stand by what I said. They didn't give me the chance to quit," Dail tweeted, He mentioned the employee by name, saying that "intentionally not making a statement is already political". Facebook confirmed to CNET that that "Dail's characterization of his firing was accurate" but didn't provide fur...
Silver Lake & Co acquire additional 0.9% Stake in Reliance Jio
ACQUISITION

Silver Lake & Co acquire additional 0.9% Stake in Reliance Jio

New Delhi: Reliance Industries said private equity fund Silver Lake and its co-investors invest an additional $601.40 million (Rs 4,546 crore) in digital unit Jio Platforms. The investment comes on top of the $750 million Silver Lake committed to Jio Platforms earlier this month. With this investment, Silver Lake's stake in Reliance Jio raises 2.08 percent from earlier 1.15 percent. Reliance has now sold nearly 20 percent of Jio Platforms to investors, including Facebook, KKR, UAE based fund, etc. securing around $12 billion in less than six weeks. The deal controlled by India's richest man Mukesh Ambani, including a $7 billion share sale, with plans to eliminate $21.4 billion of net debt by the end of the year. "The investment momentum behind Jio validates a compelling bu...
Mark Zuckerberg promises a review of facebook content policies
News

Mark Zuckerberg promises a review of facebook content policies

Facebook founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to review the content policies of the social media platform that led to its decision to not moderate a post by President Trump. The announcement, which came in the form of a letter to employees, appeared aimed at quelling anger inside the company that was so severe it prompted 5,500 employees to complain and third to resign. The outrage was sparked when Zuckerberg said Facebook would not remove or flag Trump's recent posts that appeared to encourage violence against those protesting police racism. “I know many of you think we should have labelled the President's posts in some way last week,” Zuckerberg wrote. “We're going to review our policies allowing discussion and threats of state use of force to see if there are any amend...
Gojek raises funding from Facebook and PayPal
FUNDING

Gojek raises funding from Facebook and PayPal

4th June, 2020: Social media giant Facebook and PayPal invested in Indonesia based ride-hailing and digital payment startup Gojek. The size of the deal has not been disclosed yet. Gojek announced today that Facebook and PayPal have joined Google, Tencent, and others as investors in its current fundraise. This new investment will support Gojek’s mission to boost Southeast Asia’s digital economy, with a focus on supporting payments and financial services in the region." company said in a statement. Starting as a ride-hailing service in 2010, Gojek launched an app five years later that soon turned into a "super-app" offering a wide range of services including deliveries, takeaway food and financial services. The investment is Facebook's first in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's leadi...
Reliance Jio 5th deal, sells 2.32 pc for $1.5 billion to KKR
ACQUISITION

Reliance Jio 5th deal, sells 2.32 pc for $1.5 billion to KKR

Reliance Industries announced the sale of a 2.32 percent stake in its digital unit to US private equity giant KKR for around $1.5 billion (Rs 11,367 crore), the fifth deal in four weeks that will inject a combined $10.5 billion in the oil-to-telecom conglomerate to help it pare debt. This is KKR's largest investment in Asia. "This transaction values Jio Platforms enterprise value of $65 billion (Rs 5.16 lakh crore). This is KKR's largest investment in Asia and will translate into a 2.32 percent equity stake in Jio Platforms on a fully diluted basis," the company said in a statement. The deal follows with Facebook picking up a 9.99 percent stake in the firm for $5.7 billion. Within days of that deal, Silver Lake, the world’s largest tech investor bought a 1.15 percent stake in Jio ...
Reliance Jio funding: Facebook, Silver Lake & others Invests $8.8 billion
FUNDING

Reliance Jio funding: Facebook, Silver Lake & others Invests $8.8 billion

India's leading telecom company Reliance Jio announced another funding round from US-based equity firm General Atlantic. General Atlantic invests $873 Million in Reliance Jio for 1.34% stake, the company said in a statement. This is the fourth deal of Investment in Reliance Jio in less than four weeks that will inject a combined $8.8 billion in the oil-to-telecom conglomerate to help it clear its debt. The Investment puts Reliance Jio's total value around $68 billion. According to the Pixr8 News data, the company has raised a total of $13.5 billion in funding over 9 rounds.  The recent deal of General Atlantic follows Facebook picking up a 9.99 percent stake in the firm for $5.7 billion. Within days of that deal, Silver Lake, the world's largest tech investor bought a 1.15...
Facebook Acquired GIPHY for $400 million
ACQUISITION

