Instagram and WhatsApp were far from bets. Both were growing exponentially. Both were serious threats to Facebook's money machine.
Facebook used their lucky cash cow money to eliminate the threat, by offering way more than any reasonable market value. Absolutely crazy money. An offer they couldn't resist, especially the investors.
No bet, just an ice cold rational calculation. Anyone wealthy and crazy enough could have done the same. No skills needed, no risks involved. It's like betting tomorrow will be another day.
During an ongoing investigation into illegal Russian influence operations on X, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) researchers discovered what seems to be a coordinated inauthentic behaviour (CIB) network distributing “Child Sexual Assault Materials” (CSAM). The network can be observed hijacking hashtags, publishing explicit CSAM videos, and redirecting users to a wide range of other platforms. Due to the operation flooding hashtags, researchers chose to name it “Operation X-ploitation.”
I have no intention to pay just for Firefox, the browser. A browser is not that special anymore and there are plenty of alternatives.
However, I do want to pay for additional features and services, like a solid ad-blocker, integrated VPN-networking, privacy features like email relays or anti-fingerprinting, a safe and reliable cryptocurrency wallet, a smart cross-platform password manager, a privacy focused gmail alternative, integrated detection of fake reviews, bot messages and sloppy AI content, AI summaries, …
Add value to Firefox, in a coherent, meaningful and effective way to make using the internet secure, enjoyable and interesting again. Do that and take my money.
In a lot of use cases you only need to change the host name. https://dns0.eu/ or dns0.eu is not that difficult to remember.
The ip addresses are indeed not memorable, but users who change the settings of their routers won’t have too much trouble copy and pasting an IP address once or twice. Save it in a password manager and you’re done.
Bureaucracy has nothing to do with it, it’s a matter of resources.
OpenAI could buy TikTok, together with Oracle. $40B of Nvidia chips would be very useful for that purpose. And it would level the playing field for the next tech wars between OpenAI/ChatGPT/TikTok, Google/Gemini/YouTube+Gmail, xAI/Grok/xTwitter, Apple/AI/? (integration?), Microsoft/CoPilot/Office+Bing, Meta/Llama/Facebook+Instagram+Threads+WhatsApp.
Seeing it like that, Apple clearly needs to step it up a notch. It’s time for Apple to scoop up Anthropic/Claude.
You forgot the total lack of enforcing even basic environmental regulations, the massive government subsidies (diect and indirect), Uyghur forced labor, etc.
And China is anything but a free market. In a truly free market, most Chinese carmakers wouldn't even exist. They mostly exist because Western carmakers were forced to form China dominated joint-ventures, share technology and ownership in order to enter the Chinese market.
Not a big deal. Coffee is not a necessity. The coffee monoculture is devastating for the environment. Most small coffee farmers and plantation workers don't earn a livable income. Only 10% of the retail price of coffee goes to farmers. The whole industry is exploitative.
That’s how I remember Nokia in the first half of the 2000’s: peak arrogance. Even if Steve Jobs himself would have given them the iPhone for free, they would have rejected it.
Socializing is a skill and requires exercise, but everyone has its own unique limitations and skill levels. Not everyone throughout history has led an exceptionally social life filled with constant conversation. There are plenty of references to quiet and seclusive people in the bible, for instance. In the Middle Ages, you could join a monastery or convent, which provided a community more suited for introverts. Right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if many introverts feel there is no escape from the extrovert modern life.
It's window dressing for their planned IPO. Klarna wants to go public during the first half of 2025, so it's all hands on deck to prop up the numbers. And saying the "right things" to investors, especially AI.