Facebook Acquired GIPHY for $400 million

Social media platform Facebook had acquired the animated graphics startup GIPHY for $400 million. However, the Terms of the deal were not disclosed. GIPHY is known for its use of stickers and other products using the graphics interchange format or GIFs. Facebook would integrate Giphy's animated graphics in its social network platform Instagram. "GIPHY, a leader in visual expression and creation, is joining the Facebook company today as part of the Instagram team," Facebook said in a statement. "GIPHY makes everyday conversations more entertaining, and so we plan to further integrate their GIF library into Instagram and our other apps so that people can find just the right way to express themselves. Facebook also said in its press release that 50% of GIPHY’s traffic comes fro...
US Firm Silver Lake Acquire 1 Percent Stake in Reliance Jio
ACQUISITION

US Firm Silver Lake Acquire 1 Percent Stake in Reliance Jio

After Facebook, US-based leading global tech investor Silver Lake acquire 1.15 percent stake in India's leading telecom arm Jio for $750 Million. The investment in Jio Platforms comes within days of Facebook investing USD 5.7 billion to buy a 9.99 percent stake in Jio Platforms. The investment is at a premium of 12.5 percent to the Facebook deal. The Facebook and Silverlake investment would value Reliance Jio at around $65 billion. Reliance Jio have around 340 Million users in India, "This investment values Jio Platforms at an equity value of Rs 4.90 lakh crore and an enterprise value of Rs 5.15 lakh crore and represents a 12.5 percent premium to the equity valuation of the Facebook investment announced on April 22, 2020," Reliance said in a statement.
Facebook revenue grew 17 percent, Posted $4.9 billion profit in Q1 2020
BUSINESS

Facebook revenue grew 17 percent, Posted $4.9 billion profit in Q1 2020

World's leading social media platform Facebook reported a profit of $4.9 billion on revenue that grew 17 percent to $17.4 billion during the first quarter result of the year. Facebook also reported a sharp jump in usage as the global pandemic in a quarterly result. The shares of social media platform climbed some 10 percent. "Our work has always been about helping you stay connected with the people you care about," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. "With people relying on our services more than ever, we're focused on keeping people safe, informed and connected." Facebook Q1 2020 Result Facebook's daily active users were 1.73 billion on average for March 2020, an increase of 11% year-over-year. Facebook monthly active users were 2.60 billion as of March 31, 2020, a...
WhatsApp Video Call now supports up to 8 Participants
News

WhatsApp Video Call now supports up to 8 Participants

WhatsApp will now allow up to eight people to connect on a group video call as an increasing number of people turn to digital platforms to connect with friends and family amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Facebook-owned company said over the last month, people on average are spending over 15 billion minutes talking each day on WhatsApp calls, well above a typical day before the pandemic. "...we see that people all over the world are turning to voice and video calling on WhatsApp more than ever before. Group calling has been particularly useful and our users have asked to connect with more people at once," WhatsApp said in a blogpost. Starting Tuesday, the company is doubling the number of participants one can have on a WhatsApp video or voice call from 4 to 8 people at a time, it ad...
Facebook Launched Messenger Kids With Parental Control
News

Facebook Launched Messenger Kids With Parental Control

Facebook rolled out its Messenger Kids application to 70 new countries, saying it can help children deal with the challenges of distance learning and isolation during the virus lockdowns. The app, which is aimed at children under 13, will also be adding a "supervised friending" feature enabling parents to approve new connections, starting in the United States and gradually rolling out to other countries. "With schools closed and people physically distancing, parents are turning to technology more than ever to help their kids connect with friends and family," Facebook's global head of safety Antigone Davis said in a blog post. "Messenger Kids is a video chat and messaging app that helps kids connect with friends and family in a fun, parent-controlled space. Today, we're starting to...